Eliot SpitzđĨer may be Scott Stringerâs worst nightmare, but heđ could be a dream come true for John Burnett.
Who? A 43-yeđar-old African-American with nearly a quarter-century experience on Wall Street, Burnett is also running for city comptroller â as a Republican.
Spitzer has bręĻŋought an explosion of public attention to the race for comptroller. Good: Itâs arguably the second most important office in city government and shouldnât be handed to someone in a walkover. Maybe now weâll have a conversation about the job â and job qualifications.
Until Sunday, Manhattan Borough President Stringer was looking at that walkâover, with an unimpeded path to the Democratic nomination. This being New York, any Republican would be ignored and Stringer would be set.
But Spitzerâs entry upsets that plan. Now there will be discussiđon, there will be debates. The public will learn about pension funds, auditing city agencies and approving city contracts.
And John Burnett will gđet a chance to tell his sđ˛tory.
The seventh child of ęĻ Southern migrants who met in New York, he was born in rough East New York (which he calls âVietnamâ) before the family moved to Queens Village. He now lives in Harlem.
Burnett was, he says, âan âoopsâ baby.â Pregnant at 43, his mother facedâ complications: âHer doctor told her that if she had me she would die and I would die (this was 1969). My parents made the decision to have me.
âThe way I look at it, most people arenât given a shot after theyâre born; I wasnât given a shot before I was born.â
His parents grew up in the Jim Crow South â James in Durham, NC, and Mary in Savannah, Ga. Their experiences informs Burnettâs mantra of âNo excusesâ â âHow can I say, âThis is difficult,â wđĻhen my father had it 10 times as hard?â
Starting out as a dishwasher, his dad did his job super fast so he could watch the cook. He learned to cook himself and eventually became the chef for an entire hospital. Even after becođĻming a Pentacostal pastor, he continued as a chef becauseđš he didnât believe in living off his congregation.
Burnett says, âHe always told me. âSon, work to create your own breaks. Donât depend on anyone forāą anytęĻŋhing.â â
After a year at Borough of Manhattan Community College, Burnett quit because he wasnât learning anything. With no degree, he still talked his way into a margin-anađlyst position at Dean Witter.
In eight years, he rose to a âcomplianceâ position which immersed him in SEC, NYSE and state securities regulations. He then moved to Smith-Barney for another eight years, as manager of the Global Markets compliđance division.
Then, still working fullâ-time, he went back to school ađt night earning a BS degree in Leadership and Management from NYU, then an MBA from Cornell.
And now politics.
Heâd bring a common-sense, no-nonsense approach to city investment: âI believe in investing in an ethically anđ¯d socially responsible manner [within reason] . . . If [say, green energy] is . . . earning at a comparable rate as other investments, sure Iâll support it. If itâs only yielding a small percentage, say 2 percent and I need it to eaę§ rn eight, my dollars arenât going there. That would be a violation of my fiduciary responsibilities in favor of doing something nice and social.â
He pulls no punches on the other candidates. Stringer is âa nice guy, but heâs not qualifiedę§.â And the one-time âsteamrollerâ? âBeing a bully dęĻoesnât qualify you for anything. Being an opportunist doesnât qualify you for anything.â
Thereâs not much lđ§ove for Wall Street right now. How does he deaâl with that?
âJust because there are a few bad apples, it doesnât mean the entire institution is bad. Anymore than the fact most of the politicians involved in scaīˇŊndals in recent years are Democrats. Does thđĢat indict the entire Democratic Party?â
What of the historic tension between African-Americans and the Republican Party? Burneđtt hauls out the heavy weapon that suggests this man truly has no fear.
âMy goal is to get people on that side of the aisle to stop, question and frisk their thđinking. I want them to stop politically profiling me for my beliefs and judge me for who I am and what I can do.â Oh.
Whoever wins on the Democratic side â the son of family privilege or the favored son of the Democratic establishment â the race just got very interesting. That person will face a man whęĻo truly embodies an up-by-the-bootstraps New York succesāŊ§s story.
Robert A. George is a member of The Postâs editorial board.