WHY NYC WOMEN ARE Louses’ spouses the key to poll surge
If Huma and Silda can get over it, so can Jane and Joan New Yorker.
Political experts and city women said yesterday that Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer’s latest poll numbers — showing them leading with support strong from female voters — can be attributed to the forgiveness of their far better halves.
“Both of them have strong and very competent, capable wives, so it’s certainly possible women would say, ‘Why not?’ These strong, sensible, competent women are standing by their guys, so why not” vote for them? said Maurice Carroll, polling director for Quinnipiac University.
“The conventional wisdom is that women would be outraged by [the candidates’ sex scandals]. Clearly, the numbers say they are not.”
But while she’s standing by the former governor, Silda Spitzer is doing so reluctantly.
Her friends say she agreed to his run for city comptroller only days before he launched the campaign on July 7, The New York Times reported last night.
Longtime friend Karen Finerman told the paper, “To be honest, she’d probably rather he didn’t do it . . . But it is not in her nature to say to him, ‘No, you can’t.’ ”
The chairman at the private equity firm where Silda works was not aware of her taking time off to help her husband’s campaign, the Times reported.
Also, The Post’s Page Six first reported in May that the couple is not living together.
With Silda’s grudging support, Spitzer is crushing Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, 44 to 32 percent, among women in the race for the Democratic nomination, according to the latest Quinnipiac poll.
In the mayoral contest, Weiner has gotten more support from his wife, Huma, who has shown up at events. With that backing, he was right behind City Council Speaker Christine Quinn among women, winning 21 percent of the female vote compared to her 23 percent.
Curtis Gans, director of the Washington, DCbased Center for the Study of the American Electorate, said the numbers clearly show that many women were influenced by Silda Spitzer and Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, who stood by their men despite their embarrassing sexcapades.
“Since both candidates’ wives are supporting them, why should other women be offended? It’s water over the dam,” Gans said.
Political consultant Hank Sheinkopf agreed. “Having one’s wife stand next to you during the scandal and the recovery from the scandal tells other people you’re not as bad as people think you are,” he said.
Silda Spitzer famously stood next to her husband when he resigned as governor during a 2008 news conference after he was caught using a highpriced hooker ring, while Abedin reportedly urged her hubby to join the mayoral race, despite his infamous sexting scandal during which he tweeted pictures of his manhood to other women.
Former Westchester DA Jeanine Pirro said the men’s highly public apologies helped as well.