Anthony Weiner, who resigned from the House of Representatives in 2011 after he was caught sending lewd photos and messages to several women on Twitter, is considering running for mayor in New York City this year. Weiner confirmed his mayoral ambitions in a lengthy interview with the New York Times Magazine in which he and his wife, Huma Abedin, discussed his scandal in depth.
There has been speculation around a potential Weiner mayoral bid for months now. He was known to be considering the race prior to the Twitter scandal and he still has over $4.8 million in a New York City campaign account, which is near the maximum of $6.426 million the major candidates, who all are participating in the city’s public financing system, will be allowed to spend in the September primary.
Weiner has used some of his money to conduct polls testing his prospects in both the mayoral election and the city comptroller’s race. The Times Magazine story described him as “eyeing the mayor’s race,” though he did not entirely rule out entering another citywide race when asked about the possibility. Weiner also admitted the more than $100,000 in polling and research he’s conducted about the race showed some people who would not consider voting for him because of the scandal.
“People are generally prepared to get over it, but they don’t know if they’re prepared to vote for me. And there’s a healthy number of people who will never get over it. … It’s a little complicated because I always attracted a fairly substantial amount of people who didn’t like me anyway,” Weiner said.
