I think it was the smart move by Anthony Weiner to concede the Democratic primary, which should improve his prospects of being elected mayor of New York in 2009. For those of you outside the NY area, the way the Democratic mayoral primary works is that if any candidate fails to get 40 percent of the vote, there is a run-off election between the top two finishers. In the 2001 race for mayor, Fernando Ferrer received the most votes in the initial primary, but then lost a bitter, racially-charged run-off to Mark Green. The primary divided the Democrats for the general election, which helped political novice Michael Bloomberg become mayor. This time around, the chronically unlucky Ferrer received 39.95 percent of the vote in the initial primary. He’s right below the threshold with absentee ballots remaining to be counted. But Weiner decided to concede rather than force a run-off which he would probably lose while making many enemies, especially among minority voters. So now Weiner comes off looking like he did the gracious thing to unify the party, which should help the 41 year-old with Democrats four years from now. Ferrer is going to be trounced by the generally popular Mayor Bloomberg in the general election anyway. Ferrer is a completely implausible candidate who, among other idiotic ideas, wants to resurrect a stock transfer tax. Weiner gained momentum in the final weeks of the campaign with a proposal for a middle class tax break and budget cuts. Should Bloomberg go on to win this year as expected, it would mean that Republicans would have won four straight elections in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a five-to-one margin. Even if you take into account that Bloomberg isn’t really a Republican, it is still staggering, given that “Republican” is a dirty word in most parts of the city. In fact, never in its history has New York City had 16 straight years of Republican mayors. Once Ferrer loses, it seems that Weiner could make the case that the Democrats need a more reasonable, mainstream, candidate like him to recapture Gracie Mansion. Obviously, a lot can happen in four years (a Bloomberg victory seemed like a long shot even weeks before the election in 2001), but I think I’d give Weiner the early edge in 2009, once Bloomberg is forced out by term limits.