Anthony Weiner's campaign manager reportedly quits
NEW YORK—Anthony Weiner’s campaign manager reportedly quit Saturday amid turmoil over the mayoral hopeful’s admission that he exchanged lewd messages with women he met online even after a sexting scandal forced him out of Congress.
Citing unnamed sources, the New York Times reported late Saturday that Danny Kedem, Weiner’s campaign manager, had resigned. A spokeswoman for Weiner did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment from Yahoo News.
The development comes after a tumultuous week for Weiner, who admitted Tuesday that he had continued to send raunchy messages and lewd photos to women he met online long after he left Congress.
On Thursday, Weiner estimated that he had exchanged sexual messages with at least three women after he resigned from office in June 2011—including Sydney Leathers, a 22-year-old Indiana woman who went public last week with the messages and photos she received from Weiner.
The revelations sent Weiner’s poll numbers plummeting and raised questions about his political viability in the race for the City Hall—especially as he had already lacked the ground operation and campaign infrastructure of rivals including Christine Quinn.
But Weiner has repeatedly insisted he won’t drop out of the race, saying he wants voters to ultimately decide whether he deserves the “second chance” he’s been asking for since he officially kicked off his mayoral bid in May.
“Citizens have to decide for themselves whether this personal behavior, when one thing happened or it didn’t happen, is important to them. All I am saying is that these things were personal in nature,” the Democratic mayoral candidate told reporters Thursday. “I have worked them out between me and my wife and ... they‘ve been behind me. They’ve been behind me for some time now. And it wasn’t until they were behind me that I decided to run for mayor. I understand that might not be a satisfying answer for some people.”
Kedem, who could not be reached for comment, previously worked for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and managed a successful mayoral campaign in Connecticut before he joined the Weiner campaign. He had been credited for helping Weiner, originally considered a long-shot bid for mayor, surge to the top of the polls.
Before last week’s revelations, Weiner had been statistically tied with Quinn—in spite of the fact he’s spent little money on ads and was running the campaign with almost no staff compared to other campaigns.
With the Democratic primary a little over a month away, Weiner’s rivals were busy on the campaign trail Saturday, but the ex-congressman, who has struggled to turn the subject away from his online behavior, stayed out of sight.
