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VIDEO: Anthony Weiner Launches NYC Mayoral Campaign


wein2[VIDEO IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

Anthony Weiner’s run for a renaissance is officially on.

The ex-congressman whose career imploded in a rash of raunchy tweets two years ago said in a YouTube video announcement late Tuesday that he’s in the New York City mayoral race. He’d said last month he was considering it.

“I made some big mistakes and I know I let a lot of people down, but I also learned some tough lessons,” he said in the video. “I’m running for mayor because I’ve been fighting for the middle class and those struggling to make it my entire life. And I hope I get a second chance.”

With that, Weiner is embarking on an audacious comeback quest, hoping to go from punch line pol to leader of America’s biggest city.

The video appeared late Tuesday, then disappeared for a few hours but was back online by 5 a.m. Wednesday. A call to Weiner was not immediately returned Wednesday.

A Quinnipiac University poll, conducted May 14-20 and released Wednesday, places Weiner second in the pack for the Democratic nomination. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has 25 percent, followed by Weiner, with 15 percent.

The Democrat is jumping into a crowded field for September’s primary. He’s arriving with some significant advantages, including a $4.8 million campaign war chest, the possibility of more than $1 million more in public matching money, polls showing him ahead of all but one other Democrat — and no end of name recognition.

His participation makes a runoff more likely, and many political observers feel he could at least get to the second round.

But Weiner also has continued to contend with questions about his character and the scandal that sank his career just two years ago – which forced him to resign.

In recent interviews, he has said he shouldn’t have lied but did it because he wanted to keep the truth from his then-pregnant wife, Huma Abedin, a longtime aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. She told The New York Times Magazine that she has forgiven him.

Weiner has taken a series of steps recently to rehab his image and reintroduce himself, including the lengthy magazine profile and a series of local TV interviews. He hasn’t responded to interview requests from The Associated Press.

He also has released a platform of sorts, a list of ideas styled as a blueprint for helping the city’s middle class thrive. He’s made a point of highlighting one or more of the concepts on most days, via his newly revived Twitter presence.

The suggestions, some of them updates from a mayoral run he nearly made in 2009, range from giving every public school student a Kindle reader to using Medicaid money to create a city-run, single-payer health system for the uninsured.

Some seem to draw on his Washington experience, such as making more use of a federal cigarette-smuggling law. But others fall squarely within City Hall, including suggestions to create a “nonprofit czar” in city government and eliminate paid positions for parent coordinators in schools.

The document also opens a window on a vision of the city — a place with “a can-do attitude, competitive spirit and aggressive nature” — that sounds not unlike Weiner himself. He was known during his seven terms in Washington as a vigorous defender of Democratic viewpoints, unafraid to get combative whether it was on cable TV or the House floor, and as a tireless and instinctive politician.

“Anybody who underestimates Anthony Weiner’s ambition is a fool. And anybody who underestimates his ability as a candidate is a fool,” retired Hunter College political science professor Kenneth Sherrill said. But “we’re going to see, basically, if Weiner can take hits as well as he can dish them out.”

In seeking a second chance from the public, Weiner will have to overcome some voters’ misgivings. In a recent NBC New York-Marist Poll, half said they wouldn’t even consider him, though the survey also showed that more registered Democrats now have a favorable than unfavorable impression of him.

Weiner can expect opponents to hammer at his prior prevaricating, and he said in a recent interview on the RNN cable network that he couldn’t guarantee that no more pictures or people would emerge.

And while he might welcome attention to his policies rather than his past, they also have attracted some criticism. About a dozen young people recently demonstrated outside his Manhattan apartment building to denounce his proposal to make it easier to suspend disruptive public school students; “(hash)Weiner: You ask for a second chance in (hash)NYC2013 but deny students a second chance,” read one sign, using Twitter’s beloved hashtag marks.

Since leaving office, Weiner has put his government experience to work as a consultant for various companies.

His Democratic opponents include City Councilman Sal Albanese; Public Advocate Bill de Blasio; Comptroller John Liu; City Council Speaker Christine Quinn; the Rev. Erick Salgado, a pastor; and former Comptroller Bill Thompson.

Republican contenders include billionaire businessman John Catsimatidis, former Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joseph Lhota and homelessness-aid organization head George McDonald. Former White House housing official Aldolfo Carrion Jr., a Democrat who recently dropped his party affiliation, is running on the Independence Party line and also interested in the Republican nomination.

Click HERE to watch this video on a mobile device.

(AP)



5 Responses

  1. This guy has tremndous chutzpah to think he can “reinvent” himself after his exploits. He has deminstrated himself to be an immature, lying, menuval who cannot be trusted.

  2. At least American politics, or rather, New York politics, are much more amusing than Israeli politics. Compared to Lapid, Weiner is comic relief.

  3. Mr. Weiner is just a product of society as a whole. He tries to whitewash what he did. Notice on the video he spends exactly 5 seconds and barely has remorse of what he did. Imagine what he will do when he has real power in nyc government. Trust isn’t his middle name.

  4. Weiner running, is a very good development for the Erick Salgado campaign. Weiner & Quinn will duke it out causing a run off where Salgado, with the help of the Frumah (if they can only listen to Daas Torah & NOT the wicked PR/Marketing groups) & the large Hispanic community, might be able to pull it out.
    Now there is something a lot deeper over here. If Weiner wins, it will be a big blow to Barak Hussain Obama! If you remember, it was Obama who came out publicly and demanded that Weiner resign. This was unprecedented to have a President of the United States tell a Congressman member of his own Party to resign. This was all because Weiner, rightfully so, publicly criticised Obama after he suggested that the Israely’s should go back to the pre 67 borders! Democrats ALWAYS circle the wagons for one of their own! Obama perceives Weiner as a Jew & clearly showed the entire Country that he dislikes Jews! What Weiner did, Lemaaseh, wasn’t that bad. Let’s grow up already! I’m not condoning what he did. He used poor judgment. Hello? But he did NOTHING illegal! Unlike other Politicians, he didn’t kill anyone, rape anyone, molest anyone, commit adultery, steal from anyone, wire fraud, illegal campaign contributions, embesel public money, etc etc etc… At least he’s married to a woman! Mushcheses Quinn …………..! Weiner has been very helpful to the Agudah/Frum Organizations as well as other Mosdos. He has been, probably, the biggest/loudest supporter of Israel. If Salgado can’t get in, let’s hope we can send a strong message to Obama & his Anti Semitic WH by making Anthony Weiner the next Mayor of NY!

  5. Nice video, but the man has very poor judgement as eviodenced by his “tweets”. He’s now living in a pricey Manhattan apartment and talking about affordable rents?

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