The race for mayor of New York City took a long-expected turn last night when Anthony Weiner, the former city councilman and congressman from Forest Hills, entered the contest with an announcement posted on YouTube.

Weiner, who quit the House two years ago after sending lewd photos of himself to young women across the country via social media and then lying to the public about doing so for two weeks, said he had made big mistakes in his life but is looking for a second chance.

The Queens County Democratic Party on Monday announced its endorsements three three citywide candidates, as well as its pick to be Borough Hall’s next occupant.

The borough’s Dems, led by Rep. Joe Crowley (D-Queens, Bronx), are backing former Councilwoman Melinda Katz for borough president, Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) for mayor, Resham Saujani for public advocate and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer for comptroller.

The Queens County Democratic Party on Monday announced its endorsements for three citywide candidates, as well as its pick to be Borough Hall’s next occupant.

“Gravity of the Sculpture: Part II” will remain on display at The Dorsky Gallery, 11-03 45 Ave., Long Island City, through July 3. Call (718) 937-6317, email david@dorsky.org or visit dorsky.org.

The race for the 19th Council District has a set candidate for the Republican Party. Well, it had one up until Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) was arrested on corruption charges in April.

The incumbent has since announced he will not seek re-election, leaving the door open for a fresh-faced Republican to enter a field that is seemingly growing in number by the week.

“Gravity of the Sculpture: Part II” will remain on display at The Dorsky Gallery, 11-03 45 Ave., Long Island City, through July 3. Call (718) 937-6317, email david@dorsky.org or visit dorsky.org.

City Comptroller John Liu continues to run for mayor as if confident he can overcome the embarrassment of a campaign finance scandal that could send one of his top former aides and a contributor to prison for decades.

How much impact the case will have is an open question. But according to two political science experts in Queens, the Liu campaign faces multiple challenges arising from the convictions last week of Jia “Jenny” Hou, his former treasurer, and Xing Wu “Oliver” Pan, a fundraising “bundler,” who secured donations from other parties that then went to the campaign.

Frank Messano, chairman of the board of Italian Charities of America and a prominent figure in the Queens Republican Party and the Maspeth community, passed away Monday after a sudden illness at age 64.

“He was a presence at Republican conventions and had a great depth of knowledge of local and national politics,” former state Sen. Serphin Maltese said. “He was also my good friend.”

Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone), who was arrested last month on accusations that he took part in a scheme to bribe Republican officials in order to get state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Hollis) onto the mayoral ballot as a Republican, announced Wednesday that he will not run for a second term.

Halloran, who was first elected in 2009, was arrested April 2, along with Smith and Vince Tabone, former vice chairman of the Queens Republican Party, for an alleged plot to solicit bribes to acquire a Wilson Pakula for Smith, a Democrat, in order for him to get a place on the GOP primary ballot for mayor. He was indicted late last month.

It’s been done before, he says. A longshot candidate can win the mayoralty of New York City. Just look at the race in 1977.

At this point in that year, former City Councilman Sal Albanese says, there were two candidates polling about where he is now —in the single digits. But their name recognition improved, and in the end, one of them won. That was Ed Koch. The other lost that election but did all right in politics in the end. His name was Mario Cuomo.

Dear Editor:

You can judge a person’s character by the company they keep “Defending the chairman”(Serphin R. Maltese, Frank Padavan and Michael J. Abel, Letters, April 18) concerning current Queens County Republican Chairman Phil Ragusa.

The indictments of both GOP Councilmember Dan Halloran and Queens County Republican Party Vice Chairperson Vincent Tabone are just the latest chapter in the spiraling decline over the past three decades of the once-relevant Queens County GOP.

One way of judging the health of any political party is looking at the number of candidates who qualify for ballot status on their line.

Up until the 1980s, the GOP routinely qualified candidates for all Congressional, state Senate, Assembly and City Council seats.

After the 1982 reapportionment, Democrats eliminated the districts of Queens GOP Assembly members Rosemary Gunning, John LoPresto, John Flack, Al DelliBovi and John Esposito. Sen.Padavan voted for this plan as it protected both his and the late Sen. Martin Knorr’sown gerrymandered districts.

In 2012, there wereno GOP candidates on the ballot for one of six Congressional, three of seven state Senate and 13 out of 18 state Assembly races in the general election. Watch how many Democratic City Council members will geta free pass with no GOP opponent this year.

After being elected in 1972, Padavan listed Republican-Conservative affiliations on his headquarters’ storefront. In the 1990s the Padavan and Assemblyman Doug Prescott team proudly campaigned as your local Republican/Conservative team. But Republican and Tea Party activists in 2010 were disappointed by Padavan’s campaign headquarters. There was no literature, bumper stickers, posters or lawn signs for his fellow GOP running mates.

A party’s ticket is only strong when all the candidates, from top to bottom, work as a team. Republicans are in trouble when they are afraid to identify party affiliations and campaign on their own. Other Republicans were confused with Padavan’s standard campaign theme, “Nobody Cares Like Frank,” when he obviously didn’t care about them. Both Padavan andMaltese failed for decades to build a Republican brand name when they ran from it. No wonder Maltese lost in 2008 and Padavan lost in 2010.

Queens Republicans are on the way to political extinction like the dinosaurs of old! How disappointing that voters will have to look elsewhere for any alternatives to the Queens County Democratic Party machine monopoly.

The failure to build a viable Queens GOP is the inheritance the lastunderdog Republican City Council member,Eric Ulrich,has to live with.

Dear Editor:

The U.S. Senate’s rejection of expanded background checks for gun buyers was an act of cowardice and a catalyst for carnage. Those 46 senators who voted against it gave a green light to the next Adam Lanza, James Holmes and Jared Loughner. They’re NRA lapdogs. The gun lobby won a battle, but not the war. More can be done by political leaders and journalists to defeat mass murder enablers. Here are 2 approaches that should be followed ASAP.

1. Gun control advocates in Congress, starting with Sen. Chuck Schumer, must pressure the Treasury and Justice departments to challenge the NRA’s tax-exempt status. How can an outfit that spends $100 million on lobbying and pays its CEO — the gun lobby’s Lindsay Lohan — nearly $1 million a year, qualify as a nonprofit social welfare organization? The NRA is a pimp for the firearms industry, thriving on tax-free donations from gun makers who sell their perilous products to anyone. We pay for that. Taxpayers should not foot the bill for 32,000 gun deaths a year.

2. Journalists should follow the money, just like Woodward and Bernstein did in the Watergate scandal 40 years ago. They can track every blood money bribe the NRA paid individual legislators, and how these representatives voted on gun control measures. Focus must be placed on the five rogue Senate democrats who abandoned their party and defied the will of 90 percent of U.S. voters. How much did each traitor get to buy their vote? Reporters can obtain this data under the Freedom of Information Act. We’re entitled to know the current price for selling your soul to the gun lobby and acting as a cheerleader for child killers.

NRA RIP ASAP

A City Council candidate’s long-rumored run was made official this week, as John Duane formally kicked off his campaign after months of fundraising and behind-the-scenes legwork.

The Little Neck resident spent one term in the state Assembly nearly three decades ago and is making a second push for public office since that initial stint in Albany. (Duane lost to Ed Braunstein for the 26th Assembly District seat in 2010.)

Former Rep. Anthony Weiner, the Forest Hills Democrat, may or may not have launched a campaign for mayor this week when he released a plan called “Keys to the City: 64 Ideas to Keep New York the Capital of the Middle Class” — and started a new Twitter account.

Weiner was forced from office a little less than two years ago when it was revealed that he had been sending lewd photos of himself to young women around the country, many via Twitter, and then lied about it for weeks. Until the scandal hit, he was a darling of the Democratic Party for his take-no-prisoners approach to political discourse, advocacy for the needs of his Central and Southwestern Queens district and staunch support of Israel, among other things. He was, for example, a foremost cheerleader of President Obama’s healthcare bill, without which, Weiner said, the economy couldn’t recover from the recession.

State Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Hollis), City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) and four others were formally indicted last Thursday in the alleged bribery and extortion scheme for which they were arrested April 2.

They all pleaded not guilty in federal court in upstate White Plains on Tuesday.

State Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Hollis), City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) and four others were formally indicted Thursday in the alleged bribery and extortion scheme for which they were arrested April 2.

An audition and open cast call for “Les MisÈrables,” will be held on Thursday, April 18, Friday, April 19 and Saturday, April 20 at American Martyrs Sullivan Hall, Bell Blvd. and Union Turnpike, Bayside from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Bring a head shot and resume (this is a requirement). Sheet music for your audition: 16 bars ballad, 16 bars up tempo. Your calendar for May, June, July and August. Comfortable clothing for a group dance audition. Parts available for 11 years old and up. Children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. No one seen without the above requirements.

An audition and open cast call for “Les MisÈrables,” will be held on Thursday, April 18, Friday, April 19 and Saturday, April 20 at American Martyrs Sullivan Hall, Bell Blvd. and Union Turnpike, Bayside from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Bring a head shot and resume (this is a requirement). Sheet music for your audition: 16 bars ballad, 16 bars up tempo. Your calendar for May, June, July and August. Comfortable clothing for a group dance audition. Parts available for 11 years old and up. Children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. No one seen without the above requirements.

Dear Editor:

All polls show that Americans approve of stronger gun control regulations. Folks, that’s not enough!

The NRA has a strong grip on most Republicans and many Democrats in Congress. It will take 60 votes in the Senate to pass a reform bill (there are 55 Democrats vs. 45 Republicans there). Neither party is in control. However, the tough battle will be in the GOP-majority House.

If we want the poll “approval” to become reality, the following “urgent action” must be taken ... now! All Americans must get off their butts and demand Congress pass a bill so that Obama can sign it into law. This action will require willpower. We must turn up the heat on Congress — letters, emails, phone calls, petitions.

Tell ‘em in the only language they know: Pass a gun reform bill now or we will vote you out of office!

“We were the first team to ever beat the Celtics, who went 68-14 that year, in a seventh game at the Boston Garden,” former Knicks forward Jerry Lucas recalled last Friday night as the Knicks honored members of their 1972-73 squad, the last New York team to win an NBA championship.

Lucas obviously took a pride in that accomplishment, but he was also sending a message to fans of the current Knicks team that even the Miami Heat, led by Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, a team that recently peeled off 27 straight wins, can be beaten by the never-say-die Knicks in the playoffs.

“Preventing public corruption is essential to ensuring that government works and can effectively keep the public’s trust,” a top state official said Tuesday.

Once you’re done laughing, consider this: That official was Gov. Cuomo, and that line was just the first in his statement introducing a new bill, the Public Trust Act, that’s designed to cut down on the kind of corruption Queens lawmakers Malcolm Smith and Dan Halloran, and four other people, were accused of on April 2.

And now there are three.

Astoria lawyer John Ciafone has entered the race for the District 22 seat held by term-limited Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria).

When details first started coming out following the corruption arrest of state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Hollis), Professor Michael Krasner of Queens College just shook his head.

Krasner, a political science professor at the school school since 1970, has long been an observer of Queens politics.

(NAPSI)—Those with an interest in events in North Africa may already be aware that the push toward democratic reforms in the region did not begin with what is known in the West as the Arab Spring.

It might be laughable if it weren’t so serious — Republican operative Vince Tabone of Bayside was “less skilled at conducting a patdown than he was at conducting a shakedown.” That’s how the FBI described the GOP apparatchik’s failed attempt to find the wire an undercover agent was wearing when he handed Tabone a wad of cash as part of an alleged bribery scheme.

But it is serious. Deadly serious. The case unveiled Tuesday against Tabone, Democratic state Sen. Malcolm Smith of Hollis, Republican City Councilman Dan Halloran of Whitestone and three other alleged conspirators does indeed, as U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said, “demonstrate, once again, that a show-me-the-money culture seems to pervade every level of New York government.”