Nearly two years after he resigned from Congress because of a sexting scandal, Anthony Weiner is running for mayor.
He formally announced his candidacy with a two-minute, 16-second video that he posted online at midnight Wednesday.
“I made some big mistakes and I know I let a lot of people down, but I have also learned some tough lessons,” Weiner says in the video, posted on YouTube.
DAILY POLITICS: ANTHONY WEINER LAUNCHES BID FOR NY MAYOR
“I am running for mayor because I have been fighting for the middle class and those struggling to make it my entire life, and I hope I get a second chance to work for you.”
Weiner’s wife, longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, offers a testimonial to her husband, declaring, “We love this city and no one will work harder to make it better than Anthony.”
The unconventional campaign launch culminates a comeback tour that began in early April with a magazine interview and continued with the posting of a policy booklet online filled with ideas for the next mayor.
Although the sexting scandal made Weiner a national punchline, he has the potential to be a force in the mayoral race.
He has $4.3 million in campaign funds — raised in anticipation of this year’s election before his political career derailed. It’s the second-largest war chest among all the candidates, after that of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
Weiner also boasts high name recognition, although that is partly the result of his very public fall from grace two years ago this weekend.
The video announcing his candidacy – posted with no advance notice – provides a hint of how Weiner intends to position himself in the campaign. He stresses his outer borough roots, and mentions the words “middle class” four times.
He talks about high rents, the disappearance of good jobs with benefits, how city schools “aren’t what they should be,” and how small businesses are “drowning in regulations that nickel and dime you to death.”
Weiner closes the video with a logo that reprises the blue and orange color scheme — and the subway-chimes sound effects — from his 2005 run for City Hall.
There was a hitch in the rollout. Weiner’s website – AnthonyWeiner.com – briefly displayed the video and contact information for the campaign but then reverted to how it looked in May 2011, shortly before he resigned from Congress. However, people logging in from their mobile phones saw the updated site.
Weiner’s entry into the campaign promises to further tighten race. It comes as Quinn’s lead has slipped and two other Democrats, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and ex-Controller Bill Thompson, have each hit key fund-raising milestones and won impressive endorsements.
One poll commissioned last month had Weiner in a solid second place. And while the other Democratic candidates have downplayed his chance of winning, all have been retooling their campaigns in anticipation of his announcement.
Sources close to Weiner insist he is jumping in because he believes he can win, and that his campaign isn’t simply meant to redeem his public image to boost his new consulting business or lay the groundwork for a future bid for office.
Time was running out for him to enter the fray. He was required to declare by June 10 to be eligible for taxpayer funds under the city’s campaign finance program. And to appear on the Democratic ballot, he must gather the signatures of 3,750 Democratic voters by July 11.
Though he has always been an exceedingly hands-on politician, there is little question that Weiner will be squarely at the helm of the unlikely campaign. Most of his former staffers have distanced themselves from him after the scandal or are working for other candidates.
His new campaign manager, Danny Kedem, is a little-known operative who has never before run a city wide campaign. His late entry into the race could also make landing pivotal endorsements difficult.
But Weiner, 48, has long enjoyed portraying himself as the scrappy, outerborough underdog and rode that persona to a strong showing in the 2005 mayoral primary.
He would have entered this year’s City Hall campaign as the frontrunner had his career not unraveled over Memorial Day weekend in 2011.
He accidentally sent a lewd photo of himself to all his followers on twitter, instead of to a woman in Seattle. At the time, Weiner denied any wrongdoing, claiming his account had been hacked – but his excuses unraveled as more women stepped forward. Even President Obama suggested he should resign.
Three weeks after the initial tweet, Weiner abandoned the Brooklyn/Queens congressional seat he held for 12 years. In a final humiliation, his last press conference was nearly drowned out by hecklers.
And then he disappeared.
He had vowed to be a better father and husband, and he was occasionally spotted around the city with Abedin and their toddler son, Jordan. Their family moved from Kew Gardens to Park Ave. South in Manhattan. Weiner secretly launched his consulting business.
He took tentative steps back onto the public stage last year, first posing for a People magazine photo shoot and then co-writing an op-ed for the Daily News about the plight of the Rockaways, part of his former district, after Hurricane Sandy.
Behind the scenes, he began to plot his return. He hired a Berkshires playwright in January to help him fashion the policy book and later commissioned a poll to gauge public interest in his comeback.
He then burst back into the scene last month, sitting down for a lengthy magazine profile and a series of television interviews.
His rollout followed in fits and starts: he re-launched his website but largely stayed out of sight.
But now that he has officially returned to the arena, questions about his past will be harder to avoid no matter how badly Weiner wants to change the conversation – particularly since the candidate has allowed that there may be more women who could come forward.
