De Blasio followed a strange route all his own
Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has pulled out of four big Democratic primaries in the last three years. Credit: AP/Brittainy Newman
Over a span of three years, former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio entered or tested the waters in four big Democratic primaries, only to soon withdraw.
That could be a Guinness record for throwing hats in different rings and retrieving them.
Only de Blasio, 61, can say what he'd expected. Maybe he just couldn't admit his electoral career is over. After two terms on the City Council, one term as public advocate, and then two terms as mayor, de Blasio has kept proving that he simply now lacks the popularity and rationale to compete.
He would have liked to duplicate the lightning-in-a-bottle scenario that sent him to Gracie Mansion in 2013 — a 41% plurality in a Democratic primary that was tantamount to election after 20 years of back-to-back Republican mayors. The same dynamic, including low turnout in a multicandidate field, also paved his way to the public advocate job.
But by his second mayoral term, de Blasio had spent down his ability to get a leg up with lofty promises and vague progressivism. If term limits hadn't forced him out, a tired electorate might have voted him out.
Thus began his trademark cycle of advance and retreat.
In May 2019, with 2½ years left on his term, the mayor ignored all skepticism and ridicule and declared his unlikely candidacy for president. At that point, the Democratic field was crowded with the alienating GOP incumbent Donald Trump vulnerable to defeat the following year.
“Here in New York City over these last five years, we’ve proven time and time again that you can take on the big issues like income inequality and public safety and global warming, it can be done,” de Blasio grandly declared.
Hardly a soul in Brooklyn, let alone Iowa, bought in. By September, he said in his favorite forum, MSNBC’s Morning Joe: “I feel like I've contributed all I can to this primary election and it's clearly not my time.”
Departing the mayoralty late last year, he grasped at a glimmer of the governorship. During Christmas week, he sent out an email that he was “thinking about it very seriously.” He said he'd revolutionize education statewide. Chuckles and yawns followed, from Massapequa to Jamestown. By Jan. 18, de Blasio tweeted: “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.”
Bipartisan eyes would roll again the following month when he made noises about competing with Democratic ex-Rep. Max Rose for a chance to oppose Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, his 2017 Republican opponent for mayor. In short order, he punted again. “It was gratifying to connect with community and elected leaders while I considered a run," he said.
Soon after, New York's redistricted congressional map would be voided in state court and rewritten. Back in he waded, seeking a Brooklyn-Manhattan seat with no incumbent and a crowded Democratic primary. “This is a unicorn,” de Blasio said of the new district in The New York Times in May, adding voters might prefer “someone with some history and stature."
De Blasio walked the district for weeks. But on Tuesday, he said in a video posted on Twitter: "It’s clear to me that when it comes to this congressional district, people are looking for another option.”
Maybe a message is getting through.
Columnist Dan Janison's opinions are his own.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
