Anthony Weiner Is Weighing a Run for Mayor

Saying that he would like, at some point, to “ask people to give me a second chance,” Anthony D. Weiner, the former congressman who resigned in 2011 amid a scandal over his lewd online behavior, is mulling a run for mayor this year because “it’s now or maybe never for me.”

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In an interview with The New York Times Magazine, which was posted online Wednesday morning and is to be published in print on Sunday, Mr. Weiner cautioned that he did not know when he would decide about entering the race, and conceded that “the fact that I don’t know tells me I shouldn’t run. Or I should not run now.” He also acknowledged that he would be “the underdog in any race I ran,” citing a poll he commissioned earlier this year to gauge whether voters were prepared to forgive him and take him seriously as a candidate.

Mr. Weiner and his publicity-adverse wife, Huma Abedin, sought in the interview to demonstrate that he was a changed and humbled man: a stay-at-home father living in what the magazine writer describes as a “sprawling apartment” on Park Avenue South, far from the Queens and Brooklyn neighborhoods Mr. Weiner represented in the House of Representatives for more than a decade.

“Some people just don’t buy it,” Mr. Weiner said. “Like they just don’t have room for a second narrative about me.”

Since leaving Congress, Mr. Weiner has generally refrained from commenting on either the scandal that prompted his resignation or his political future. But his visibility has increased in recent months, first with a photo shoot in People magazine that featured Mr. Weiner and Ms. Abedin with their infant son, Jordan, and then, over the weekend, with tabloid photos of the family, paparrazzi-style.

The Times Magazine article is based on the most extensive interview with Mr. Weiner since his resignation, and appears to be part of a continuing public flirtation with a possible return to politics. Mr. Weiner, his wife, his brother, his sister-in-law and even his pollster are all quoted in the article.

“We have been in a defensive crouch for so long,” Mr. Weiner said. “We are ready to clear the decks on this thing.”

In the interview, Mr. Weiner and Ms. Abedin, a longtime aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, discuss the behavior that led to his resignation â€" he sent lewd photos of himself to women following his Twitter account, and then falsely claimed that his account had been hacked. He also engaged in sexual conversations on Facebook with women he had never met.

“It was just another way to feed this notion that I want to be liked and admired,” Mr. Weiner said of his behavior.

Ms. Abedin said she had struggled after learning about his conduct. “I did spend a lot of time saying and thinking: ‘I. Don’t. Under. Stand.’ And it took a long time to be able to sit on a couch next to Anthony and say, O.K., I understand and I forgive.”

If Mr. Weiner decides to enter the race for mayor, he will have a head start on fund-raising: he has $4.3 million in his coffers, left over from an abortive campaign for mayor in 2009, and this year he would be eligible for an additional $1.5 million in public matching funds. If he does not use the money this year, he will lose those matching funds.

To qualify for public funding this year, Mr. Weiner would have to declare his candidacy by June 10.

Asked about the Democrats already running for mayor this year, Mr. Weiner generally offered praise, but took a veiled dig at Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, over her decision to support overturning the term limits law. He is not quoted about possibilities that he might run for comptroller or public advocate, two other elected offices with which his name has been associated.

It is unclear whether Mr. Weiner is serious about running now, or merely demonstrating his tendency to mull, but not pull the trigger on campaigning for higher office. He is no stranger to the art of the trial balloon: In the 2005 Democratic primary, he indicated that he would take on Fernando Ferrer in a runoff, but did not; and in 2009, after vowing to challenge Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s bid for a third term, he also did not run.

Despite his troubles, Mr. Weiner appears to have retained his trademark sense of humor. He is quoted recounting what people say to him on the subway.

“It’s one of the following,” he said: “1) ‘Oh, you should run.’ 2) ‘Man, you got screwed.’ 3) ‘Aww, I’m so sorry what happened to you.’ 4) ‘Spitzer! You’re Governor Spitzer!’ ”