Congressman Anthony Wiener has lost his lead in the New York City mayor's race after the disclosure of further explicitly sexual online chats made over a year after his resignation.
The latest revelations have helped City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to pull ahead of him with Democratic voters, according to a poll released on Thursday.
According to Reuters, less than two months ahead of the September 10 Democratic primary Quinn leads with 25 percent among Democrats polled and Weiner trails her by nine percentage points, according to the NBC 4 New York/Wall Street Journal/Marist Poll.
Weiner, who led the field with 25 percent in June, has seen his numbers plummet to 16 percent.
The poll was held on Wednesday, the first survey of New York voters since Weiner acknowledged his sexting had continued even after he resigned from the U.S. Congress in June 2011, admitting then that he used Twitter and other social media to send explicit pictures of himself to women he met online.
'Christine Quinn has reclaimed the front-runner status. Anthony Weiner has fallen back into the pack,' Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, told the press.
For months Weiner, 48, appeared to be gaining traction in the race and moving beyond the sexting scandal. Just weeks after he launched his campaign in May he pulled ahead of Quinn, who is vying to become the city's first female and first gay mayor.
The dynamics changed dramatically this week when a website called The Dirty published a series of explicit messages and images from Weiner to an unnamed young woman, including pictures of his penis.
On Tuesday Weiner admitted the messages were real and said he had continued interacting with women online as recently as last summer, more than a year after his resignation.
Now, nearly half of Democrats say his online revelations will impact their vote. Just 30 percent of Democrats now say they have a positive view of him and more than half reporting said they have a negative view.
In the latest poll, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and former city comptroller Bill Thompson are tied for third place with 14 percent, while city Comptroller John Liu trails with 7 percent.
New York Democrats were closely divided on the question of whether Weiner should stay in the race. 43 percent said he should bow out and 47 percent said he should stay in.
But asked if Weiner deserves a second chance fewer than half said he did, which is down from the 59 percent who said that a month ago.
'Clearly, redemption overload has set in,' Miringoff told the press.
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