Todd Maisel, New York Daily News/New York Daily News
Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith (pictured left) helped Eliot Spitzer campaign during his run for controller before joining the de Blasio campaign in September.
Bill de Blasio‘s campaign manager offered his support Monday morning for the Mayor-elect’s suddenly embattled spokeswoman Lis Smith, just hours after the Daily News exclusively reported that she was dating disgraced ex-governor Eliot Spitzer.
“@Lis_Smith is a great professional and good friend,” Bill Hyers, who helped oversee de Blasio’s landslide mayoral victory last month, tweeted early Monday. “I couldn’t be happier I recruited her to @deBlasioNYC campaign. She helps democrats win!”
HyersBill/via Twitter
De Blasio’s campaign manager Bill Hyers tweeted in support of Smith.
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His tweet came less than six hours after The News, in an exclusive report citing multiple people with knowledge of the situation, disclosed that Smith, who worked as de Blasio’s spokeswoman during a pivotal stretch of his campaign and transition was in a relationship with Spitzer, who is still married but has been living apart from his wife.
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Anthony DelMundo/New York Daily News
Eliot Spitzer remains married to Silda Wall (not pictured), his wife of 26 years, but the pair have been living separately for several months.
Smith, who also led the “rapid response” team for President Obama’s 2012 campaign, declined to comment on the reported relationship, but she did tweet back at Hyers later Wednesday morning, simple writing “@HyersBill xoxo,” on her account.
It was unclear when exactly Smith, who had worked as a spokeswoman for Spitzer during his unsuccessful primary campaign for city controller before joining de Blasio’s team in September, started dating the 54-year-old Spitzer.
Richard Harbus/for New York Daily News
“My daughter is a very special person and I am proud of her,” the elder Smith was quoted as saying.
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A longtime Spitzer spokeswoman said Sunday only that Smith ” is a friend of Eliot’s, and he holds her in high regard.”
Richard Harbus/for New York Daily news
The tony Bronxville home of Adrienne Smith, the mother of Lis Smith.
Smith, who is in her 30s, had been thought to be a front-runner for the press secretary job in Bill de Blasio’s incoming administration, but she could face an uphill battle, despite Hyers’ endorsement, now that her potentially troublesome tryst has been revealed.
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“This is the first scandal of the de Blasio administration,” an unnamed Albany insider told The News Sunday night. “It’s not just that she’s with somebody, but it’s Eliot Spitzer and all that entails.”
Spitzer resigned as governor in 2008 after it was discovered that he had been a frequent client of a high-priced prostitution ring.
The disgraced pol’s wife of 26 years, Silda Wall, initially stood by him when he resigned, but she has kept a low-profile in the years that followed, as rumors swirled that she plans to divorce him.
http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info/?p=19504
via Great Local News: New York http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info
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