Weiner makes a hard sell as rivals’ PACs $tep up

Kristy Leibowitz

Anthony Weiner makes his case to residents in Brownsville, Brooklyn, Friday.

Anthony Weiner will be airing his first ad in the mayor's race Monday, sources said yesterday.

The former congressman's $500,000 pitch follows his recent poll-number plunge in the wake of new revelations about his sexting habit, according to the sources.

Meanwhile, Democratic rival Bill Thompson was getting a boost from political action committees affiliated with municipal unions.

United for the Future, formed by the teachers union, shelled out $579,255 for Thompson radio ads, mass mailings and robocalls, according to filings made pubic yesterday by the Campaign Finance Board.

And the firefighters union, through its UFA State Firepac, chipped in about $80,000, mostly for Thompson billboards.

The United Federation of Teachers, which hasn't picked a winner in the mayor's race since David Dinkins in 1989, is willing to spend close to $10 million to get Thompson into City Hall, multiple sources said.

This year marks the first citywide election in which PACs can pour unlimited resources into campaigns thanks to a 2010 Supreme Court decision that allows outside groups to spend without limit as long as they do not coordinate with any candidate.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn initially denounced the role of "independent expenditures" in the race but backtracked after being endorsed by the hotel-workers union.