ALBANY (AP) -- Former "Manhattan Madam" Kristin Davis said she's running for governor of New York as a minor-party candidate to push her causes of legalizing and taxing marijuana, legalizing gay marriage and decriminalizing prostitution.
"I am a protest candidate. The career politicians have run this state into the ground. Both Republicans and Democrats, working together, have given us the highest property taxes in the nation," Davis said.
There was no circus atmosphere. She wore a conservative dark suit and not the low-cut tops she's sported in promotional tours for her tell-all book and in tabloids, and she controlled her news conference in Albany alone, without the help of a few campaign workers snapping pictures and handing out press releases.
She had an economic analysis - she claims $15 billion total economic benefit to legalizing marijuana - and a plan to decriminalize prostitution, saying it should be run as in Nevada. There, she said women are protected from pimps and are regularly tested for sexually transmitted diseases.
The woman who once ran three escort services with $900-an-hour hookers before she pleaded to promoting prostitution in 2008 said she plans a statewide tour. She tentatively plans stops later this month in Utica, Rochester and Buffalo.
She has secured a line on the ballot in November for her Anti-Prohibition Party.
If she gets 50,000 votes in November, she will secure an automatic ballot line for at least four years and gain a voice in New York politics. That could give her the same status the Conservative Party now enjoys.
"I'm pretty confident we'll get it," she said.
She has claimed to have provided hookers to former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned in a prostitution scandal, but that hasn't been proven. She doesn't think much of Spitzer's star turn in CNN's upcoming news show "Parker and Spitzer" with columnist Kathleen Parker, now with a promotional clip in YouTube.
"I don't think they have much chemistry, I thought it was kind of silly," she said. She added that she'd rather watch reruns of the reality family show "Jon and Kate Plus 8."
(Copyright ©2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
