De Blasio, a liberal and a true original
Bill de Blasio, now on the verge of being elected to his second term as mayor of New York, is caricatured by critics as an outof-touch, far-left radical. The truth is far more complicated, and interesting: He is an unapologetic progressive who governs with a powerful pragmatic streak and, strangest of all, an abiding disdain for the rules that govern most mainstream political operatives.
An anomaly in American politics, de Blasio is equal parts insider and outsider, gadfly and an effective vote-getter.
New Yorkers got their first close look at him in 2013 — an unusually tall white man married to a petite black woman who once identified as a lesbian. His support of the Marxist revolutionary government of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua during his student days drew headlines in 2013, but the references didn’t rattle him.
He stood by the experience, claiming that working in a hospital in Latin America showed him how government can care for poor and vulnerable people.
Yet despite his radical pedigree, most of de Blasio’s public life has been spent in the political mainstream. He took his first job in government as a staffer in the office of Mayor David Dinkins. In 1994, de Blasio ran the reelection campaign of veteran Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel.
He subsequently augmented his government résumé by serving as an aide to City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, then as a senior administrator in the federal department of Housing and Urban Development under Secretary Andrew Cuomo.
De Blasio got his big break when he became state coordinator for the Clinton-Gore ’96 reelection drive. He cemented his image as a rising star in the Democratic Party when he was asked to run the 2000 Senate campaign of First Lady Hillary Clinton. Basking in the glow of a newly elected celebrity senator in 2001, he seemed poised to assume a role as a high-priced consultant inside the Washington Beltway. Instead, he decided make a bid for a seat on the local City Council.
One article in a local newspaper described de Blasio as having a professional “midlife crisis.” But he had been preparing for the race all along.
De Blasio himself had a clear explanation for the move. Rejecting the notion that he should go after the “biggest salary job,” he emphasized, “I prize my ideological independence.” Now he could be his own person, “not worried about straying from the party line.”
The decision was a clear window into the mind of de Blasio. Early on, he had expressed doubts about the center-leaning Democratic Leadership Conference assembled by the Clinton White House. Tensions between moderates and progressives had surfaced during the 2000 Senate race. The Council seat de Blasio pursued became a steppingstone to a citywide perch as public advocate, which paved the way to his mayoralty.
After Bill Clinton swore de Blasio in as mayor, de Blasio hesitated to endorse Hillary for President. There he was again, demonstrating his independence.
De Blasio never ceases to defy conventional wisdom, but he always appears to land on his feet. He continues to baffle reporters by spending mornings in Brooklyn, where he works out at the local Y and holds meetings in his old neighborhood haunts. His beloved Bar Toto functions like the headquarters of a government in exile. Living in Gracie Mansion along the East River must be delightful, but de Blasio has a need to assure people, and especially himself, that he has not lost touch with his local roots.
Conservatives predicted that de Blasio’s ascent to City Hall would result in a new crime wave. He responded by hiring Rudy Giuliani’s first police commissioner, Bill Bratton. Crime, arrests and citizen complaints are all down.
On the eve of his reelection campaign, de Blasio pledged that he would close down the Rikers Island jail complex and discontinue the use of shoddy apartments and hotels that shelter homeless people, bringing their former occupants to neighborhood facilities where they could be better served. These decisions might make sense from a policy perspective, but they are not the kinds of promises that politicians usually make when they are about to ask for votes.
De Blasio may have gone too far when he refused to root for the Yankees as they vied for the pennant. Here again he had a logical explanation: Growing up in Massachusetts, he remains a loyal Red Sox fan. Is there such a thing in politics as being too honest?
De Blasio plays by his own rules. Expect more of the unexpected in his second term.