The race for state comptroller is often a dull affair with speeches about auditing state agencies and candidates doodling around the margins of New York's pension program. We are redeemed from political torpor this year as both candidates have offered up their wives to the great race.

For his part, Republican Christopher Callaghan is stingy with his spouse. As Saratoga County Treasurer, Callaghan once denied his wife, who worked in the county clerk's office, an electric pencil sharpener. "I think she may have eventually got one," Callaghan conceded, "but the first answer she got was no."

Contrast this degree of asceticism with incumbent comptroller and inveterate wife spoiler Alan Hevesi, who famously hooked up his old lady with a taxpayer-funded chauffeur to the tune of about 5,000 electric pencil sharpeners. (Assuming Mrs. Callaghan had her eye on the X-ACTO Helix 1900, retailing for $15.99 at Staples.)

It's hard to see how this bodes well for a Callaghan administration in Albany. Treat your wife anyway you want, bub, but don't deny an office drone an automatic pencil sharpener. What's next, a paper-clip-tracking program?

GOP Pins Hopes on Callaghan [NYDN]