Anthony Weiner declares candidacy in mayoral race

Anthony Weiner has stopped beating around the bush about his political future.

Two years after resigning from Congress in a lewd photo scandal, the former U.S. Representative announced in a video message early on Wednesday he is running for mayor.

"I made some big mistakes and I know I let a lot of people down, but I also learned some tough lessons," Weiner said in the video. "I'm running because I've been fighting for the middle class and those struggling to make it my entire life."

Weiner's resignation in June of 2011 marked a remarkable fall from grace for a politician who was seen as a leading liberal voice in the U.S. House of Representatives and had been widely expected to run in this year's race for mayor.

His fall was prompted when Weiner accidentally posted a close-up of his underpants on Twitter. Weiner, 48, denied for more than a week that he had sent the photo and claiming instead that his @repweiner Twitter account had been hacked.

After several women came forward to say they too had shared sexually charged exchanges with the married congressman, Weiner admitted he had lied.

For months Weiner avoided the spotlight, but in April, he burst back onto the political scene, when The New York Times Magazine published a lengthy article about Weiner and his wife Huma Abedin, an aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Abedin also appears in Weiner's two-minute campaign video, telling voters: "We love this city, and no one will work harder to make it better than Anthony."

Weiner acknowledged he was thinking about running for mayor and that he had spent about $100,000 on polling to test the public's appetite for his political comeback.

Since then, Weiner has slowly eased his way back into politics. He unveiled a new Twitter account, @anthonyweiner, which attracted thousands of followers within days.

He also released a booklet of policy ideas, titled "Keys to the City," that included replacing textbooks in city schools with Kindle e-readers, expanding the city's ferry system and creating a single-payer health care system for uninsured and underinsured New Yorkers.