Political observers have said that the Democratic mayoral front-runner and former Bronx borough president, Fernando Ferrer, has his home borough locked up in advance of the September 13 Democratic primary. Yet a small corner of the Bronx has just gone for one of Mr. Ferrer’s rivals, Rep. Anthony Weiner, who yesterday received the backing of Rep. Eliot Engel, a Democrat of Riverdale.

Mr. Engel, who is Mr. Ferrer’s representative in Congress, endorsed Mr. Weiner – who represents parts of Brooklyn and Queens – at a press conference yesterday on the steps of City Hall. Praising Mr. Weiner’s industriousness, “street smarts,” and wit, Mr. Engel lauded the candidate as “the quintessential New Yorker” and someone who understands the needs of residents of all five boroughs, including the Bronx.

Mr. Weiner has styled himself as the candidate of the middle class, and Mr. Engel yesterday seized on the theme, identifying Mr. Weiner as the Democrats’ best hope of reaching out to middle-income New Yorkers.

According to several political consultants, Mr. Weiner will need that support if he is to have any chance of prevailing in the Democratic primary, insofar as he lacks the obvious demographic base and institutional backing enjoyed by Mr. Ferrer, who has the Bronx Democratic Party and several of its leaders at the city, state, and federal levels backing him. Mr. Engel, however, praised Mr. Weiner’s apparent independence yesterday, saying he liked the fact that his colleague in Congress “was not controlled by anyone.”

“You can’t necessarily say that about all the candidates in this race,” Mr. Engel said, without specification.

Mr. Engel, known in Congress as a supporter of global democracy, also praised Mr. Weiner as “a good friend of Israel.” Mr. Weiner, who is Jewish, has been an outspoken advocate of Israel’s right to exist, and Mr. Engel, who is also Jewish, said yesterday that Mr. Weiner had stood by his side “fighting for the Jewish state.”

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Last month’s high-profile Quinnipiac University poll showed the City Council speaker, Gifford Miller, with the support of 15% of registered Democrats in the mayoral primary – a 3% increase from June – but widespread talk about Mr. Miller’s resurgence might be much ado about nothing, according to one Harvard statistician.

The statistician, Mark Irwin, said yesterday that it would be premature to conclude that Mr. Miller gained ground among Democratic voters in late June and early July.The council speaker’s rise in the vaunted Q-poll lies within the 3.5% margin of error for the survey, which was conducted between July 12 and July 17,and which included 807 registered Democrats. Another survey of registered Democrats released late last month by Marist College showed Mr. Miller polling 14% – up 1% from June, but well within the survey’s 4.5% margin of error. But that hasn’t squelched a burst of Miller mania in the press.

According to an article on the front page of yesterday’s New York Times metro section, Mr. Miller’s Q-poll performances “suggest that he is inching toward the No. 2 position in the four-candidate Democratic field.” According to Mr. Irwin, though, the 3% rise in Miller’s polling numbers is statistically insignificant. “It’s much better than getting a pie in the face,” the director of CUNY’s Center for Urban Research, John Mollenkopf, said. “There is probably better than a 50-50 chance that it’s a meaningful increase, but it’s no more of a sure bet than that,” Mr. Mollenkopf said.

The Council speaker hasn’t let the rise in his Q-poll ratings get to his head, according to a Miller spokesman, Stephen Sigmund. But a Miller aide confirmed that the speaker’s campaign is conducting its own internal polls, and that the results are “not dissimilar” to the Quinnipiac and Marist findings.

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For months, even as he has trailed in the public opinion polls, Mr. Miller has been labeled the money leader in the Democratic mayoral primary. Mr. Miller – who raised nearly $5 million and received more in public matching funds than all three other Democrats in the race – is now getting ready to cash out with the launch of his first round of television advertising. A spokesman for the Miller camp, Reggie Johnson, said yesterday that the speaker would be up and running with commercials on both network and cable television this week.

Mr. Johnson said the campaign paid between $500,000 and $1 million for the “media buy,” which comes less than a week after the Democratic front-runner in the race, Fernando Ferrer began airing commercials in English and Spanish. Political observers said yesterday that Mr. Miller had a lot riding on the commercials. He must increase his name recognition and bump up his standing in polls to be competitive for the September 13 primary.

“They want to move the numbers this week,” Baruch College political science professor, Douglas Muzzio, said.

The Miller campaign has reportedly also bought more than $1 million worth of airtime on six stations for the week leading up to the primary.