Disgraced former Toronto mayoral candidate Adam Giambrone is attempting a political comeback in the upcoming Scarborough-Guildwood byelection, the Star has learned.

Giambrone, who was forced to resign from the 2010 mayor’s race after a sex scandal, will contest the NDP nomination Sunday.

“We are expecting an exciting race for the nomination,” a local NDP source said Friday night, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Giambrone, a former TTC chair and city councillor who represented Davenport, is up against local activist Amarjeet Chhabra.

“We do not know Adam in this riding. But he has expressed an interest,” said the NDP source, predicting a strong showing against Liberal Mitzie Hunter and Progressive Conservative Ken Kirupa in the Aug. 1 byelection, one of five being held that day.

Giambrone did not respond to a Star request for comment but one New Democrat official conceded his candidacy would be a longshot given the former councillor’s flame-out from municipal politics three years ago.

It is thought that Giambrone would use the byelection in a riding across town — held in recent years by recently resigned Liberal MPP Margarett Best — from his political base as a way of gingerly getting back into public life. In 2010, he made headlines after lying to the Star about the nature of his personal life during what ended up being his 10-day long mayoral bid.

“I have no excuse for my failure to disclose my relationships with other women,” he said of deceiving his now-wife by having sex with another woman on the couch in his city hall office. “To have misled those around me in this fashion is the worst mistake of my life.”

Along with apologizing to his now wife, Giambrone at the time expressed regret for not being truthful with Star reporter Linda Diebel, who broke the story of his deception.

“I misled you and I am sorry I have no excuse,” he said in February 2010. “The most painful lessons in life come from the mistakes you make yourself and then inflict on those around you. In an effort to bring this chapter to a close, let me say I did have intimate relationships for a period that lasted throughout most of last year with women other than my partner.”

A onetime wunderkind, who was president of the federal New Democrats in his 20s, Giambrone was close to former mayor David Miller and was very briefly seen as a serious contender in the race eventually won by Mayor Rob Ford.