ROAD WARRIOR: Mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner reaches out to a voter after speaking at Mother AMC Zion Church in Harlem yesterday. (
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Mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn has a populist campaign phrase that’s got a familiar ring to it — it’s strikingly similar to rhetoric that rival Anthony Weiner used in his 2005 run for City Hall, documents show.
The City Council speaker — who has hired Weiner’s former pollster, Joel Benenson — recently distributed campaign literature that reads: “As mayor, I’ll work hard every day to keep New York City a place for the middle class and for everyone who’s struggling to make it there.”
It’s a message that has appeal throughout the city.
But that’s actually a line the now-disgraced congressman used as far back as his 2005 mayoral run.
One of Weiner’s campaign placards from the time reads: “As mayor he’ll fight for New York’s hard-working middle-class and those struggling to make it.”
And another says, “I’ll fight for the middle class and those trying to make it.”
It seems like run-of-the-mill rhetoric, but one Democratic operative said it’s a very targeted message that’s worth stealing.
“There is an important rhetorical difference between ‘working poor’ and ‘those struggling to make it into the middle class,’ because Weiner’s way of putting it more clearly implies a hand up, not a handout,” the operative said.
And while Weiner may have been the first candidate to use the phrase in a New York mayoral race, he can’t take credit for inventing it.
When John Kerry ran for president in 2004, he said during a speech in the city, “I will be a champion for the middle class and those struggling to join it.”
And before him, then-Gov. Mario Cuomo used similar phrasing in his 1984 Democratic National Convention speech when he referred to “the middle class and those trying to make it, to work their way into the middle class.”
Quinn spokesman Mike Morey insisted Quinn wasn’t cribbing the phrase from any other candidates.
“She is the only candidate in this race who has an actual record of real results for middle-class New Yorkers and those aspiring to enter it,” he said.
Weiner’s spokeswoman declined comment.
Meanwhile, Weiner spent much of the weekend struggling with his new food-stamp diet.
The candidate signed on for the Food Bank’s food-stamp challenge, limiting him to a grocery budget of $31.08 for a week.
It involves “a lot of hard-boiled eggs, a lot of peanut butter and jelly, a lot of ramen noodles,” he said at a campaign stop yesterday.
Weiner did buy a crepe at a Park Slope street fair, but he broke off pieces for his son, Jordan.
And Comptroller John Liu, who signed the same pledge, tried his best to ignore the scents from a street fair in The Bronx.
“The food-stamp diet would be a lot easier without these festivals,” Liu admitted. “The only thing I’ve enjoyed is the smell — no tasting.”
Additional reporting by Rebecca Rosenberg and Amber Sutherland