Anthony Weiner has dropped to fourth place in the Democratic match-up for the New York City mayoral race.
According to a new Quinnipiac University poll released Monday, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn leads the race, jumping five points to 27%, followed by New York Public Advocate Bill de Blasio in second place at 21% and Bill Thompson following closely behind at 20%. Weiner stands at just 16%.
Weiner’s fading support took a 10-point nose dive since the last round of Quinnipiac rankings, conducted just before new lewd online exchanges he had with a young women were made public. Weiner acknowledged last week that he had continued sending sexually explicit messages to women online after his resignation from Congress in June 2011. Voter confidence in Weiner’s candidacy immediately tanked following his admission, a downward trend that continues thwart his political comeback attempt.
Prior to revelations of a second wave to Weiner’s sexting saga, the disgraced former congressman enjoyed a five-point lead in polls over Quinn.
“With six weeks to go, anything can happen,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “But it looks like former congressman Anthony Weiner may have sexted himself out of the race for New York City mayor.”
Despite continued calls for Weiner to exit the mayor’s race, he has continued his campaign. He acknowledged sending lewd messages to three women after he resigned. Last week, the gossip website TheDirty.com revealed steamy messages and explicit photos between Weiner–who used the alias “Carlos Danger”—and a 23-year-old woman, Sydney Leathers. “I knew that revelations about my past private life might come back to embarrass me,” Weiner wrote in a fundraising e-mail sent Monday. “I never hid from that possibility. But, I waged this campaign on a bet that the citizens of my city would be more interested in a vision for improving their lives rather than in old stories about mine.” Over the weekend, Weiner’s campaign manager, Danny Kedem, resigned. Democratic candidates are preparing for their primary on Sept. 10. A runoff will be held the following month on Oct. 1 in the case no candidate receives more than 40% of the vote.
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