By Anna Gustafson
U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Forest Hills) has had a big week.
After getting married to longtime U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin July 10, Weiner was the sole candidate to file with the city Campaign Finance Board as a mayoral candidate for 2013.
While others have discussed the likelihood that they will run, including City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) and city Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Weiner is the only one who filed paperwork July 15 with the city for his bid to become the city’s head honcho.
Weiner has about $4.6 million in his mayoral war chest, although his filings show he did not actively engage in any fund-raising during the last six months. The Forest Hills congressman is running for his seventh term in the House against Republican Bob Turner. For that race, Weiner has about $700,000, according to his July filing with the Federal Election Commission.
Quinn and de Blasio, both of whom have been reported to be eyeing a run for mayor, have $2.7 million and a little more than $100,000, respectively. Quinn and de Blasio filed with the CFB as being undeclared. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer also has been reported to be pondering a mayoral run and he has about $621,000, according to his filing as an undeclared candidate with the city.
City Comptroller John Liu, a former Flushing councilman who some in the borough have speculated would run for the city’s highest position, did not file with the city.
Former city Comptroller William Thompson, a Democrat who lost his bid for mayor in November, officially announced his candidacy for mayor in the 2013 campaign just a couple months after he was defeated by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Thompson, who is working for the municipal bonds underwriting firm Siebert Brandford Shank & Co., did not file with the city this period and said he has not yet started to raise funds for 2013.
Weiner had thrown his hat into the ring for the 2009 mayoral race but dropped out at the end of May, citing his fears that the deep-pocketed Bloomberg could far outspend him. According to Bloomberg’s most recent filings with the state Board of Elections, the mayor went through $109.2 million of his own funds for his last campaign — about $99.8 million more than Thompson spent.
“The mayor is expected to spend $80 million of his own money in the race, more than 10 times what candidates who have not opted out of the city’s public campaign finance program, as Mr. Bloomberg has, can spend in a primary,” Weiner wrote last year to explain his decision to drop out. “With spending like that, regular debates about real issues will probably take a back seat to advertising.”
Reach reporter Anna Gustafson by e-mail at agustafson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
