Anthony Weiner still holds the record for the most spectacular and salacious demise of a New York City mayoral candidacy. Two months before the 2013 Democratic primary he was at the top of the polls; then Sydney Leathers emerged with sexts from Weiner, who also admitted to sexually charged online relationships with at least three other women, all of whom were not his wife, Huma Abedin, and all of this occurring two years after Weiner had left Congress for similarly tawdry reasons. He finished fifth, with less than 5% of the vote.
Scott Stringer is likely to do better in two weeks. If he doesn’t, it will have been thanks to what stands to become one of the oddest controversies to ever derail a major contender. In April, early polling showed Stringer, the city comptroller, trailing Andrew Yang and Eric Adams, but in the hunt; he’d recently landed two important endorsements, from the Working Families Party and the United Federation of Teachers. (Stringer’s proposal to hire a large number of new teachers may have had something to do with it.) Then Jean Kim came forward to accuse Stringer of sexual harassment in 2001, when Kim worked unpaid for Stringer’s unsuccessful run for public advocate.
Stringer has strenuously denied the accusation, when it surfaced and ever since: “It never happened,” he tells me. The Intercept has poked some holes in Kim’s account and has raised questions about the motivations of the lawyer representing her. But the political damage to Stringer was swift and significant: The WFP un-endorsed him, as did a series of elected officials. There could be more fallout: On Friday, a 2nd woman, Teresa Logan, accused Stringer of sexual misconduct from when she worked as a waitress at a bar he co-owned in the early 1990’s. Stringer said he had “no memory” of Logan, though acknowledged “Uptown Local was a long-ago chapter in my life” and “it was all a bit of a mess.”
After Kim’s accusation, press coverage of the race disappeared him or mostly treated Stringer’s campaign as dead in the water. Yet his poll numbers have not cratered completely, with a sizable slice of Black voters standing by Stringer. He has added endorsements from a few other labor unions; this week, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York Votes PAC ranked him as its second choice, after Kathryn Garcia. Stringer’s progressive rivals believe he has no chance to win but think his continuing presence helps the more moderate Adams and Yang by splitting the liberal vote. “Over the past 10 to 15 years, the progressive share of the Democratic electorate has grown—from 20% to one third,” says Bruce Gyory, a strategist who is not working with any of the current candidates. “You can’t splinter a third of the vote and have it be a big stick.” Stringer’s most powerful backer, the UFT, continues to run cringey-cute TV ads supporting him, but recently, according to the New York Post, the union sent out a voting guide instructing its 80,000 members not to rank Adams or Yang on their ballots—which is either savvy negativity or a sign the teachers’ union is worried about Stringer’s prospects. “Maya Wiley is the only progressive who can win,” one of her allies says. “Dianne Morales was never going to win, and her campaign has imploded. And Scott is being propped up by a super PAC.”
Stringer says he will continue keeping his head down and making his case. Which is consistent with his 30-year career in public office: Whatever charisma Stringer possesses is in his earnest wonkery, a knowledge of budgets and bike lanes and 911 call data and housing subsidies (“If we have an incrementalist mayor who doesn’t know how to build affordable housing, we’re going to be fucked,” Stringer says). The pandemic added an unwanted, sympathetic bond with thousands of New Yorkers: His 86-year-old mother, Arlene, died of complications from the coronavirus in April 2020. But the core of Stringer’s appeal, as he says relentlessly, is that he would be “ready on day one” as mayor. He is also lobbing sharper attacks at the front-runners. “Adams has made a decision to get the support of billionaire Republicans who want to privatize education and city services,” Stringer says. “Right now both him and Yang are hanging out with a bad crowd.” (Both say they have nothing to do with who contributes to super PACs supporting them.)
Eight years ago Stringer used a final sprint to beat Eliot Spitzer in the comptroller’s race. “Voters are still tuning into the mayor’s race, and I think there’s a real possibility a lot of them come home to Scott,” says Rebecca Katz, one of Stringer’s top advisers. “A lot can happen in the last month—as evidenced by last time.” The last time—in terms of there being no incumbent in the mayoral contest—being 2013, when Weiner immolated and Katz was working for a guy named Bill de Blasio, who made a late charge all the way to City Hall. A Stringer victory would be an even bigger surprise.
Update: A 2nd woman accused Stringer of sexual misconduct after publication. The article was updated to reflect the new allegations.
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