Anthony Weiner Hopes Voters Have Forgiven or Forgotten
Anthony Weiner, posted on a sunbaked corner of the East Village on Tuesday, had stooped to hear an older woman tell him that she had just voted for him when a much younger woman stopped, took a quick selfie in front of the candidate and muttered 'pedophile.'
'What did she say?' the older woman asked.
'Supports another candidate,' Mr. Weiner deadpanned.
That he is himself a candidate is a plot twist in a story that many believed had ended badly. Mr. Weiner resigned from Congress in 2011 following a sexting scandal. A second sexting scandal cost him a run for mayor in 2013. Four years later, he was convicted of a felony and served 18 months in prison for sharing sexually explicit photos and texts with a 15-year-old girl.
He is now seeking an improbable comeback, running for a City Council seat in Lower Manhattan, asking voters to return him to an office he first won in 1991, in his mid-20s, in a Brooklyn district.
During his campaign, he has owned those dark episodes without, as he put it, 'wallowing' in them — 'contrition, but not scraping.' He hopes his practical, street-level ideas to fix what ails the city — hire more police officers, find proper care for the mentally ill and homeless living in parks — attract voters ready to set aside his past.
'I can't think of another political campaign that's quite like this,' he said.
One thing that is undeniable, watching him greet person after person under a punishing midday sun that reduced his pole-thin shadow to a sliver, is that Mr. Weiner loves this part of the game. He is a tireless retail politician.
'You guys vote yet?' he asked a passing couple.
'We're not from here.'
'Maybe someday!' he replied.
He recalls running for the Council in 1991 and has pictures of himself that year, looking gaunt and strung out.
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