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Whether or not Rep. Anthony Weiner manages to hold onto his congressional seat by either surviving ethics investigations that could force him to resign or the possibility of a primary challenge come next fall, something seemingly far more important to Weiner than the chance to serve his constituents New York’s 9th district is already gone: his limitless ambition. In fact, earlier in his career and before being election to the New York City Council, Weiner seriously considered moving to Florida with the eventual goal of being elected to a House seat from the Sunshine State.
Weiner started his political career as a young aide to then-congressman Chuck Schumer, though Weiner apparently could only stay working in the background for so long. He let it be known he had intention of entering politics himself.
Weiner had told him that he wanted to enter politics and was considering moving to Florida, where the 1990 census would soon produce several new congressional seats in areas where a New York transplant with the name Weiner could probably do well. Schumer said he was better off returning to Brooklyn, where Weiner was from originally, and establishing himself there.
Other accounts of Weiner’s idea of moving to Florida included a stint in law school, and it’s not clear if Weiner, who would have only been 28 at the time, would have ran for congress in the first election after those new districts were created.
These accounts don’t mention distinctly where in Florida Weiner would have moved, but only one district created by the 1990 census fits the bill: Florida’s 20th, which covers parts of southern Broward and northern Miami-Dade counties. In fact, Peter Deutsch, a New York City-transplant with Jewish heritage ended up winning that seat (so in that respect, Weiner’s reasoning was correct). Though, Deutsch had spent the previous ten years in the Florida House, and it’s hard to imagine that a young Weiner could have defeated the more-established Deutsch.
A more likely scenario involved Weiner doing his tour of duty through the Florida legislature, and eventually running for the seat when Deutsch retired. Of course, yet another New York City-born Jewish politician ended up doing just that: Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.
Today she’s one of the brightest young Democratic stars in congress and chairwoman of the DNC. Weiner is a human dick joke. I think we can all be glad that Weiner stayed in New York.
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