When he jumped into the 2013 primary race for city comptroller, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer caused a sensation.

The media was enthralled as Spitzer sought to rehabilitate his political career in the city, just a few years after a prostitution scandal forced him from office.

The story arc may sound familiar.

Andrew Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 following accusations of sexual harassment, launched his own political comeback last weekend with a 17-minute campaign video in which he tells viewers: “Did I make mistakes, some painfully? Definitely.”

But more than Cuomo, who has denied wrongdoing, Spitzer was expressly contrite.

“I ask forgiveness for what led to my resignation,” he told NY1 in an interview the day he announced his campaign.

Like Cuomo, Spitzer entered the race late, after the petitioning period was underway. He had only a few days to gather the necessary signatures to get on the ballot, submitting his petitions to the Board of Elections just before the deadline.

In a striking bit of symmetry, Spitzer’s opponent was then-Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who is now among Cuomo’s opponents in the primary race for mayor.

At first, Stringer was reluctant to hit Spitzer on the prostitution scandal that led him to resign. “Look, I have two kids. There are some places I can’t personally go,” he told reporters.

But just as sexual harassment allegations may dog Cuomo, Spitzer’s past proved a vulnerability.

“He was found to have patronized prostitutes. It’s against the law,” state Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal said at a Stringer rally.

Then-Comptroller John Liu, who was running for mayor at the time, said, “This is a huge affront to women in New York City and far beyond.”

Like Cuomo, Spitzer enjoyed almost universal name recognition and dominated early polls, leading by as many as 15 points. He made a similar case to voters as Cuomo does now: The city needed him.

“The public is now looking at the totality of my record, and they are saying, 'We want you to come back to fight for us,'” he said during a NY1 debate.

Spitzer, like Cuomo, was the Goliath in the race. But Stringer gathered steam; he had the support of virtually the entire Democratic establishment and won the endorsement of the city's major newspapers.

He stunningly closed the gap in the home stretch of the race. Election night was not terribly suspenseful: Stringer won by four points.

For Spitzer, it marked the end of public life, living proof you often get just one shot at a comeback.

Stringer is now hoping history repeats itself. In a video released by his campaign last weekend, Stringer says: “We shocked a whole lot of people when we won that race. You’ll forgive me if I’m not shaking in my boots when people say Andrew Cuomo’s the frontrunner for mayor.”

In 2013, then-Gov. Cuomo seemed to delight in the spectacle created by Spitzer and another sex scandal-scarred politician, Anthony Weiner, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor.

“I am just watching the theater that is going on in New York City,” he told reporters.

Later, at a rally following the election, he told the crowd: “New York City certainly loves its primary campaigns, doesn’t it? We had some doozies this year.”

A doozy — a term that may one day also apply to the mayoral primary of 2025.