Kicking off the six-week sprint to primary day, Rep. Anthony Weiner became the first of the four Democratic contenders to officially announce his campaign – storming the city yesterday in a five-borough tour aimed at winning exposure with an electorate that, to date, has seemed oblivious to his candidacy.

Standing with his parents and younger brother on the steps of his childhood home in Park Slope, Mr. Weiner – who currently resides in Forest Hill and represents a congressional district that straddles Brooklyn and Queens – touted the policies with which he hopes to woo the middle-class, outer-borough voters who observers have said will be essential to a strong Weiner showing in the September 13 primary. Reaching out to that constituency, Mr. Weiner said yesterday that his neighborhood “taught me my middle-class values.” Yesterday, nearly every house there was adorned with blue and orange Weiner campaign posters, and a parade of schoolchildren proceeded past the Weiner residence chanting “Weiner for Mayor.”

Throughout his whirlwind tour, Mr. Weiner drew from the ample corpus of policy positions his campaign has been churning out in the past several months in appealing to his base. In Park Slope, Mr. Weiner made a special effort to present himself as a tax-cutter, calling attention to his proposal from April to reduce the income-tax burden on New Yorkers earning less than $150,000 a year by 10% and promising to reduce property taxes. Calling attention to his mother, Frances Weiner, a retired public school teacher, the congressman also urged tighter discipline in classrooms and bemoaned the lack of a union contract for city teachers.

Mr. Weiner’s positions on security were the subject of his stop in Long Island City. At the Courthouse Square subway station, surrounded by many members of the neighborhood’s South Asian community, Mr. Weiner highlighted his proposals to enhance antiterrorism measures in New York’s subways following the bombing attacks on London’s public-transportation system, including promises of a greater police presence, more surveillance cameras, and 911 emergency cellphone service on subway platforms.

And at Palombo Bakery in Riverdale – in the neighborhood where the Democratic front-runner Fernando Ferrer lives – Mr. Weiner made an appeal to small businesses. Against a backdrop of cannolis and buttercream, the congressman pledged to reduce the fines and tickets to which small businesses have been subjected in recent years, echoing proposals he had issued last October.

At the bakery, one Weiner supporter and Riverdale resident, Randi Martos, was dismissive of the candidate many expect to be the Democratic nominee in September. President of the parent-teacher association at the Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy, a middle and high school, Ms. Martos said that when the community had appealed to Mr. Ferrer for help during his tenure as borough president, he neglected its requests.

“We went to him for help for our failing schools, and he wasn’t there for us, right in his backyard,” Ms. Martos said.

For the past several months, Mr. Weiner has divided his days between Washington and New York, limiting his campaign time in the city.

“The congressman has a day job … so he’s been in Washington, D.C., fighting for New York for months,” a spokesman for the Weiner campaign, Anson Kaye, said. “This is a way for us to introduce him to folks in all five boroughs now that the congressional session is over, and you can expect to see a lot more of this over the next several weeks.”

Judging by public opinion polls, Mr. Weiner has his work cut out for him. He has ranked last in most surveys, and polls have shown Mr. Ferrer with the backing of more than 40% of those choosing a Democratic candidate. If he wins at least 40% on September 13, Mr. Ferrer would take the Democratic nomination without a runoff.

Political analysts agreed yesterday that, despite the poor poll showings, Mr. Weiner should not be ruled out yet.

“There’s plenty of time,” a veteran political consultant, Jerry Skurnik, said yesterday, “and I think he has to do something to break through to those voters who aren’t paying attention.”

Mr. Skurnik and another consultant, Hank Sheinkopf, said Mr. Weiner would have to rely on events like yesterday’s, and even more heavily on his TV advertising presence, to make himself known to the electorate. The Weiner campaign has pledged to spend at least $1 million on an intense advertising effort later this month that will be sustained through the September primary.

If those efforts and Mr. Weiner’s bid for the mayoralty prove unsuccessful, however, the candidate’s parents said during yesterday’s tour that they have another race in mind for him.

“Hopefully, he’ll get married,” Ms. Weiner said of her single, 40-year-old son.

“That’s the next campaign,” Morton Weiner added.