Scott Stringer may have avoided a Democratic primary challenge. Yet, that had not guaranteed him a free ride in the general. Republican John Burnett, 43, who has spent 20 years as an auditor for major banks, is promising to shake up the race for comptroller as he declares his candidacy today at the steps of City Hall.

“The Democratic candidate for city comptroller is a career politician with absolutely zero business experience — he’s never had a job in the private sector. He’s not qualified to work as a bank teller, but he wants to manage a $130 billion pension fund,” Mr. Burnett told The NY Post. “It’s insanity.”

Burnett, raised in Brooklyn’s East New York section and in Jamaica, Queens, has held executive positions at Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and the global analytics division at McGraw Hill and has earned degrees from NYU and Cornell.

(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)