This is a photo of yours truly and state comptroller candidate Chris Callaghan who was stumping earlier this week in front of the Super Stop & Shop in Yonkers. Supermarkets are an ideal place for politicians to campaign because they’re busy places and it’s easy to buttonhole shoppers.

There are hazards, however. For instance, it went unreported that Callaghan was standing only 10 feet or so from the store’s recycling station where a grubby homeless man was stuffing cans and bottles into the redemption machines. This was hardly a positive image for a politician to be contrasted against, especially a politician seeking to run for an office that oversees a multi-billion dollar public pension fund.

Speaking of huge responsibilities… Callaghan, a Republican from Saratoga County, is generally considered to be unqualfied for the comptroller’s job. As a municipal treasurer, he has only managed an office of 12 employees.

And yet, thanks to allegations of corruption leveled against incumbent Democrat Alan Hevesi, Callaghan has at least an outside chance of winning the election on Nov. 7. At one point, he was 27 points behind in one poll, but recent surveys now have him behind by 11.

In the photo, I’m asking him: “What’s with the bow tie?” But it looks like he’s decribing the circumfrence of a cantalope he just bought.

Whatever, it will be incredible if he pulls a miracle and defeats Hevesi.

If that should occur, think of the movie “The Candidate,” in which the victorious politiciian played by Robert Redford is stunned at the prospect that he will actually have to assume the office he won. “Now what’ll we do?” he asks.