“If I Need to Call Spitzer…”

“Things are starting to shape like a pyramid, or hit a peak for the campaign,” says Carl Andrews a little before 8 a.m. at the B/Q Newkirk Avenue subway station.

Shaking hands and greeting sleepy commuters, Mr. Andrews said all the pieces – from yesterday’s endorsement from the AFL-CIO to his “broad-based support” – were coming together.

“A culmination is starting to come to a head,” he said.

But how reliable is that support? In an anti-incumbent year, could endorsements like that by The Establishment potentially backfire?

“Only if those individuals don’t have a good track record,” he said. “And these people have known me for years. These aren’t just fly-by-night endorsements. I worked with Eliot Spitzer. I knew Alan Hevesi as an intern. They all know me.”

Later he added, “If I need to call Eliot Spitzer, I can call him on his cell phone or at his home. I have greater access than they do.”

But what about his alignment with the people with less sterling track records, like Clarence Norman?

“I’m a Democrat and a good Democrat. Like they say in church, there’s BC for Before Christ and AD, and, well, there’s life before Norman and there’s life after Norman. And I’ve been standing in this subway station for an hour, and no one has asked me about him.”

So as a good Democract, if elected, which New York delegate would he model himself?

“A hybrid of Charlie Rangel, Anthony Weiner and Greg Meeks. Rangel because I’d love his authority, Meeks because we’re somewhat similar in age and we’ve met on several occasions and Weiner because he works on a lot of working-class and family issues.”

Mr. Andrews also stuck closely to his push that this is a “two-candidate” (notice he doesn’t say “man”) race. He said Yvette Clarke and Chris Owens are so far behind in money, that “history isn’t on their side” to make a comeback.

When asked what specifically Yvette Clarke – who described herself yesterday as the “frontrunner” – and Chris Owens were missing, he gave this answer:

“There seems to be a lot of changes in that campaign,” he said of Clarke. “A lot of personality changes, their financial director, their public relations director. Just seem to be a lot of changes.”

And Chris Owens?

“Major Owens has been a good congressman,” he said, then paused, before adding with a smile, “And Chris, well, he has a lot of nice policy papers.”