Political comeback bids by disgraced ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner and a grudge match pitting Republican rivals in southern Brooklyn highlight the 51 City Council races heading into the June 24 primary.
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 replacing term-limited lefty Carlina Rivera in Manhattan’s District 2 that includes the East Village and the Lower East Side.
The 60-year-old former congressman — who was a frontrunner in the 2013 mayoral race before ultimately finishing fifth in the primary – heads a field of five Democratic candidates and admits trying to reinvent himself.
“I’m trying to do a high-wire act blindfolded over a pond of angry alligators, you know?” he said. “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 told The Post he’s “not hiding” from his past and insists most voters haven’t made it an issue on the campaign trail and that hopes his experience as an elected official will put him over the top.
Still, he conceded the comeback bid won’t be easy – especially in his uber-liberal district where he’s running as a “practical common-sense Democrat in a time that the party has lost its way.”
He said his competitors – which include Assemblyman Harvey Epstein (D-Manhattan) and ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio aide and nonprofit leader Sarah Batchu – are too “far left,” so he’s banking on voters seeking more moderate leadership.
“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 said. “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 own sex scandal, but he did inspire a “Saturday Night Live” comedy sketch last year that goofed on him running for office while unfortunately having a comparable name to two notorious sexual predators: Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein. He didn’t return messages.
Besides Weiner, three other Democratic candidates are also trying to write political redemption stories by winning back 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 found guilty in a corruption trial of stealing more than $30,000 in public funds, but the conviction was overturned four years ago.
The Council voted to expel King in 2020 following a series of ethics charges alleging he misused government funds and mistreated his staff.
Cabrera, an influential pastor who served as Mayor Eric Adams $227,786-a-year senior spiritual advisor from 2022 through mid-2023, came under fire repeatedly while a councilman the previous 12 years for making numerous anti-gay remarks, including praising the notoriously homophobic government of Uganda.
In Brooklyn’s 48th District that includes Sheepshead Bay, incumbent Inna Vernikov is trying to fend off a challenge from ex-Councilman Ari Kagan in the Republican primary.
The race has been nasty — despite both being ideologically indistinguishable, including vowing to fight to improve public safety, keep homeless shelters out of the district and combat antisemitism and illegal 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 heart based on his voting record. Both candidates were previously Dems.
As a councilwoman, Vernikov has been a lead voice for Zionists combating antisemitism since the start of the Israel-Hamas War, helped remove homeless encampments plaguing her district and has fought to preserve neighborhood parking access despite the city pushing an anti-car agenda. Her key endorsements include the city’s police officers, 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 represent parts of southern Brooklyn.
Other incumbents facing tough primary fights include Brooklyn Democrats Shahana Hanif and Alexa Aviles, both card carrying members of the Democratic Socialists of America, and fellow lefty Chris Marte of Lower Manhattan.
The far-left, pro-Palestine Hanif began bending over backwards to show support for Jews earlier this year after momentum in her district that includes Park Slope continued to grow for her Jewish opponent Maya Kornberg, who works at NYU’s Brennan Center.
Hanif was singing a different tune before the primary challenge emerged.
In April 2023, she was one of just two council members to vote against an ‘End Jew Hatred Day’ resolution — calling it a “far right” idea.
And in the days after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel, Hanif insisted in a since-deleted post on X “the root cause of this war is the illegal, immoral, and unjust occupation of the Palestinian people,” and that “no peace” should be expected.
Although the scores of NYC Council candidates have raised more than $18 million combined in private and public matching funds for their respective races, the Council isn’t expected to look significantly different next year with only eight races wide open because of term-limits and many incumbents running unopposed or against political novices.
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