If there was any doubt that Rep. Anthony Weiner (D) planned to run for mayor of New York again in 2009 — and that the city’s high rollers are taking him very seriously — it was dispelled in the latest campaign finance report he filed earlier this week.

Weiner raised a little more than $2 million in the first six months of the year, according to the report he submitted with the New York City Campaign Finance Board. Weiner spent almost $128,000 during that period, according to media reports, including $20,000 on a poll.

Of the other likely Democratic candidates for mayor — City Comptroller William Thompson, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión — only Thompson has raised more overall than Weiner, $3.1 million.

Weiner, a five-term Congressman, fell just short of making the Democratic primary runoff when he ran for mayor in 2005. The Democratic nomination should be much more valuable two years from now because popular Mayor Michael Bloomberg, elected twice as a Republican and now an Independent, will be term-limited.

Weiner, meanwhile, also continues to raise some money for his Congressional re-election campaign. He collected $40,000 from April 1 to June 30, spent $78,000 and had $201,000 left in his campaign account.
— Josh Kurtz