Political comeback bids by disgraced ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner and a grudge match pitting Republican rivals in southern Brooklyn spotlight the 51 Metropolis Council races heading into the June 24 main.
The scandal-scarred Weiner is taking a stab at re-entering public life after being sentenced to 21 months in jail in 2017 for sexting with a minor, and he has his eyes set on changing term-limited lefty Carlina Rivera in Manhattan’s District 2 that features the East Village and the Decrease East Aspect.
The 60-year-old former congressman — who was a frontrunner within the 2013 mayoral race earlier than finally ending fifth within the main – heads a discipline of 5 Democratic candidates and admits attempting to reinvent himself.
“I’m trying to do a high-wire act blindfolded over a pond of angry alligators, you know?” he stated. “I got my scandal. I haven’t run in a while, and I am running as a different kind of candidate.”
The once-rising Democratic star informed The Publish he’s “not hiding” from his previous and insists most voters haven’t made it a difficulty on the marketing campaign path and that hopes his expertise as an elected official will put him excessive.
Nonetheless, he conceded the comeback bid received’t be straightforward – particularly in his uber-liberal district the place he’s operating as a “practical common-sense Democrat in a time that the party has lost its way.”
He stated his rivals – which embody Assemblyman Harvey Epstein (D-Manhattan) and ex-Mayor Invoice de Blasio aide and nonprofit chief Sarah Batchu – are too “far left,” so he’s banking on voters in search of extra reasonable management.
“I consider myself a fairly progressive person, but I don’t think it’s progressive to think it’s okay to pay $2.90 to get on the subway while five people are climbing [the turnstile] behind you and don’t pay,” Weiner stated. “And I don’t think it’s a progressive value to spend a billion-and-a-half dollars on police overtime when we could be hiring more police officers.”
Epstein hasn’t had his personal intercourse scandal, however he did encourage a “Saturday Night Live” comedy sketch final yr that goofed on him operating for workplace whereas sadly having a comparable title to 2 infamous sexual predators: Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein. He didn’t return messages.
In addition to Weiner, three different Democratic candidates are additionally attempting to write down political redemption tales by profitable again council seats: Andy King and Fernando Cabrera of The Bronx and Ruben Wills of Queens.
Wills was bounced from the Council in 2017 after being discovered responsible in a corruption trial of stealing greater than $30,000 in public funds, however the conviction was overturned 4 years in the past.
The Council voted to expel King in 2020 following a sequence of ethics prices alleging he misused authorities funds and mistreated his employees.
Cabrera, an influential pastor who served as Mayor Eric Adams $227,786-a-year senior non secular advisor from 2022 via mid-2023, got here beneath hearth repeatedly whereas a councilman the earlier 12 years for making quite a few anti-gay remarks, together with praising the notoriously homophobic authorities of Uganda.
In Brooklyn’s 48th District that features Sheepshead Bay, incumbent Inna Vernikov is attempting to fend off a problem from ex-Councilman Ari Kagan within the Republican main.
The race has been nasty — regardless of each being ideologically indistinguishable, together with vowing to struggle to enhance public security, preserve homeless shelters out of the district and fight antisemitism and unlawful dumping.,
Kagan has boasted he’s a “harder worker” than Vernikov, who he ripped as an “absentee councilwoman.” Vernikov says Kagan is a fraud — a Democrat at coronary heart based mostly on his voting file. Each candidates had been beforehand Dems.
As a councilwoman, Vernikov has been a lead voice for Zionists combating antisemitism because the begin of the Israel-Hamas Conflict, helped take away homeless encampments plaguing her district and has fought to protect neighborhood parking entry regardless of the town pushing an anti-car agenda. Her key endorsements embody the town’s cops, correction officers and firefighters unions and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY)
Kagan, who works as a senior advisor to state Sen. Steve Chan (R-Brooklyn), is being endorsed by Assemblymen Michael Novakhov and Alec Brook-Krasny, who symbolize elements of southern Brooklyn.
Different incumbents going through robust main fights embody Brooklyn Democrats Shahana Hanif and Alexa Aviles, each card carrying members of the Democratic Socialists of America, and fellow lefty Chris Marte of Decrease Manhattan.
The far-left, pro-Palestine Hanif started bending over backwards to indicate help for Jews earlier this yr after momentum in her district that features Park Slope continued to develop for her Jewish opponent Maya Kornberg, who works at NYU’s Brennan Middle.
Hanif was singing a special tune earlier than the first problem emerged.
In April 2023, she was certainly one of simply two council members to vote in opposition to an ‘End Jew Hatred Day’ decision — calling it a “far right” concept.
And within the days after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terror assault on Israel, Hanif insisted in a since-deleted put up on X “the root cause of this war is the illegal, immoral, and unjust occupation of the Palestinian people,” and that “no peace” ought to be anticipated.
Though the scores of NYC Council candidates have raised greater than $18 million mixed in non-public and public matching funds for his or her respective races, the Council isn’t anticipated to look considerably totally different subsequent yr with solely eight races extensive open due to term-limits and plenty of incumbents operating unopposed or in opposition to political novices.
