When Anthony Weiner entered the New York City mayoral race, the conventional wisdom was that he didn’t have a chance. He had resigned from Congress less than a year earlier after tweeting sexually suggestive shots of himself to women other than his wife. The campaign was seen as a half-hearted comeback for Weiner, with openly lesbian City Council Speaker Christine Quinn the clear front runner.
Instead, Weiner has been able to capitalize on his name recognition and press fascination to great effect. Two new polls show that Weiner and Quinn are virtually neck and neck in the race.
Weiner hasn’t exactly covered himself in gay glory during the campaign so far. He didn’t respond to a fringe candidate’s antigay attack at a neighborhood forum, and he didn’t challenge a voter he was speaking to who called Quinn “the dyke.” (He later apologized for that slip up.)
The mayoral primary will be held in early September, so it looks like a long, hot summer of campaigning. In the meantime, Buzzfeed reports that the preponderance of Weiner’s Twitter followers are men. There’s no way of parsing the reasons for that phenomenon, other than to wonder if some men aren’t hoping for another round of crotch shots from the would-be mayor.
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