Don't Spitzer on the Weiner

As a born and raised New Yorker from NYC I followed the recent Mayoral race as if I were still living there and was going to get to vote. I also was keeping my eye on Eliot Spitzer's comeback as he campaigned for NYC Comptroller four years after his resignation as Governor of NY.

What I saw was a case where two men with sex scandals in their past got painted with one brush. This turns out to be unfortunate for the people of my hometown. Let me explain.

Let us begin with Spitzer. He is a Harvard Law educated man who worked his way up to the position of NY Attorney General and eventually Governor of the state. I mention his post as AG because while he was in it he had a terrific record. He fought for the rights of investors, consumers and those considered low income. He was also a champion of environmental protections. Click here for his official biography on the National Governors Association site. While serving as Governor of NY he wasn't doing a bad job when his career was sidelined by scandal. He resigned after his hooker habit was discovered and made public. That was in 2008. Spitzer stayed out of the public eye until his comeback as candidate in 2013. 


Then there is Anthony Weiner. Get comfortable, this is quite a story. Weiner worked for Chuck Schumer, was elected to NY City Council and in 1998 became the Congressman from NYC's 9th Congressional District. He didn't have a very interesting congressional career; that is until May 2011 when he had the most explosive mistweet (sending a tweet to someone other than the intended recipient) one could imagine. He publicly tweeted a picture of his private parts to all of his followers (about 300,000 people) rather than the single individual it was meant for. It needs to be mentioned it wasn't his wife it was meant for. At first he lied and said his account was hacked, it wasn't his genitals and he hadn't done it.  Not long after his denials Weiner came clean and resigned. He said he had been having inappropriate internet relationships with women (yep women not woman) and was going to take time to get his life in order. That was June 2011. Fast forward a whole year and a half and Weiner is running for Mayor of perhaps the greatest city in the country, NYC. He says he has worked on his marriage, he has all these grand plans for his hometown and is going to win. Just before he announced his run, he and his wife and their baby were the subject of a People Magazine profile. In this article he talks about how he stopped all of those bad behaviors, his marriage was stronger than ever before and he was sorry for the shame and embarrassment he caused.  Not long after the start of his run, just about a week after the magazine issue with his story in it hit the newsstands, Weiner holds a press conference. He addresses new reports of his bad acts. As it turns out, he was still having these online, sexually charged relationships with women using the screen name Carlos Danger. When asked when he stopped this behavior his answer wasn't that he stopped when he resigned from Congress but rather that he stopped when he knew he was running for Mayor, a few months prior to this press conference. From that point on his campaign was a train wreck. His behavior got more and more outrageous. He was rude to reporters, both local and foreign. He was rude to voters at his town-hall meetings who wanted to know why they should trust him. He was just out of control.

The election is now over. Weiner barely squeaked out 5% of the vote coming in dead last. The final image of this mess he left us with was flipping off the press as he drove away from his headquarters.
Spitzer lost his race too, but not by much, losing 52-48. Spitzer was extremely qualified for the position and I believe he would have done a very good job.

And here is the problem as I see it. Spitzer got painted with the same brush as Weiner. Every time Weiner did something odd or ridiculous the media reported it, talked about his on going sex scandal and then they mentioned Spitzer. Now, yes, I am fully aware Spitzer had a sex scandal of his own. He cheated on his wife, with a prostitute. He got caught. He resigned. Then he stayed out of trouble and out of the line of public fire, for FOUR years. He thought enough time had passed and he made a comeback running for a position well below the one he held previously. He ran a very dignified campaign which included an ad addressing his past and apologizing and making the plea for a chance to serve the people of his city. But as long as Weiner got negative publicity and the media brought his name into it Spitzer wasn't going to be able to make a fresh start.

When a politician is tainted by a scandal it should not reflect on the party that he/she is part of or other candidates running for office at the same time no matter the similarities of past behaviors. In this case one man's problems were on going and this other man's problems were years in the past. Spitzer did not deserve to be thrown into the slime Weiner was leaving on the campaign trail.

We as a people need to make our decisions about the candidates we are choosing from on their individual merits and not judge them by the actions of others, and the media should be more helpful in this. 

Edited on 9/18/13:
New Yorkers have a sense of humor, that's for sure. A friend there read this post,  saw this truck on the street and just had to send me a picture so I just had to add it.