Clinton & de Blasio at Inner Circle (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)
Just two weeks before Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders stepped into the 2016 presidential election with his uber progressive proposals that would eventually pull the Democratic Party to the left, Mayor Bill de Blasio stuck his foot in the door. The mayor’s attempt to seize the moment for national change was borne from his own electoral success in New York City and began in earnest with a policy announcement outside the Capitol building in Washington D.C., where de Blasio and his allies unveiled an agenda meant to influence the presidential race.
Fashioning himself a national progressive standard-bearer, de Blasio embarked on what would become a largely humbling journey in which he was at times a political pariah, a strong voice for liberal policies, a non-factor, and a loyal Hillary Clinton surrogate. It ended this week as de Blasio led get-out-the-vote rallies on New York City college campuses, cast his vote for Clinton and spoke in support of Clinton at the beginning of a rally outside her election night event, which itself turned from an optimistic coronation to a political funeral.
The journey took de Blasio from glowing appearances on the Sunday political talk shows to humbly door-knocking in Iowa; from an unglamourous afternoon speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia to late-game weekend appearances at swing state churches where he vouched for Clinton in front of largely black audiences, representative of his base. And then to several CUNY schools where he rallied young voters in Clinton’s adopted home state, a voting booth at a Park Slope library, and the Javits Center on Manhattan’s West Side, where Clinton supporters expected a big night that never came.
With the 2016 election now behind him, the mayor may be relieved to next focus on his own reelection campaign. His first term, much like his involvement in the presidential election, has been defined by a lurching series of setbacks and accomplishments. He has been lauded for achieving key progressive policy goals, including the implementation of universal pre-kindergarten, expanded paid sick leave, and more affordable housing.
But among de Blasio’s failures, one that stands out -- and foreshadowed his 2016 efforts -- is his unsuccessful 2014 attempt to influence state elections and flip control of the New York State Senate to Democrats. Not only did de Blasio-backed candidates lose and the Senate, which stifles the mayor on policy matters, remain in Republican hands, but de Blasio’s efforts are under law enforcement investigation because of the campaign finance tactics used.
After the 2014 election cycle, de Blasio also went national, expressing his disappointment with results around the country in a Huffington Post op-ed, urging Democrats to stiffen their backbones and commit to “a bold, new approach” that acknowledged the need to address income inequality. The missive landed with a thud, somewhat like de Blasio’s efforts to influence the 2016 conversation and his delayed endorsement of Clinton.
It is widely acknowledged that de Blasio’s progressive credentials are indeed strong, but his attempts to push his principles at the national stage faltered, even while his preferred policies took center stage in the Democratic debate. It would be Sanders, not de Blasio, who was the left-wing star of 2016. The mayor’s past proximity to Clinton, whom he once served as a political operative and who attended his 2014 inauguration as Mayor, seemed to encourage his audacious attempts at influencing her policy positions.
The highs and lows that followed de Blasio’s initial non-endorsement of Clinton, over 18 trepidatious months, also captured the relationship, which has since been placed under the microscope following the release of stolen emails from the hacked account of Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta.
The first blow to the mayor and New York City’s role in the presidential election came early, in February 2015, when the city lost its bid to host the Democratic National Convention in Brooklyn. Some said that although logistics and security were stated reasons why the Democratic National Committee chose Philadelphia, which is in a swing state, part of the problem was New York’s status as a heavily liberal haven, and a sure thing for any Democratic nominee.
That April, in an interview on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” de Blasio declined to officially endorse Clinton’s presidential run. “I think like a lot of people in this country, I want to see a vision,” he told host Chuck Todd, insisting that he wanted to first gauge Clinton’s policies on income inequality. What followed was not surprising. The Clinton campaign, already keeping the mayor on the periphery, shunned him almost entirely.
De Blasio’s initial offers of unsolicited advice went largely ignored, the emails revealed by WikiLeaks showed, and the campaign’s attitude turned almost hostile as the race continued. In private, campaign staffers derided him, with one aide even calling him “a terrorist” for his refusal to attend Clinton’s kick-off rally on Roosevelt Island and a compliment paid to Sanders, her chief primary opponent.
In May, as the mayor continued to hold off on his endorsement, he unveiled the Progressive Agenda to Combat Income Inequality, a nonprofit organization and 13-point policy platform, at a news conference outside the Capitol. Signatories included former and current elected officials at various levels and a number of advocates and celebrities, but not the Clinton campaign. “It’s time to listen to the people all over this country, to listen to their hunger for a change,” de Blasio said at the announcement, according to the New York Times. “It’s up to us to answer their call — their strong demand, in fact — that we create a more just nation.”
Prior to the announcement, the mayor travelled to a number of states to promote a conversation around income inequality, earning him much criticism at home for focusing his attention away from the city -- he had been in office a year and a half.
The Progressive Agenda group made no concrete difference and slowly faded away, particularly after a failed attempt to host a bipartisan presidential forum in Iowa. The forum, slated for December, was called off in November after none of the candidates committed to attending.
De Blasio’s official endorsement of Clinton had come in late October, six months after his initial refusal, and was met with shrugs, the expected development that it was. Politico New York reported at the time on the mayor’s coordination of the endorsement with the Clinton campaign. Emails recently revealed by Wikileaks showed this and more, with communication around the mayor’s press appearances before the endorsement.
“The candidate who I believe can fundamentally address income inequality effectively and has the right vision and the right experience and ability to get the job done is Hillary Clinton,” de Blasio said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” talk show. “I have seen her vision and her platform develop over five months, I am extremely pleased with what she has put on the table,” he said.
Besides the reception from Clinton’s team -- the two did not appear together and Clinton’s team released a lukewarm statement -- the mayor was peppered with questions over the reasons for his delayed endorsement and the apparently failed calculations involved.
The weekend before the February 1 Iowa caucus, the mayor sought to make amends by personally travelling to the state, with no invitation from the campaign, to knock on doors and urge people to support Clinton. Clinton and de Blasio did not appear in public together and the trip seemed to have little political payoff for either. It played more as a symbolic mea culpa on the mayor’s part, particularly after the New York Times reported that the Clinton campaign had rejected a previous offer by him to campaign in the state.
The relationship slowly thawed in the next few months. The mayor’s effort to push Clinton left was virtually over, though since she did take more liberal positions on a number of issues, the mayor saved some face and later took some credit. He also regularly praised Senator Sanders, and continues to do so -- acknowledging, at least tacitly, that the Vermont senator had the impact the mayor was aiming for when he organized the Progressive Agenda.
In April, Clinton and de Blasio finally made a joint appearance at the annual Inner Circle dinner in New York City. But even that event turned sour after the two participated in a racially-tinged joke that referenced de Blasio’s reticence in endorsing Clinton. After a week or two of critical headlines, however, both emerged unscathed.
Clinton went on to debate Sanders for the last time in the Democratic primaries at an event in Brooklyn that de Blasio attended, then won the New York primary on April 19. At her victory celebration, the mayor was among those who spoke to the crowd -- months before stolen emails were released that showed him critiquing some of her debate performance.
De Blasio eventually became an active Clinton surrogate, taking to the road to campaign for her across the country. He went to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin in just the last few weeks of the general election campaign.
“I’m very comfortable with the fact that I pushed the Clinton campaign to take a more progressive stance,” de Blasio said on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show on October 14. “And even if that meant holding out for a while I think that is part of the political process and that is how I am going to comport myself.”
This past weekend, the mayor visited multiple churches across the five boroughs to stump for Clinton. And on Monday, he rallied with college students at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, LaGuardia Community College in Queens, Baruch College in Manhattan, and Hostos Community College in the Bronx.
On Tuesday morning, amid a five-borough get-out-the-vote blitz, the mayor arrived with First Lady Chirlane McCray in their old neighborhood to cast their ballots at the Park Slope branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. Speaking to reporters outside the polling site, they took stock of the “historic moment.” “I signed in my bubble slowly to savor the moment,” said McCray.
“There’s something amazing happening today,” said the mayor, who was on his way to several rallies across the city before attending Clinton’s election night event at the Javits Center. “I really believe this is the day we’re going to elect the first woman president of the United States of America. And as a Democrat I’m particularly proud. Just eight years ago we elected the first African-American president, today we’ll elect the first woman president. This speaks volumes about the values of the Democratic Party…It’s a powerful day for change in America.”
But, it was not to be. Clinton lost to Republican Donald Trump in one of the most stunning moments in United States history -- seemingly putting de Blasio’s hopes for more progressive federal policy on hold, and inserting in the White House someone who has forcefully criticized the mayor’s leadership.
De Blasio was scheduled to discuss the election results on WNYC radio Wednesday morning, but his appearance was bumped due to Clinton’s concession speech.
Instead the mayor addressed the election results at City Hall, where he expressed his disappointment in the results, but said, “I congratulate the New Yorker who won the election, Donald Trump, and I honor the New Yorker who won our city’s vote and the popular vote nationally, Hillary Clinton.”
De Blasio called on New Yorkers to “move forward together, resolute and determined to protect and preserve the city we love and the values we cherish.” He listed some of the key policies that he’s implemented in New York and wants to see nationally.
“It’s no secret that I have profound political disagreements with President-elect Trump,” de Blasio said, before promising to work with the new administration “positively and constructively.”
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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid @GothamGazette
Commissioner Sutton, left, at a City Hall ceremony (photo: @RichardBuery)
With Veterans Day approaching, veterans advocates in New York say they want to see the long-term vision of the newly created city Department of Veterans’ Services and how its Commissioner plans to tackle the most significant, persistent issues affecting the city’s military veterans.
More than 210,000 veterans live in New York City, making it one of the largest veteran populations in the nation, more so than some entire states. The administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, has committed additional resources and funding to address veterans’ concerns and challenges. The City Council has been actively pursuing veteran-friendly policy, including the legislation that elevated the Mayor’s Office of Veteran Affairs into the new Department of Veterans’ Services (after initial objections from de Blasio).
The Department of Veterans’ Services launched in April and has been operating with its expanded budget since the July start of the new fiscal year, boosting its staff and ramping up operations. The department is well on its way to full deployment in the next few months, said Commissioner Loree Sutton in an interview with Gotham Gazette at the agency’s main office at One Center Street, across from City Hall.
Sutton laid out her priorities and the “non-negotiable core services” that the department is focused on: housing and support services, an integrative healthcare program, and the E3 initiative (education, employment and entrepreneurship). “For the first time, we’ll finally have the capacity to not only establish a citywide presence but be able to engage in these three lines of action,” she said.
The department now has 24 employees, up from four in June of 2015, and will add another ten by the start of 2017. With an eye towards having a presence in all five boroughs, it now has a satellite office in Queens and will set up offices in all the boroughs within the next three months. “We have been very dedicated to the process of designing a new agency,” said Sutton, “And really taking the time that we needed not just to fill slots but really build a team. We’re also creating a culture, a culture that honors the aspirations and the dreams of so many veterans here in New York City from years and years.”
The department’s priorities align with what veteran advocates have long demanded, and they praise Sutton’s leadership for it. Recognizing that the department is young, advocates do say they would like to see a clear articulation of those priorities through outreach to the veteran community. “It takes time to build out so of course some of the veterans in the outer boroughs are wondering, ‘Where is it?’, but it’s growing,” said Joe Bello, a Navy veteran and member of the city’s Veterans Advisory Board, shortly after a recent hearing of the City Council’s Committee on Veterans.
“There needs to be something about what the city is actually offering vets,” he added, saying the department should consider creating a resource guide to its services in order to reach out to veterans and their families.
Kristen Rouse, an Army veteran and president and founding director of NYC Veterans Alliance, an advocacy group, said the new department needs to be “responsive” to veterans’ needs. “They have to not only build the plan and execute the plan, they have to build trust in the community,” she said. “This is a community that has been underserved for a very long time and so they have to be responsive, they have to build that word-of-mouth trust.”
Rouse acknowledges, as a former city employee, that government can work slowly, but she’s encouraged by the staff the Sutton has hired, many of whom are veterans themselves. “It’s going to take some weeks and months for them to really gel as a team and to craft a plan that says, ‘Here’s what we’re doing,’” Rouse said. She stressed that the department should not lose focus, however, of issues that go ignored, like affordable housing for student veterans and discrimination faced by veterans.
“There are so many other different programs that need to be fostered,” she said, “to promote community, promote good quality of living, a sense of purpose for veterans in New York City so ultimately we’re a city that attracts veterans in the same way we attract artists, entrepreneurs.”
Sutton, a retired Army brigadier general, explained that the department is already doing much along these lines through coordination with different city agencies and setting up a network of local service providers under its VetConnect NYC initiative, which will roll out next year. “The number one challenge that veterans and their families point to is difficulty navigating,” she said, “to find the right services, to ensure that they’re quality services, to make sure they qualify for them, that the services are even available. That’s what this network really is designed to do.”
After the October 28 City Council veterans committee hearing, Council Member Eric Ulrich, a Queens Republican who chairs the committee, told Gotham Gazette he was optimistic about the new department’s execution, but hasn’t yet seen a long-term plan for veterans from the de Blasio administration.
“I don’t think it’s even on their radar right now,” he said. He did praise the city for ending chronic veteran homelessness and emphasized the need for connecting veterans with permanent affordable housing. But Ulrich said one area where the city is failing is in providing adequate employment for veterans, “and good paying jobs, not low paying menial jobs, but jobs that reflect their skills and abilities and their talents and the things that they’ve learned in the military,” he said.
What’s also important to consider, according to Ulrich, is the roughly 20,000 future veterans, soldiers currently in active service who will return to the city in the next five years. “I think the temptation is, on the part of the New York City government, to just supply a band-aid sometimes and treat how things are now, but we really have to come up with a long-term solution,” he said, “to make New York City a more veteran-friendly city.”
As Sutton tells it, that long-term vision is coming together, efforts that will be highlighted this week leading up to Friday’s Veterans Day and its annual parade. “We’re in the very early stages of what will absolutely continue to be a full-court press to improve the lives of our veterans and their families,” she said. “This is what I view as an essential municipal investment.”
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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid @GothamGazette
De Blasio at NAN (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)
New York City’s municipal party primary elections are ten months away, and though he does not yet have a formidable challenger in the race, Mayor Bill de Blasio is not sitting back unprepared. De Blasio, a first-term Democrat, has kickstarted his reelection campaign, raising funds and formulating a campaign message around his achievements. In part, he is trying to preempt a significant challenger from entering the fray. But, as de Blasio himself has said, being Mayor is a 24/7 job and throwing an electoral campaign into the middle of it presents challenges.
One major challenge de Blasio faces, and in unique fashion to his three-term predecessor, is balancing his time spent governing versus campaigning, while also adhering to conflicts of interest rules for all city employees.
Answering questions recently, the mayor has given a glimpse at the balancing act involved in persuading people that he deserves to remain the city’s chief executive and performing the very duties that come with the position. At an unrelated October 26 news conference, Gotham Gazette asked the mayor about his approach to the issue. “We’re trying to figure out a balance,” de Blasio said, stressing that the job of the mayor “begins in the morning, it ends in the night, and it never goes away.”
De Blasio explained the challenge of finding time in his nonstop workday, one that begins around 5:30 a.m., he said, and includes consistent emails and calls until he goes to bed around midnight.
“Because we're in a democracy and there's campaigns and you have to do all the things around a campaign,” he said at the news conference. “As a campaign year is emerging...you've gotta put more time into building up the apparatus. We try to find a way to carve out time, it's not always easy, but we do the best we can.”
Asked if he was dedicating any specific blocks of time, de Blasio said it wasn’t really possible to do so.
De Blasio is the first incumbent New York City mayor seeking re-election without self-financing his campaign since 1997, when Rudy Giuliani won a second term. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg bankrolled all three of his campaigns, thus needing to dedicate far less time away from his government duties during his two reelection bids, given that fundraising is both time-consuming and essential.
On that front, de Blasio has emphasized a return to his roots, shifting to a small-dollar fundraising operation akin to what Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders employed in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. De Blasio has hired the same digital fundraising firm, Revolution Messaging, that ran Sanders’ operation, famous for the $27 average contribution that the senator liked to boast.
It is also an apparent attempt by de Blasio to diminish the negative attention he received for his fundraising for the Campaign for One New York, a political nonprofit that promoted his agenda while taking unlimited contributions, that has since become the subject of multiple local, state and federal investigations, and is in the process of shutting down. Neither the mayor or any of his allies involved have been accused of wrongdoing and de Blasio has insisted they acted legally. The mayor has repeatedly said he sought and followed appropriate guidance from the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board.
It is that same board that provides guidance around separating government and campaign activities.
On radio and television appearances soon after the press conference at which de Blasio discussed balancing his time, he elaborated further on the subject when asked. During his weekly segment on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show, two days after the news conference, a caller asked about the time he spends fundraising. “I can’t give you an exact percentage,” de Blasio said. “I mean, obviously, governing is the vast majority of the time...I think most people who are decent human beings, in public life, would like to tell you we would like to spend zero percent of our time on fundraising.”
As he so often does when asked about fundraising, de Blasio stressed the need for campaign finance reform, advocating for full public financing of elections that would not only pull big moneyed interests out of politics but would also focus, “all that time that goes into fundraising now back into public service.” He promised, though, that “governing has to come first and I will just have to do the best I can with limited time in terms of fundraising.”
Without more clarity on the mayor’s schedule, it is unclear how well he is limiting his fundraising time.
But, it is apparent that the mayor is making many fundraising calls and attending a variety of fundraising events already -- he appeared at a small-dollar young professionals fundraiser for his campaign in Harlem Wednesday night; on November 15, he’ll appear at a fundraiser in Southeast Queens hosted by City Council Member Donovan Richards. Previously, de Blasio has attended a variety of other small fundraising events and had a large fundraiser at Brooklyn Bowl, at which comedian Louis CK, an outspoken supporter of the mayor, performed.
Closer to reelection, de Blasio has stepped up his public outreach from a government perspective, too, hosting a number of town halls across the city. He also recently added a new weekly appearance on NY1’s Inside City Hall to his schedule. On the inaugural show, on October 31, anchor Errol Louis also asked the mayor about his fundraising schedule.
De Blasio’s answer was similar to what he said at the news conference and on WNYC, although once Louis pressed him he added that he spends on average a few hours a week raising campaign funds. “I want to emphasize that it varies so intensely by week,” he said. “The next big campaign filing is in the middle of January, so there’ll be more energy getting close to that,” he added. “But my goal is to keep it limited each week and if it can be just a few hours each week that’s certainly what I prefer.”
De Blasio’s campaign spokesperson said questions about the mayor’s time management should be directed to City Hall. A spokesperson at City Hall then referred Gotham Gazette to the NY1 interview.
Amid any concern that the mayor may lose focus on the job is wariness about the line between official business and campaign activity. “I think he should seek very specific guidance from the Conflicts of Interest Board and the Campaign Finance Board to ensure that he doesn’t cross the line because he has been suspected of crossing earlier lines,” said Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, a government reform group. “He should be very careful about the use of government resources for his reelection campaign, which is not permitted.”
The city’s campaign finance laws and the City Charter place restrictions on when, where, and how an elected official might indulge in campaign activities, to ensure a separation from their official duties.
The Conflicts of Interest Board also issued a general advisory in 2012 after receiving numerous questions from elected officials on how they and their subordinates may engage in political activity. By law, no elected official is allowed to use city resources for campaign purposes or work on a campaign while on the clock. For instance, in the mayor’s case, he would be prohibited from making campaign-related calls out of City Hall.
There has already been one possible indication of that separation being tested. A few weeks ago, after the mayor hurriedly took a helicopter from Prospect Park in Brooklyn to an event in Queens to avoid being late, his city spokesperson would not confirm the purpose of the meetings that delayed him in Brooklyn. As has been widely reported, the mayor frequents Bar Toto nearby for political meetings and to make fundraising phone calls. The Wall Street Journal reported that the mayor often spends his Fridays at the restaurant.
“Any incumbent who is running for reelection needs to find time within the day to do the politics of this and the mayor is no exception to that,” said Dadey of Citizens Union. Although, the mayor is the first citywide elected to have begun to campaign outright for the 2017 cycle. The other two citywide electeds, Public Advocate Letitia James and Comptroller Scott Stringer, have not been especially active on the campaign trail, though both are raising some money. A spokesperson for James declined to comment for this article. Inquiries to Stringer’s office went unanswered. James has a fundraising event coming up November 16 at a Manhattan restaurant.
For incumbent mayors, Dadey added, “The political activities are almost hidden from view…because they want to be seen as doing their job as Mayor, not necessarily their job as a political figure. So it’s very important that they not be seen as a regular activity because that’s not what we’re paying the Mayor to do.”
What also puts de Blasio in somewhat challenging territory is that his situation is again so different from his predecessor, and many New Yorkers weren’t around for Rudy Giuliani’s tenure and re-election campaign.
“Mayor Bloomberg spent no time dialing for campaign dollars or hosting fundraisers,” said Patrick Muncie of Tusk Strategies. Muncie worked on Bloomberg’s 2005 and 2009 campaigns and served as deputy press secretary in the mayor’s office. He is also involved with NYC Deserves Better, a group aimed at unseating de Blasio next year that is run by Bradley Tusk, who ran Bloomberg’s 2009 campaign. Bloomberg spent over $100 million that year to narrowly win his third term.
“Of course Mayor Bloomberg campaigned in 2005 and 2009, but his passion was for governing and running the city, not politics,” Muncie said. He cited many of the criticisms of the mayor, including his mornings spent at the gym in Park Slope and his Fridays, as the Journal has reported, spent away from City Hall. “New Yorkers expect their mayor to go to work,” he said, “and to spend the majority of their time focused on their concerns.”
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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid @GothamGazette