Two disgraced ex-NYC council members seek comebacks in Democratic Party primaries

Anthony Weiner isn’t the only bad boy attempting a comeback for a City Council seat.

Ex-Council members Andy King and Ruben Wills are are also seeking redemption at the ballot box in Democratic Party primaries after they were pushed out of office in the face of controversies.

King, a former Bronx councilman, was expelled by the City Council in 2020 following a spate of misconduct allegations.

An ethics panel substantiated claims that he’d harassed a female staffer and mistreated other employees, taken a $2,000 kickback — then ignored the chamber’s attempts to discipline him.

He denied the claims and is now running on his old turf in District 12 against heavily-favored incumbent Kevin Riley.

But King told The Post, “I apologize if I offended anyone.”

“The people in the 12th District asked me to run against Kevin Riley,” King said.

“You play until the buzzer. I think we have a shot,” the former high school and college basketball player told The Post.

King said public safety and street cleaning are his major priorities and emphasized working in partnership with police.

“The NYPD are our fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters and sons and daughters,” he said. “I never supported ‘defund the police.”

His opponent Riley was first elected in 2021, after having worked 10 years for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a fellow Bronxite.

He is endorsed by some of the major labor unions — SEIU 1199 representing health care workers, building workers union Local 32 BJ, and District Council 37, the largest union of city municipal employees.

“I believe the community will make the right decision,” Riley said.

The district includes the neighborhoods of Williamsbridge-Olinville, Bronxwood, Eastchester-Edenwald-Baychester, Wakefield, Allerton-Parkside, Baychester, The Valley, and Co-op City.

Meanwhile, Wills is running for his old seat in District 28 in Southeast Queens. The seat is now occupied by Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who can’t run for re-election because of term limits. Adams is instead running in a Democratic Party primary for mayor.

Wills was convicted of corruption in 2017 for using public funds to pay for personal expenses and served eight months in prison but his conviction was reversed on appeal in 2021.

He is now seeking vindication following his exoneration.

Wills, through his campaign, declined to comment.

Among his rivals is Adams’ chief of staff and longtime aide Tyrell “Ty” Hankerson, who has the backing of the speaker, the Queens Democratic Party leadership and more than a dozen of the city’s major labor unions.

Scandal-scarred Weiner, a former Congress member, is taking a stab at re-entering public life after being sentenced to 21 months in jail in 2017 for sexting with a minor. He has his eyes set on replacing term-limited lefty Carlina Rivera in Manhattan’s District 2 that includes the East Village and the Lower East Side.

His chief competitors include state Assemblyman Harvey Epstein (D-Manhattan) and ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio aide and nonprofit leader Sarah Batchu.