Weiner Implosion Could Clear Mayoral Path for Baldwin

The meltdown of Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner’s political career could have cleared the way for actor Alec Baldwin finally to enter electoral politics, according to The Daily.

Alec Baldwin: "Maybe this changes the race," he tells a friend. (Getty Images Photo)

Baldwin, long a darling of the Hollywood left, is considering making a run for mayor of New York, now that the long-time favorite for the 2013 race appears in trouble.

“Alec said, ‘Hey, maybe this changes the race. The dynamics have shifted,’” a friend of the “30 Rock” star told the website.

The timing could be right for Baldwin, who has said he intends to quit the NBC show next year, giving him plenty of time to prepare a run for the job that has been described as “the second hardest in politics.”

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is not expected to run for a fourth term. Other Democratic candidates are likely to include City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Councilman Bill de Blasio, and former New York Comptroller Bill Thompson.

Baldwin, 53, has long talked about running for office, but, like Weiner, he has his own problem with a leaked message stemming from his divorce from actress Kim Basinger — one of the most contentious and bitter splits in Hollywood history — and the fierce custody battle over their daughter, Ireland.

A furious voicemail message he left his daughter in 2007 was leaked to a tabloid website. In his tirade, he called Ireland, who was just 11 at the time, “a rude, thoughtless little pig.” He has since said he was so upset about the publicity surrounding the message that he considered suicide but decided against because that would have been a “victory” for his estranged wife.

He later wrote a book “A Promise to Ourselves” in which he coined the phrase “Parental Alienation Syndrome” to describe how he said Basinger had turned Ireland against him.