NEW YORK – Anthony Weiner’s ill-fated mayoral campaign ended with a string of final embarrassments: He mustered a mere 5 percent at the ballot box. One of his sexting partners tried to crash his primary night rally. And Weiner was caught making an obscene gesture to reporters as he was driven away.

Outside a “victory” party where supporters mourned a disappointing fifth-place finish in the Democratic primary, cameras crowded around Sydney Leathers, the 23-year-old whose sexting with the former congressman brought his once-high-flying campaign to a screeching halt.

“Why not be here?” Leathers asked reporters. “I’m kind of the reason he’s losing. So, might as well show up.”

Another politician with a sex scandal, Eliot Spitzer, lost the Democratic primary contest for city comptroller to Scott Stringer, the Manhattan borough president. Stringer took 52 percent of the vote to Spitzer’s 48 percent.

Spitzer resigned as governor in 2008 and admitted he paid for sex with call girls. In exile, he bounced around television as a pundit.

Then, just four days before the deadline, he announced he was running for comptroller.

Advertisement

On the final campaign day for both men, the spotlight fell heavily on Weiner. His staff sneaked him into his own event, presumably to avoid Leathers, who had camped outside his headquarters all day hoping to confront him. His wife, Huma Abedin, who stood by his side at the height of the scandal, was nowhere to be seen.

And after a concession speech in which he got choked up as he spoke of family, a scowling Weiner was caught by a photographer giving a middle-finger goodbye to reporters as he was driven away.

Leathers, who has launched a porn career since the scandal broke, said Weiner needed “to stop being an embarrassment to the city of New York. He’s going to continue this behavior. If it’s not going to be me, it’s going to be some other girl.”

Weiner had been in political exile since he resigned from Congress in 2011 for sending women lewd online messages and pictures.

He got into the mayor’s race in May, and aside from a few dust-ups with hecklers, was largely well-received at first, holding the lead for most of June and July.

But after an obscure gossip website named The Dirty released X-rated exchanges between Weiner and Leathers that took place well after the candidate quit the House of Representatives, Weiner — and his sexting pseudonym, Carlos Danger — once again became a national punchline.

 


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.