Anthony Weiner proved that he was capable of overcoming scandal when he shot to the front of the polls after declaring himself a candidate in the New York City Mayoral race; is he capable of coming back from yet another sex scandal while his campaign manager jumps ship?
By the time Weiner declared for the race the majority of New York City's political operatives had already signed on to other campaigns and he brought in Danny Kedem. After the revelation that Weiner had been exchanging sexually explicit messages with 23-year-old Sydney Leathers it became clear that these issues will keep popping up with Weiner and Kedem quit, according to the Daily Beast.
"The credibility is gone and the campaign manager had to follow," Bill Cunningham, who worked on Mike Bloomberg's campaign, told the Daily Beast. "If he were to stay there, you are in some ways trying to justify what Weiner has said and your own credibility has gone down the tubes, and your ability to get into other campaigns down the road will be compromised. He probably looks at this and says, 'I don't want to be tarnished.'"
The Weiner campaign has not issued a statement explaining why Kedem quit nor has Kedem made any public comments about his resignation.
Speaking at a Baptist Church in Brooklyn on Sunday Weiner appeared to be completely dedicated to remaining in the mayoral race, according to the Wall Street Journal.
"There are things in my background that may come up, and they may be distractions, but they're not going to be distractions for long," Weiner said.
The primary beneficiary of Weiner's recent scandal has been City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Quinn was the front-runner in the race prior to Weiner announcing his candidacy and according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC 4 New York/Marist College poll she has returned to the front of the pack.
Appearing on "NBC Sunday" Quinn went on the attack against Weiner saying that he was unfit to be mayor because of his "pattern of reckless behavior, an inability to tell the truth and real lack of maturity or responsibility," according to the Wall Street Journal.
Cunningham told the Daily Beast that it is inevitable that more of Weiner's staff will follow Kedem out the door and that the campaign will eventually fall apart because of this.
"There are plenty of instances of a candidate trying to be a campaign manager," Cunningham said. "He can make his own schedule, he can get around town on a Citi Bike, or by the subway, but how long will other staffers decide to stick this out? He can get to the candidate forums by himself if he wants, but he is going to look lonelier and lonelier doing it."
Weiner's struggling campaign is certainly not going to be helped by Sydney Leathers continuing to dish about the online relationship that the two had. In an interview with the Daily Mail Leathers talked about how Weiner offered to find her a deal on a condo in Chicago.
"I had brought up the idea that I might want to move to Chicago and I told him someone else had already bid on the condo that I wanted," Leathers said. "He said, 'Oh, give me the address, I might know the owner' and things like 'I'm huge, I can help you,' like he has a big name and everyone knows him, he can take care of it and that type of thing."
Leathers also discussed some of the more steamy details of their relationship.
"He'd talk about how we would have crazy, passionate sex and not disturb the neighbors and just strange stuff like that," Leathers said. "He would just have all kinds of different fantasies. He'd tell me, 'Oh we'd have to keep quiet, we don't want the neighbors to know, and how would I sneak in and out without anyone knowing?'"
