Anthony Weiner is refusing to let anything hinder his bid in the 2013 New York City Mayoral race. Despite the fact that the embattled candidate is far behind in the polls and facing a sexting scandal that has cast a dark shadow over his campaign, Weiner is pressing on as the candidate who is full of new ideas that will strengthen the middle class.
At the helm of Weiner's campaign are 125 solutions that he's detailed in two books which promise to restore NYC as the capital for the middle class and includes giving New Yorkers earning less than $40,000 a break from paying city taxes, creating a single-payer health care system and improving NYC schools.
In an exclusive sit-down interview with Latinos Post, Weiner talked about his resolutions to tackle immigration, curb the NYPD's controversial Stop and Frisk practice and help seniors. He also addressed his sexting scandal and explained why he's the candidate that deserves the Latino vote.
At one point during the race, Weiner outshined his fellow Democratic contenders and was the leading front-runner in the polls. However, the emergence of fresh sexting revelations revealing that he continued to engage in X-rated conversations with multiple women even after he resigned from congress in 2011 deeply hurt his campaign in July. The latest polls show that Weiner is trailing in fourth place, far behind Bill de Blasio, Christine Quinn and Bill Thompson.
When asked what he plans to do to gain traction, Weiner remained defiant, refusing to succumb to telling signs of defeat, and maintained that he will continue to push dozens of progressive ideas to revitalize New Yorkers in the Big Apple.
"The polls have been a bit of a roller coaster," Wiener told Latinos Post. "When I actually first got in, I was lagging behind, and then as people got to hear a little bit about the issues and less about the headlines, I rose up. And then there were more things that came out, and it came down." Nonetheless, he says, "I try not to ride that roller coaster," adding that "I only know how to run one kind of campaign, and that's talking about real ideas for people," he said. "And when citizens focus on that, I tend to do pretty well."
During the interview, Weiner showed a passion to help seniors who depend on social security to pay increasingly high rents in NYC.
"Their social security-cost of living adjustment, which is supposed to keep up with inflation, has been basically zero," said the 49-year-old candidate. "So their social security has been flat, but their rents have been going up every single year. We need to make sure that the rents don't outstrip their social security-cost of living adjustment."
He also talked about implementing comprehensive immigration policies to tackle the estimated 750,000 undocumented workers currently living in NYC.
"I have a proposal that will provide an identification card that not only is an ID that the undocumented can use, but also it's something that we all want to get. It can be used as a metro card, it can be used as library card, a discount card at cultural institutions--so that there's not a stigma [attached] to the card," he explained.
He continued saying, "I'm going to create a single health care system for New York to cover the undocumented as well. It's not only humane for them, but it also saves the city a lot of money because otherwise those people are going to hospital emergency rooms without the ability to pay, passing the bill along to all of us."
Weiner didn't shy away from addressing the sexting scandal that has put a huge damper in his political career and aspirations.
"I take responsibility for doing these things, but they're in my personal life, and [voters] now know something that is personally embarrassing about me, and maybe that's an important thing for voters."
He continued, "But I also want them to think about what they want in a major. If they want a mayor who's got good ideas, someone who has shown that they're going to fight for them, shown that they're pretty independent and pretty tough in the face of a lot of pressure, and still stands in there and fights for what he believes in, then I think I've shown that I'm going to be a pretty good mayor."
Lastly, Weiner talked about putting a stop to the NYPD's policy of Stop and Frisk, a practice that civil rights activists say unfairly targets African Americans and Latinos. As mayor, he explained that he will mandate police officers on patrol to wear miniature cameras to deter cops from using abusive policing tactics.
With the Democratic primary a day away (Sept. 10), Weiner continues to emphasize his credentials as an anti-establishment crusader with big progressive ideas that will push the City forward. When it comes to Latinos, he promises to continue fighing for immigration reform and implement policies that will better serve all New Yorkers.
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