Eliot Spitzer lost a bid for political redemption on Tuesday as he was defeated in the Democratic primary for New York City comptroller by the current Manhattan borough president, Scott M. Stringer. With 97 percent of the precincts reporting early Wednesday, Mr. Stringer was ahead 52.1 percent to 47.9 percent. 
 
 Mr. Spitzer resigned as governor five years ago in a prostitution scandal, and Mr. Stringer repeatedly invoked it during their brief but bitter campaign. Again and again he painted Mr. Spitzer as a rich man who believed that he could escape the consequences of breaking the law. 
 
 In a cavernous event space on West 116th Street, Mr. Spitzer’s supporters chanted his name as he took the microphone to give a brief concession speech. 
 
 “I am proud to have run a campaign over the past nine weeks that many thought was incapable to mount,” said Mr. Spitzer, who was subdued but not emotional. “We did it in a way that made me proud to revisit the issues we fought for when I was attorney general and governor, to lay out an agenda of what we believed was right for this great city.” 
 
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 “I say to the public, I am proud to have served,” he continued. 
 
 At the Flatiron bar where Mr. Stringer held his party, the crowd of 300 was elated when the results came in, chanting “Scott! Scott! Scott!” as Mr. Stringer got up to speak. Rep. Jerrold Nadler wiped a tear from his eye. 
 
 Mr. Stringer himself seemed relieved, and exhausted. He mopped sweat from his brow as he answered questions. 
 
 “It was a total struggle, but New Yorkers gave me a shot,” he said, adding, “Sometimes the guy without the resources but with a lot of heart can win the election.” 
 
 Mr. Stringer had declared his candidacy last November, and he had nearly unanimous support from the city’s labor unions and elected leaders. Mr. Spitzer announced his bid only in July, just days before petitions were due to get on the ballot. He waged a relatively lonely campaign, fueled by his family’s real estate fortune. But he was able to attract significant support, particularly among black voters, who expressed a greater willingness than white voters to overlook his mistakes. 
 
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 In often caustic debates and searing television advertisements, Mr. Stringer argued that Mr. Spitzer held himself to a different standard than he had held others as a prosecutor and suggested that he should have gone to jail. He repeatedly accused Mr. Spitzer of “money laundering,” although prosecutors have said there was no evidence to charge him with any financial crimes. 
 
 Mr. Spitzer leaned on his reputation, formed during his tenure as state attorney general, as the “sheriff of Wall Street,” arguing that he was more independent and had more financial experience than Mr. Stringer. He derided Mr. Stringer as part of the “political establishment” and attempted to make an issue of Mr. Stringer’s support for lifting term limits in 2008, saying in an advertisement that Mr. Stringer had cut “a back room deal to hand a third term to” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. 
 
 But Mr. Stringer’s attacks on Mr. Spitzer’s integrity, and his institutional support, which gave him access to a vast get-out-the-vote operation, apparently carried greater weight in the end. 
 
 Mr. Stringer received strong support among older voters, white voters, voters in Manhattan, college graduates and voters in households earning more than $50,000 a year. He was also backed by most men and women, and about 7 in 10 Jewish voters, according to exit polls conducted by Edison Research. 
 
 There was a sharp racial divide, with Mr. Stringer winning about two-thirds of white voters, and Mr. Spitzer winning about two thirds of black voters. 
 
 More than 6 in 10 voters in Tuesday’s Democratic primary expressed a favorable view of Mr. Stringer, while just over half had a positive view of Mr. Spitzer. ||||| Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer lost a close Democratic primary for New York’s city comptroller position on Tuesday, bringing to a close his quest for political redemption after a prostitution scandal forced him from the governor’s mansion five years ago. 
 
 Spitzer faced off with Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer in the hard-fought, often negative contest. 
 
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 Stringer won 51.9-48.1 percent, according to results posted by The New York Times. 
 
 Stringer enjoyed union backing and raked in endorsements from powerful corridors of power, ranging from the New York Times, the New York Post and the New York Daily News to a number of high-profile members of the New York congressional delegation. He focused on an intense get-out-the-vote ground game. 
 
 Spitzer, a wealthy self-funder, had more resources, with reports indicating he spent about twice as much as Stringer’s campaign. He made a concerted appeal to minority communities and employed high-tech micro-targeting with the help of several campaign veterans of Barack Obama. 
 
 Spitzer, a former attorney general who was once known as the “sheriff of Wall Street,” stressed his willingness to take on the city’s powerful special interests, while Stringer, a former state assemblyman, highlighted his experience in city government. 
 
 Spitzer shocked the political world when he said in July that he would seek to re-enter New York politics after a years-long hiatus. He resigned in 2008 over a prostitution scandal and later served as a TV host, with gigs on CNN and Current TV. 
 
 From the beginning of his campaign, Spitzer believed that the public would forgive him for his indiscretions. 
 
 “That is out there, but the public has said, ‘OK, it’s there - we’re judging you based on what you did in government,’” he said on Monday, speaking on WWRL-AM. 
 
 His wife, Silda Spitzer, has been largely absent from the campaign trail.
– It's not a night for political comebacks in New York City: Eliot Spitzer has lost his bid to become city comptroller. The former governor lost the Democratic primary to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, whose campaign repeatedly brought up the prostitution scandal that brought down Spitzer in 2008. But unlike Anthony Weiner, whose name was often paired with Spitzer by late-night comics, Spitzer's loss wasn't overwhelming: He was defeated 52% to 48%, according to the New York Times. Spitzer spent around twice as much as Stringer and employed several Obama campaign veterans to assist in micro-targeting of voters and appeals to minority communities, but his rival had the backing of unions and major newspapers, as well as a superior get-out-the-vote operation. Stringer's wife was often by his side, while Spitzer's wife, Silda, who stood by him in 2008 but is now living separately from him, was absent from the campaign trail, Politico notes.