This is not a joke: Anthony Weiner’s City Council campaign strategy is to be honest with voters.
More than a decade after trying to cover up the sexting addiction that famously wrecked his political career, Weiner is not simply telling voters what they want to hear as he campaigns in District 2, which runs from the Lower East Side to Alphabet City, Greenwich Village, Flatiron and Kips Bay.
On real estate matters, he said in a Zoom interview, that means being forthright about development and rent. “It’s not always going to be zero rent increase, it’s not always going to be 100 percent affordable housing,” Weiner said.
He is trying to distinguish himself from politicians who blame landlords and developers for high housing costs, and who hide behind rent boards and tax-reform commissions rather than fix problems.
“Unfortunately, the way our system is structured, it allows people to deal with [issues] in a way that is not intellectually honest,” he said. “There’s a very strong political incentive to demagogue.”
As an example, Weiner held up a campaign mailer sent by Andrea Gordillo, one of his three competitors in the June 24 Democratic primary. When constituents ask for things, it said, “Andrea Gordillo won’t say no.”
Weiner looked up at his screen in disbelief. “The whole job of a fucking Council member is to say no sometimes!”
That might mean supporting a project that can get a construction loan rather than one that sounds fabulous but isn’t viable. One former school in the district has been empty for 30 years because politicians, wanting a nonprofit center, blocked Gregg Singer’s plan for a dorm.
At a recent campaign event, a voter who despised Andrew Cuomo asked the Council candidates how they would represent the district should the domineering former governor win the mayoralty.
“If we’re going to have an obnoxious asshole as mayor,” Weiner recalled replying, “maybe the best defense is to have an obnoxious asshole as City Council member.”
But he also told the audience that if Cuomo offered to help the district, he would listen. He can’t be a Brad Lander-style Cuomo basher anyway; given his past scandals, Weiner is in no position to take a holier-than-thou stance against anyone.
Much of the real estate industry has clearly forgiven Cuomo, judging by the millions of dollars pouring into a PAC supporting him. If Weiner were in line to win a powerful post, real estate would surely give freely to him, too, as it did when he was a leading candidate for mayor in 2013.
But his sights are lower now. After a stint running a countertop maker in Brooklyn and becoming a host on John Catsimatidis’ radio station, Weiner is aiming to be just one of 51 Council members. It’s anyone’s guess if the one-time political star has a shot.
A mere handful of real estate people have donated more than $200 to Weiner’s campaign, among them the magnate and megadonor Alexander Rovt and his wife Olga ($1,000 apiece). You might recall Rovt from the recent DCAS controversy.
Other donors include Turnbridge Equities director Kevin Yang ($1,000) and Rovt employee Frank Weis ($500), Jeff Gural of GFP Real Estate ($250) and Barry Lipsitz of Lipsitz Property Group ($250). Flatrate Moving CEO Sharone Ben Harosh gave $1,000.
These donations probably have more to do with Weiner’s longstanding support for Israel than anything he might do for the real estate industry. But there’s no doubt that business donors prefer political moderates like Weiner to left-wing ideologues.
Regardless, real estate donors were never going to anoint a winner in this race. Weiner is betting that his messaging — such as hiring more cops — will appeal even to left-leaning voters.
“There’s a lot of progressives who don’t like paying $2.90 for the subway and then seeing poor people climbing over the turnstile behind them,” Weiner said. “There’s a presumption that people want an angry Democrat to fight. I’m trying to show you can be an angry, reasonable person too.”
Asked if his message was resonating with residents of the district — a softball question that 99.9 percent of candidates would answer, “Absolutely!” — Weiner delivered an unconventional response: “I can’t tell.”
It’s the honesty strategy. Rather than fill voters’ ears with fantastic promises, such as Zohran Mamdani’s $100 billion for social housing, Weiner said he campaigns with the philosophy that “people are smarter than politicians give them credit for.”
“One of the things that prompted me to run is I don’t think the City Council takes things seriously,” said Weiner, who served in the chamber in the 1990s before moving up to Congress. “It’s never been a less serious body.”
