Not since porn star Cicciolina was elected to the Italian parliament has there been a sexier political candidate. The first thing you notice is her bust. Round, full, in the Dolly Parton/Jayne Mansfield sense, they are just too “perfect.” Then you notice her eyes: blue, piercing, determined.
Kristin Davis graduated from high school in central California at age 15. She earned a B.A. in business from St. Mary’s College while working in finance. The first hedge fund she worked for was bought by Fidelity, and she worked at hedge funds successfully for another 10 years. Then she became obsessed with the financial possibilities of sex.
Davis built the most successful escort service in world history. She had more than 100 girls and operated in five countries, with a call center in Uruguay. She could dispatch a $1,000-plus-an-hour call girl to a hotel or residence in Paris, Berlin, Gstaad, Rome, New York, L.A., Miami, Dubai, Montreal or elsewhere within minutes. She personally recruited her girls at bars, clubs, resorts and restaurants.
Davis handled a clientele who wanted and got discretion. Spitzer was a frequent patron and sent payments from a corporation New York records show he co-owned. She barred him for getting too rough with the girls and he tried to book girls under an alias.
Then the crap hit the fan. Spitzer was nabbed using another escort service, Emperor’s Club VIP. Spitzer rolled on Davis as part of his agreement with the government not to prosecute him. Davis’s live-in boyfriend testified in secrecy to the grand jury. The lawyer she hired told her to gather evidence on Spitzer then turned it over to him for plea-bargaining. He promptly lost the records when she refused to turn over all her cash to his trust account prior to her arrest.
A bar complaint against this incompetent mouthpiece, Mark J. Heller, went nowhere as he lied about ever having gotten her proof, even though he had been suspended five years earlier with 36 counts of theft and fraud against him.
As The Daily Caller interview reveals, the canny Davis kept plenty of e-mail records, audio tapes and financial records on the former governor, including audio from a hot British birdie who got a $1,000 tip from Client Number No. 9 for her pet cat’s vet bill.
Spitzer mentor and District Attorney Robert Morgenthau set her bail at $2 million, unheard of for an offense of this level and designed to silence her through imprisonment. She did four months on Rikers Island with a hardcore female population that included celebrity child and husband murderers. She bonded with rapper Remy Ma in the joint.
In prison she began to think about the political and judicial systems and how screwed up and inequitable the treatment of women and men. “Once a woman works as a call girl and is convicted she can never get another legitimate job — but a man can be a ‘john’ and life goes on,” she told me.
Davis had a tough time when she got out. She was offered a role narrating a “Girls of Eliot Spitzer” porno film, but the deal evaporated. The government had confiscated almost $12 million in cash when she was arrested. Court mandated “sex therapy” only got her two stalkers from the “clinic” where she had to mix with rapists and pedophiles.
Probation still stages early-morning surprise inspections and asks ridiculous questions about her race for governor.
A lesser woman might be bitter, but after she met fellow Spitzer critic Roger Stone on a radio show she started reading and writing about women’s rights, feminism, prostitution, drug policy and prison reform on her blog Manhattan Madam. Stone gave her Von Mises, Ayn Rand, Hayek and Friedman, and she decided she was a Libertarian. She read voraciously. She flirted with seeking the New York Libertarian party for governor after first planning to challenge Spitzer in a comeback bid for comptroller that never materialized.
Under New York law the nature of Davis’s plea deal allows her to retain her voting rights and eligibility to run for governor. She thought first about running for state comptroller when the Steamroller himself, Eliot Spitzer, was toying with a comeback bid for that office and switched the governor’s race to “have a bigger impact.” Davis told us she told Stone she had decided to run for governor at a midtown Starbucks.
New York has a byzantine system of powerful small parties which cross-endorse Republican and Democrats and build their cumulative vote total. If Davis’s Freedom party (or the Libertarian party, if Davis goes that route) gets 50,000 votes it wins permanent ballot status she and it will be a permanent force for reform. Real Libertarian ideas are going to be tested in the Empire State — and with a sexy messenger.
Davis says here platform is clear: “P-squared” — legalize and tax prostitution and marijuana. Davis thinks that could bring $2.5 billion or more in new revenue to New York, allowing the state to cut the more regressive income and property taxes. Davis backs gay marriage but also opposes gun control as a consistent Libertarian. With New York politicians in particular disrepute, perhaps New Yorkers will find Davis’s plans compelling.
I met Davis at the Cellar Bar at the Park Bryant Hotel. She wore a conservative gray suit that Sarah Palin could have chosen and killer Louboutin shoes. She smelled … intoxicating.
The Daily Caller: So you’re running for governor of New York. How is this different than the stripper Stormy Daniels running for the Senate in Louisiana or Mary Carey running for governor of California?
Kristin Davis: Those girls are porn stars and I am a businesswoman. They ran as a publicity stunts and I am running to make an important point and to further a reform, Libertarian-based agenda that is common sense and in which I think any New Yorkers privately agree.
Freedom — personal freedom and economic freedom — is the only thing that can save New York.
The DC: Some people might say that your campaign is a vendetta against Eliot Spitzer since you got busted and he didn’t. You have, after all, retained master dirty trickster Roger Stone, a known tormenter of Client No. 9, to guide your campaign. Some say your relationship is more than platonic.
KD: My campaign is about getting as many votes as possible for a radical agenda that both increases our personal freedom and would restore our state’s economic health at the same time highlighting the inequities in our justice system. Women and poor people are getting the short end of the stick. Rich people — like Spitzer — walk.
I love Roger Stone, but I don’t comment on my personal relationships. I’m asked constantly about my relationship with A-Rod. A lady doesn’t kiss and tell!
Politics is new to me. It’s all very phony. I have never run for office. I’m really an introvert and a little shy. I don’t know how to run an effective campaign. I have retained someone who understands all this but I am the one with my name on the ballot so in the end I am one who will win or lose.
The DC: How realistic is legalizing prostitution?
KD: Prostitution is known as the oldest profession. Although, now that I am in politics I am finding huge similarity between politicians and prostitutes. In fact, the members of the New York state legislature are no better than the girls who used to work for me. They are all doing it for money.
It’s ridiculous that we have a “political class” that is corrupt, incompetent, dysfunctional and so self-interested.
People ask me how I could be governor. I say, how could I do any worse than the clowns we have in Albany now? I mean — Spitzer, Paterson, Silver, Monseratte, Hevesi?
Please! Incompetent clowns! Buffoons. Hacks. Bottom-feeders. These guys couldn’t hold a real job where you have to make a profit.
Legalizing prostitution could protect the public health, increase the public safety and produce billions in new revenues at a time we are $7 billion short in the next budget. Prostitution is a $10 billion business in New York if you include so-called “rub and tug” massage parlors. I say license it — require safe sex and health check-ups for sex workers — and tax it, and then cut the income and property taxes, which are the real job killers.
The DC: Pot?
KD: It’s ridiculous that alcohol is legal and marijuana is not. Alcohol is far more damaging to the body and impairs the person more. As for pot — gateway drug, my a**! Just not so. No real study proves it.
New York has millions of pot users. They would gladly pay tax, particularly if all legal danger was removed and quality was standardized. State-run dispensers. Really good stuff. I won’t be using myself. I don’t do drugs or alcohol. The revenue to the state would be huge. We could slash the income tax rates.
What my proposal is, is realistic. New York can collect $2 to $4 billion.
The DC: How does your mother feel about your campaign and your old business?
KD: My mom is a California Republican, little-old-lady-in-tennis-shoes type. Loved Ronald Reagan. Never missed an election. She didn’t know what my business was when I got busted, but she’s never judged and now she’s excited that what happened to me became something positive. She will campaign with me in October.
The DC: You say you supplied high-priced escorts for Eliot Spitzer over a five-year period in which he was both the highest law enforcement officer in the state and the governor as chief executive. Yet there is no proof of this and you were not prosecuted in the same action in which Governor Spitzer was identified by the government as Client No. 9.
KD: While it is true that my first lawyer, Mark J. Heller purposely “lost” or sold privileged records and audio tapes that would prove beyond any doubt that Spitzer was a long-term client of my agency, fortunately I personally retained more than sufficient records, e-mails and audio recordings to remove any doubt as to whether Eliot Spitzer was a client of my company.
I have said previously that the governor was into some pretty kinky stuff and that it was difficult for me to find escorts willing to spend time with him more than once. I know that he used various agencies and my lawyers now tell me they have been told by individuals in Justice Department and the district attorney’s office that in Spitzer’s own discussion and proffer in the Emperor’s Club matter he “rolled on” me giving the government information, which ensured my prosecution so that he could walk.
I have spoken ad nauseum about the inequities in the justice system. I have no doubt that Spitzer used his relationship with District Attorney Morgenthau to avoid prosecution and to ensure that I was given an unreasonably high bail in a victimless crime as a deterrent to my speaking publicly regarding Governor Spitzer and his abuse of women and sexual appetites as well as his idiosyncrasies such as his propensity to haggle over price. I will admit some of the girls said he tipped generously. One gorgeous British call girl got a $1,000 tip for her little dog’s vet bill.
The DC: Can you really get your name on the ballot in New York? Why don’t you just run as a Republican or a Democrat? Didn’t you consider running for the Libertarian party nomination?
KD: Both parties seem to me to be equally corrupted. It’s the same old hacks that write laws perpetuating their own re-election so that they can feed at the trough like pigs. Why should the politicians we pay have superior health-care benefits than to those of the average person?
All politicians and incumbents are in it together regardless of party. Any business that ran like the government would be out of business almost immediately.
I’m a Libertarian. Barry Goldwater is a personal hero. I believe in free men, free women and free markets. I distrust government. I believe in the individual. I think a woman must control her own body when it comes to abortion or choosing to rent it for an hour. I like Ron Paul and much of what he stands for. I support gun rights.
Obviously I’m a social liberal. If you don’t like that, don’t vote for me.
I really enjoyed the Manhattan Libertarian meeting I attended and was honored to speak. I am going to Libertarian state convention in late April. We’ll see.
Either way I an confident that I can collect more than enough signatures from cadres of escorts, ex-escorts, strippers, dancers, dommes, gays, lesbians, Libertarians, Ron Paul supporters, U.S. Marines, rappers who revere the pimp or other lovers of freedom moving my petitions under the direction of my communications consultant Frank Morano.
The DC: Should Paterson resign?
KD: If he is found he have done something illegal, yes. I’d feel better if he had appointed a disinterested special prosecutor rather than Andrew Cuomo to figure that out.
He won’t be prosecuted though, the “political class” never are. That’s one of the bases for my campaign. Equal treatment under the law. These politicians betray the public trust and get a slap in the wrist.
[New York Assembly Speaker] Sheldon Silver says Paterson should not be included in budget talks because he is accused of protecting a top aide from charges of sexual assault.
This is major hypocrisy. [Davis stopped to pin back her long blond hair which had been falling into her face.]
NY Assembly Speaker Silver whitewashed rape charges against own top aide only to have this fellow rape again, Silver and the assembly paid a half-million dollars of hush money — taxpayer money — to cover this mess up. Now, Silver has room to criticize Paterson for covering up a sexual assault by his own top aide?
By the way, Silver’s aide got six months probation and a $1,000 fine after admitting nonconsensual sex with the second woman. I got four months in Rikers, much of it in solitary, six years probation and travel restrictions after surrendering millions of dollars. Every penny I had.
You wonder why voters are sick of our political leaders.
The DC: Peter Elkind, a senior editor at Fortune, has a book forthcoming that again claims that you have no proof that you provided ladies for Spitzer.
KD: Peter Elikind is a meschkeit. A schlmiehl. When he says I have no proof he means I wouldn’t give it to him for his book. He misrepresented himself as a reporter writing for Fortune — not the author of a book. I am poised to sue him and [his publisher] Penguin if he says anything about me that isn’t true or accurate.
This hustler Elkind has some cockamamie idea that Ken Langone and Hank Greenberg took down Eliot and used a private investigator to find out about his escort habits. Problem is, Elkind has no proof of this because it’s not true.
He got very nasty when I wouldn’t give him what he wanted for his book to the point of harassment. I considered a restraining order. He drools when he talks. Most unpleasant. Reminds me of the guys I see at the sex offender counseling I am still required to attend.
The DC: Any disappointments so far in your campaign?
KD: Yes, the New York Post.
The Daily News has been fair and reported my announcement as did Fox, CBS, AP, UPI, Reuters, the Philadephia News, Chicago Tribune, Reason.com, High Times … but not the New York Post. The editors constantly spike stories on my campaign. I have e-mail from reporters to prove it.
Even Andrea Peyser scheduled an interview and canceled it. I was disappointed. I like her writing and her willingness to take on the politically correct.
I guess they are invested financially with Ashley Dupree — their new “relationship advice” columnist. Too bad the b**** can’t write … or talk.
Or is Rupert just anti-woman? Do I need to organize 20 Penthouse Pets to picket Murdoch’s apartment to protest the Stalinist-like refusal of the Post to acknowledge my existence. Do I need to chain myself in Col Allan’s office and call the TV stations? Stay tuned.
I was on the [New York Post’s] Fred Dicker radio show in Albany. He was very sweet. Sounds kinda cute. He invited me to visit the studio and do the show live when I visit Albany. Hasn’t written my name once. But if Andrew Cuomo burped …
I look forward to visiting Albany. It’s funny how many New York State legislators I supplied escorts for — all in my black book of 10,000 clients. I won’t sell it or leak it. I think doing so is unprofessional. I made $5 million a year from these clients by promising discretion. Michele Braun, the madam in the Tiger Woods fiasco, is selling names of johns and girls online. Disgusting.
I had lawyers, athletes, diplomats, congressmen, senators, judges and News Corp. executives and TV personalities. I won’t sell my list or leak names, but trust me, if I went to the state capitol I would see 20 or 30 old “clients.”
I recognize some on the floor of Congress when I watch C-Span. You know it’s always the real right-wing, evangelical, religious right types who want the kinky stuff and paid extra for it. I had one Southern congressman who just wanted to wear diapers and suckle a black woman’s breasts.
The DC: On behalf of The Daily Caller, good luck in the campaign.
KD: By the way, do you think Tucker Carlson would consider running for lieutenant governor?
Mike Colapietro has written for SMOKE, Boxingscene.com and NJ Casino News. He is moving to Queens, N.Y.