Sal Albanese
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With Anthony Weiner about to pop into the race for mayor, one of his Democratic rivals demanded yesterday that he pony up $350,000 for the cost of the election required to fill his hastily vacated congressional seat two years ago.
Weiner resigned under pressure in June 2011 after it was disclosed he was tweeting lewd pictures of himself to women he’d met on the Internet.
In the special election held that September to replace him, Republican Bob Turner pulled off a stunning upset victory over Democrat David Weprin.
Taxpayers were stuck with the $350,000 election tab, according to former Brooklyn Councilman Sal Albanese, a longshot mayoral contender who hasn’t been shy about taking sharp jabs at his better-known opponents.
“I blame Anthony Weiner because he put himself in that situation,” Albanese declared in a press conference yesterday outside City Hall. “By the way, he never apologized for it.”
Weiner didn’t respond to an e-mail requesting comment.
He is expected to announce his entry into the mayor’s race either today or tomorrow.
No departing politician has ever paid for the cost of electing a successor, and there’s no way Albanese could force Weiner to become the first to pay up.
But his attack underscored the inevitability of Weiner’s being hounded at every turn on the campaign trail with reminders of his past personal conduct and its consequences.
Even with his considerable personal baggage, the former congressman promises to shift the mayoral landscape when he becomes a declared candidate.
One source said a private poll conducted for a commercial enterprise showed Weiner grabbing a significant number of votes from the three top contenders: City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, former Comptroller Bill Thompson and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.
The poll also showed that Weiner had not budged beyond the 15 percent mark achieved in a Quinnipiac University poll last month.
As an equal-opportunity political bomb thrower, Albanese also charged that Quinn, de Blasio and Comptroller John Liu were wasting tax money by hiring staffers for their government offices who are really engaged in political work.
Other than the timing of the hires, Albanese could offer no proof of what would constitute illegal activity.
In other campaign news, aides to GOP candidate Joe Lhota accepted an invitation from owners of the 220 Central Park carriage horses to visit their stables.
Responding to pressure from animal-rights activists, Lhota and other mayoral candidates — with the notable exception of Quinn — are calling for a ban on the horses.