Newsday.com August 9, 2013 Unique Visitors per Month: 1,277,393

Anthony Weiner: Rivals 'sleepwalking' through campaign

By EMILY NGO AND MATTHEW CHAYES

Anthony Weiner sharpened his attacks on his rivals Thursday, accusing them of going through the motions and sidestepping tough topics in the New York City mayoral race even as he fights on to their dismay.

"If you want people who've been in city government for a while, who are sleepwalking through the campaign, who are trying not to offend people, vote for the other guy," he said at the Fortune Society in Long Island City, which aids New Yorkers facing incarceration.

The Democratic former congressman was presenting his ideas for a "post-Ray Kelly era" including requiring cops to wear lapel cameras. Weiner reiterated earlier campaign statements, saying that he would not keep Kelly as NYPD commissioner.

Weiner Thursday positioned himself as the outsider in a field of candidates from both parties united against him.

"I've been able to do something no candidate has been able to do: I got all of my opponents -- Democrat and Republican and independent alike -- to agree on something," he said. "You know what it is? They don't want me running."

Weiner is polling in fourth place among the Democrats after a second-wave sexting scandal. Front-running candidates, including Christine Quinn and Bill Thompson, have this week turned their attention to attacking each other rather than Weiner.

Also Thursday, Republican hopeful John Catsimatidis received the endorsement of the NYPD's 13,000-member Sergeants Benevolent Association labor union -- which has also endorsed Thompson in the Democratic primary.

Union chief Ed Mullins said Catsimatidis rival and front-runner Joe Lhota never called Mullins - - and that the union was put off by Lhota's comments, in May, in which he likened Port Authority police officers to "mall cops."