New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner plans to press on with his run for mayor despite losing his campaign manager over the weekend, assuring reporters that he’s been told he’s not clinically addicted to sex.
“You’re stuck with me,” Weiner told the Staten Island Advance Sunday in an interview addressing revelations that he sexted outside of his marriage after his resignation from Congress, including with 23-year-old Sydney Leathers.
Asked how he would explain his sexting scandal to his son Jordan, Weiner said, “First of all, the kid’s going to grow up in Gracie Mansion. So I’m going to say, ‘Kid, don’t complain.'”
“It’ll pass. I heard the last original Weiner joke in, like, the fifth grade,” Weiner added, referring presumably to jokes about his last name and not public criticisms of his habitual sexting.
“Addiction has a clinical meaning, and I’ve been told it doesn’t apply here,” Weiner said when asked if he’s a sex addict.
Weiner will attend a mayoral forum in the Bronx Monday, despite recently suffering a major blow to his well-funded campaign.
Weiner’s campaign manager David Kedem resigned over the weekend, which came as little surprise to those close to New York City politics.
“The credibility is gone and the campaign manager had to follow,” said Bill Cunningham, former campaign operative for current Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “If he were to stay there, you are in some way trying to justify what Weiner has said and your own credibility has gone down the tubes, and your ability to get into other campaigns down the road will be compromised. He probably looks at this and says, ‘I don’t want to be tarnished.'”
Weiner’s favorability rating among Democrats has declined from 52 percent to 30 percent since June, while his unfavorability rating increased from 36 percent to 55 percent, according to an NBC 4 New York/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll.
City Council speaker Christine Quinn, herself no stranger to scandal, now leads Weiner in the mayoral race 25 percent to 16 percent among registered Democrats. Weiner led Quinn in June, 25 percent to 20 percent.