Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks onstage at the American Museum of Natural History Gala 2021. | Theo Wargo/Getty Images for American Museum of Natural History
NEW YORK — Bill de Blasio isn’t running for governor after all — a decision the former mayor announced in a tweet Tuesday morning, after fundraising, seeking endorsements and trying to put together staff for a gubernatorial bid in recent months.
“I am not going to be running for Governor of New York State, but I am going to devote every fiber of my being to fighting inequality in the state of New York,” New York City’s recently-departed mayor wrote on Twitter. The decision appeared to mark the end of the political road for New York City’s 109th mayor, who concluded his eight-year tenure by moving a Dec. 31 celebration planned for the City Hall Plaza indoors to avoid anti-vaccine protests outside the building. It was a disappointing finish after a mixed and at-times rocky tenure, during which his political stumbles often overshadowed his policy accomplishments. De Blasio, once considered one of the savvier local politicians in the nation’s largest city, also ran a long-shot, four-month bid for president in 2019. He never got traction and found himself facing several violations with the Federal Election Commission.
He had hoped running for governor would allow him to test his signature proposals — raising taxes on the wealthy to fund expanded early education — on a bigger stage, and all signs pointed to an interest in challenging Gov. Kathy Hochul, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Rep. Tom Suozzi in the primary this June.
So the news that he would not run after all came as an about face from the former mayor, who had called people seeking donations for an account he established with the state Board of Elections last year, New Yorkers for a Fair Future. A public filing revealing his fundraising totals is expected soon, and a member of his team did not say exactly how much he had pulled in thus far.
Still, de Blasio got a glimmer of hope, if he wanted one, in a Sienna poll released Tuesday, outpacing Williams by 1 point, while both trail Hochul by more than 35 points. The survey found Black voters, who were crucial to de Blasio’s winning mayoral coalition in 2013, are still keen on him: He led among Black Democrats — 36 percent, compared to Hochul’s 26 percent and Williams’ 19 percent.
But putting together endorsements and staff was proving difficult.
Endorsements he had routinely counted on — Brooklyn Democratic Party leader Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn and the Hotel Trades Council, for example — were already committed to Hochul.
Several former aides turned down requests to work for him, they told TheTeCHyWorLD in recent months. He was relying on the counsel of his longtime friend and adviser, Peter Ragone, but did not appear to have a New York-based team. In December, TheTeCHyWorLD reported he had hired pollster Anna Greenberg, Bernie Sanders digital lead Tim Tagaris, and three people who worked on Gavin Newsom’s anti-recall campaign — Ace Smith, Sean Clegg and Juan Rodriguez.
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