Eliot Spitzer’s fledgling bid to return to politics is hours away from a key deadline. Thousands of petition signatures are due only four days after he launched his New York City comptroller campaign.

The scandal-scarred ex-governor has until midnight Thursday to collect at least 3,750 valid petition signatures to get on the Democratic primary ballot for September. Experts say it’s difficult but doable to garner that many signatures so short a timeframe.

Spitzer told Fox 5 News on Thursday that the effort’s going well. He wouldn’t specify how many signatures his campaign had gathered.

Campaigns generally collect at least two to three times as many signatures as needed. Spitzer has said he’s aiming for 7,500.

The campaign of his leading rival, fellow Democrat Scott Stringer, says it has upward of 100,000 signatures.

(AP)