Anthony Weiner may have spent the first day of his mayoral campaign hiding at home (and sending pizzas to camped-out reporters) but he's out in the wild today. One New Yorker spotted him on the R train this morning.
Reader David tells us that he noticed Weiner on the uptown train at 14th Street, "He was chatting it up with the guy next to him and people across and had a couple of photographers with him." Weiner got off at 42nd Street—all the better to transfer for the 2 or 3 train for his first official campaign stop in Harlem!
The Weiner has landed. @anthonyweiner is crossing Lenox, or trying to w a billion cameras in his way.
— Josh Robin (@joshrobin) May 23, 2013
Anthony Weiner's first campaign stop, shaking hands at Harlem subway stop. #nyc2013 twitter.com/NYDNLemire/sta…
— Jonathan Lemire (@NYDNLemire) May 23, 2013
Major media crush as @anthonyweiner greets commuters and a dozen + cameras in Harlem @myfoxny at 8a twitter.com/StaceyDelikat/…
— Stacey Delikat (@StaceyDelikat) May 23, 2013
Cops are now swarming mobbed @anthonyweiner meet/greet. Reception for him warm/intrigued.
— Josh Robin (@joshrobin) May 23, 2013
"Someone has to fix the robots," @anthonyweiner tells guy here worries about tech twitter.com/colvinj/status…
— Jill Colvin (@colvinj) May 23, 2013
Weiner in front of his campaign sign, which says simply "Anthony Weiner!" (With exclamation point) #nyc2013 twitter.com/NYDNLemire/sta…
— Jonathan Lemire (@NYDNLemire) May 23, 2013
While many voters have very mixed feelings about Weiner trying to resurrect his political career after his spectacular Congressional exit over his crotch shot Tweet and other social media oversharing, he does have the power to unsettle the current mayoral field. Capital New York points out, "Council Speaker Christine Quinn, for example, hovered over 30 percent in polls without Weiner, theoretically within reach (if just about everything broke her way) of the 40-percent threshold to avoid that run-off. With Weiner, she's mired in the mid-20s."
Reader David, who took the photograph, told us, "I'll probably be voting for Quinn but I feel [the] picture scandal in the past makes no difference to me, and I really don't see that as an issue. He was just stupid lying about it."