The Wall Street Journal asked politicians who are considering running for mayor when Michael Bloomberg finally steps down in 2013 to reveal how much money they have raised this year, and have in their war chests so far. Representative Anthony Weiner, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Comptroller John Liu, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, former mayoral candidate Bill Thompson, and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer are the names on the Journal’s list (though de Blasio did not provide his financial records). Of those, Quinn and Weiner lead the pack by far: Quinn retains $2.7 million that she raised before deciding not to run for mayor in 2009, and Weiner has $3.9 million. So far this year alone, though, Stringer has been the most effective fund-raiser, pulling in $600,000 in 2010. Still, he’s got a lot of ground to make up: No wonder he’s pandering so aggressively to rich donor groups — to appeal to gay givers, he even moved his own wedding to Connecticut in protest of New York’s ban on same-sex nuptials.
