Fake crowds following Weiner

From the NY Post:

Anthony Weiner is having such a hard time generating support for his limp campaign that he has resorted to paying a rent-a-crowd firm to provide “supporters” for his events, The Post has learned.

Some of the gung-ho Weiner crowds, including at the Aug. 11 Dominican Day Parade in Manhattan, were really actors who were paid $15 an hour by the California firm Crowds on Demand, according to a source with direct knowledge of the deal.

The source said surrogates for Weiner approached the Santa Monica-based company days after Indiana-native Sydney Leathers came forward to say that Weiner had continued his digital dalliances after resigning from Congress.

The campaign asked the company to have actors seem “like either supporters or people who met him and became supporters as a result of that encounter,” the source said.

“The people would initially be skeptical and then they ask him various questions but would appear then to be convinced by his spiel,” according to the source, who said the campaign used Crowds on Demand “several times.”

Initially, Weiner’s associates asked the company to try and confront hecklers, but the company — fearing liability if there was violence — refused, the source said.

Crowds on Demand had no comment.

Weiner’s camp denied employing the company.

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Choose and lose

Been trying to come up with a good caption for this one other than "Four sourpusses and likable candidate."

Take a crack at it.

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Weiner didn't stop being a perv after resigning

From WPIX:

It was just a matter of time before something surfaced, and today it did. A gossip website quotes a 22-year-old woman as claiming she had a six-month relationship with the disgraced former Congressman who is now running for Mayor. Weiner has warned that more texts and lewd pictures might surface, but the shocker is that the new action occurred after he resigned from Congress in 2011.

The website “The Dirty” contends communications between Weiner and the woman continued as recently as August of last year—well over a year after he left office.

Weiner has acknowledged the new revelations, saying that while some of the assertions are true, others are not. PIX11 will have a full report at 10. Meanwhile, two of his Democratic opponents, Bill DeBlasio and Sal Albanese have called on Weiner to withdraw from the campaign. De Blasio said simply, “Enough is enough.”

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Developers love Weiner the most

From Crains:

Mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner won the most financial support from contributors with real estate ties than any of his opponents — and even all the candidates for every other city office, a review of the latest campaign records filed yesterday reveals.

The former congressman took in $85,011 from 66 real estate-related donors from May 12 to July 11, just over 10 percent of the $828,886 he received during the two month-period, records with the New York City Campaign Finance Board show.

Weiner’s donors included Ralph Sitt, a principal at Sitt Asset Management, and Jed Garfield, president of residential brokerage Leslie J. Garfield Real Estate, who each gave $2,500. Ben Ashkenazy, CEO of Ashkenazy Acquisition, Harold Fetner, CEO of Durst Fetner Residential and Julien Studley, the retired founder of the commercial brokerage that bears his name, each gave $2,475.

Other contributions came from Robert Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal Realty Services, who wrote a check for $2,000, and Joseph Sitt, CEO of Thor Equities, who ponied up $400, the records show.

Christine Quinn, City Council Speaker, took in $22,585 in real estate related contributions, making up about 5 percent of her total of $463,400. Her contributors included Douglas Elliman agent Eric Friedberg and DDG Partners CEO Joseph McMillan, who each gave $2,475, the records show.

Nearly 450 individuals involved in the real estate industry contributed $369,023 to campaign coffers of candidates for all city offices — including mayor, borough president and City Council. The real estate-related dollars accounted for about 8.6 percent of the $4.28 million that was contributed in the filing period, the review of the city records show.

Taxi owners love him, too.

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Quinn's asskissing presser features Queens councilmen

From the Politicker:

It was mostly smiles for Council Speaker and mayoral candidate Christine Quinn under the burning sun outside of City Hall this afternoon.

She accepted new endorsements from two council members from Brooklyn, Stephen Levin and Michael Nelson, as well as two from Queens, Mark Weprin and James Gennaro--all of whom spoke to her established record, which they contended distinguishes her from the other candidates running for office.

"Let me get right to it," Mr. Gennaro said. “Whatever you care about in New York City, whatever issue you care about in New York City, Chris Quinn has a record of accomplishment--a record of solid accomplishment in whatever issue you care about. Not a phrase, not a slogan, not a word picture. An actual record of leadership."

"Madam Speaker, I look forward in seven months to calling you Madam Mayor," Mr. Levin said to a beaming Speaker Quinn who graciously kissed him on the cheek afterwards. And so on for Mr. Weprin and Mr. Nelson.

The endorsements today were largely unsurprising. Mr. Gennaro, for instance, has been functioning as an informal attack dog for the Quinn campaign on a variety of issues. And Ms. Quinn was previously endorsed by the Queens County Democratic organization, and loyal members like Mr. Weprin were likely to follow suit. Nevertheless, it's a component of Ms. Quinn's larger strategy: steadily and slowly growing the list of colleagues backing her bid for Gracie Mansion.

Ms. Quinn, however, didn't strike exclusively positive notes this afternoon. Asked about former Gov. Eliot Spitzer nearly tearing up during an appearance on Morning Joe this morning (she appeared shortly after), Ms. Quinn said she hadn't seen a clip, but launched into a critique of both Mr. Spitzer and another scandal scarred pol, former Congressman Anthony Weiner, one of her main rivals in the mayor's race.

"I, as much as anybody else, believe in second chances. None of us are perfect. In every way, but particularly in elected life, you need to earn a second chance. So the question is what have Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer done to earn a second chance?" she said, echoing comments she made yesterday. "What have they done with their time since their fall from grace that would earn them this second choice--chance. I would say not very much."

Does anyone remember Miss Quinn calling for Weiner and Spitzer's resignations? I don't. Now they're dirt because one of them is running against her?

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Weiner wants freedom from Albany

From the New York World:

Mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner lived up to his reputation as a quixotic lawmaker as he unveiled an ambitious roadmap to take power back from Albany.

Through his “City Bill of Rights,” unveiled on a dark blue carboard placard mounted on a wooden stand, Weiner vowed that if elected mayor he would slash the power of the state capital over New York City on a range of issues that have long remained out of the hands of frustrated city lawmakers.

He vowed to attempt to reclaim New York City’s power to make decisions affecting some essential functions of government, including taxation, rent regulation, the MTA and charter school authorization.

His proposal echoed a position he previously staked out in “Keys to the City,” a policy document he introduced before entering the mayoral race in May.

“Every 4th of July we should not only think about the independence of our country, but we should think a little bit about the independence of New York City from the shackles of Albany,” he said next to the steps of City Hall, noting that he had, for effect, carefully chosen the national celebration as his time to pick a fight with Albany.

Weiner singled out giving New York City authority to raise and lower taxes as his day-one priority. Currently, changes in the city’s income, sales and business taxes must first get the nod of the state Legislature.

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Weiner first in polling

From NBC:

Democratic mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner has surged ahead of his opponents in a new NBC 4 New York/Wall Street Journal poll, transforming himself in just a few weeks from disgraced has-been to mayoral front-runner.

Weiner, who entered the race two years after resigning his congressional seat amid a sexting scandal, now leads City Council Speaker Christine Quinn in the crowded Democratic primary, setting up a new phase in what could end up being a remarkable political comeback.

Weiner leads Quinn 25 percent to 20 percent among registered Democrats, the poll by Marist found. That's a flip-flop from the last survey in May, when Quinn, the longtime front-runner, led Weiner 24 percent to 19 percent.

Just as telling is the number of registered New York voters who said they might vote for Weiner. Forty-nine percent said they’d consider it, up from 40 percent two months ago, before Weiner entered the race. Those who said they wouldn’t consider voting for him dropped from 52 percent to 45 percent.

The next closest contender in the Democratic primary is former Comptroller Bill Thompson, with 13 percent of registered Democrats saying they'd vote for him, up 2 percentage points from May. Public Advocate Bill de Blasio follows with 10 percent, who dropped 2 points. Then comes current Comptroller John Liu at 8 percent, Staten Island minister Erick Salgado at 2 percent and former City Councilman Sal Albanese at 1 percent.

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Weiner was a lame congressman well before scandal

From the NY Times:

In 12 ½ years in Congress, he sponsored and wrote only one bill that he steered to enactment: a measure pushed by a family friend who gave his campaigns tens of thousands of dollars in donations.

To his admirers, Anthony Weiner was a tireless spokesman for an endlessly changing array of issues in the House. But offstage, those who worked alongside him say, Mr. Weiner was a lawmaker with little patience for making laws and a single-minded focus on generating attention so he could run for mayor of New York.

He earned admiration for his devotion to his constituents. He inspired aides with his quick grasp of difficult subjects, his relentless pace and his office catchphrase: “We don’t wait.” And he impressed local officials with his shrewd use of the machinery of the federal government.

Yet the more lasting impression left by Mr. Weiner, according to more than three dozen people interviewed, was of a go-it-alone politician whose legislative record was thin and whose restlessness could spill into recklessness. He smartly selected issues on which to weigh in but left the difficult legislating to others, they said.

Things haven't changed much. Now he's talking about bowling alleys and defending his tweeder wife from an investigation.

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Too much info!

From the Daily News:

Is this the mayor’s race? Or the Oprah Winfrey show?

On Monday, Democrat Bill de Blasio shared intimate details of his life, releasing a campaign ad in which he revealed that his troubled childhood and father’s alcoholism led him to doubt that he’d ever have a committed relationship.

The disclosures followed City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s revelations that as a young woman she suffered from alcoholism and an eating disorder.

Anthony Weiner has discussed the state of his marriage in interviews apologizing for the sexting scandal that forced him to resign from Congress two years ago.

The confessionals might seem like cries for help — but what the candidates really are seeking is love from voters, political analysts said Monday.

“No one knows them. This is how they introduce themselves to a disinterested public,” said Christina Greer, an assistant political science professor at Fordham University.

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Weiner really wants FMCP soccer stadium

From NY Post:

“I’m a pro-development Democrat. I think we should build and grow the city as we go and I want to do it smartly,” the ex-Queens congressman said when the topic of sports came up at the Terrace on the Park event.

“I would love to have major league soccer here in Queens. Heck, I’d love to have major league baseball here in Queens first..." Weiner said to guffaws.

Is there a Democrat running for mayor that isn't pro-development?

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