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Elizabeth Holtzman Said To Be Interested in Weiner’s Seat

Former Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman is reportedly interested in taking ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner’s spot.

Holtzman, who served four terms in Congress from 1973 to ‘81, told the New York Times that she “could hit the ground running” if picked to replace Weiner, who resigned in disgraced amid a scandal over explicit text m

A special election to fill Weiner’s seat will be held on Sept. 13. Gov. Andrew Cuomo set the date for the vote in the district, which includes parts of Brooklyn and Queens and has a large Jewish population.

Holding a special election means party leaders will choose candidates for the election in the predominantly Democratic district, avoiding primary votes.

Holtzman told the paper she had already spoken to Democratic leaders about getting their nod. Among the other names floated as potential Democratic candidates for the seat are Queens assemblymen Rory I. Lancman and David Weprin, along with former City Council member Melinda Katz.

There will be no other major races on the ballot, meaning turnout would be expected to be extremely light.

Whoever wins the seat may have little time to enjoy it. Many analysts believe the Ninth District could be chopped up when New York loses two congressional seats to redistricting before the 2012 elections.

Weiner resigned last month amid a firestorm of negative publicity over his penchant for texting racy photos.

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