RUNNING ON EMPTY
Blaz brings in measly $1.1M — $23.7M less than South Bend Mayor Buttigieg — for prez bid
Mayor de Blasio’s presidential campaign against the rich is being funded by chump change, according to new campaign numbers.
The mayor’s quixotic bid for the White House raised nearly $1.1 million through the end of June, his campaign announced Monday. That’s far less than South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who raised a whopping $24.8 million between April and June, despite running a city with a population of only 102,000.
Presidential candidates had until Monday to file fund-raising totals for this year’s second quarter with the Federal Election Commission.
De Blasio, who has called for tax hikes for wealthy Americans, finished last month with about $728,000 cash on hand, the campaign said. Of the $1.1 million raised from roughly 6,700 donors, 92% came from contributions of $50 or less.
While de Blasio didn’t raise the least of the more than 20 Democratic candidates for president, Hizzoner’s showing paled in comparison to heavy hitters in the crowded field.
Former Vice President Joe Biden took in $21.5 million. Sen. Elizabeth Warren raised $19.1 million and Sen. Bernie Sanders reported $18 million in donations.
Even New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand raised roughly twice what de Blasio took in – about $2.3 million.
Still, de Blasio 2020 celebrated the haul.
The campaign raised over $630,000 in the four days after “de Blasio’s impressive showing in the first Democratic primary debate,” according to a press release.
“We’re grateful to every supporter who chipped in because they share Mayor de Blasio’s message of putting working people first, and we’re going to continue spreading that message to voters across the country,” campaign senior adviser John Paul Lupo said in a statement.
The fund-raising boost allowed the mayor’s longshot campaign to add staff and grow its New York headquarters, hiring three more city staffers.
Jess Moore Matthews, the city’s chief content officer since June 2018, will be the campaign’s digital director.
Jaclyn Rothenberg, a former spokeswoman and deputy communications director at City Hall, will become the campaign’s national press secretary. Rothenberg has already worked for the campaign in a volunteer capacity using vacation days.
And Will Baskin-Gerwitz will be a communications adviser for de Blasio 2020 after working as a spokesman in the mayor’s office for less than three months.
De Blasio’s 2020 campaign is already staffed with former city employees, including former deputy press secretary Olivia Lapeyrolerie and ex-deputy director of executive operations Alexandra Kopel. Lupo was also de Blasio’s intergovernmental affairs director before he began working for the campaign, initially in a volunteer capacity.
Three others, including the former executive director of the South Carolina Democratic Party, were hired for the campaign’s outpost in the early-voting state. The campaign also hired a field director in Iowa.
Last week, the campaign even hired de Blasio’s son as a paid policy analyst. Dante de Blasio, a 21-year-old recent Yale grad, will help write a campaign platform and prepare his father for debates.
“These hires are a direct result of the fund-raising
success we’ve had in just a few short weeks, and our growth is a sign of what’s to come moving forward,” Lupo said.
De Blasio officially launched his bid for the White House on May 16 after toying with a campaign for half a year.
Before that, the mayor had been raising money through a federal political action committee he dubbed “Fairness PAC.” The committee polled potential Iowa caucusgoers and bankrolled his travel to early primary states.
Since then, de Blasio has struggled to gain momentum in the polls.
De Blasio had 1% in a Monmouth University Poll released the week after he announced. An NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll released just last week had de Blasio with less than 1%.
This hasn’t stopped de Blasio from campaigning every chance he gets in early-voting states, where the mayor has spent most weekends since mid-May stumping to mostly sparse crowds. De Blasio and his wife, First Lady Chirlane McCray, have traveled to Iowa, South Carolina, Las Vegas, New Hampshire, Miami, Chicago and Texas.
This weekend, the mayor was in Waterloo, Iowa, when a massive blackout plunged thousands into darkness in Manhattan. After dithering for hours, de Blasio decided to head home to address the crisis, only to finally return to the five boroughs 12 hours after electricity was restored.
“With modern communications, the minute it was clear we had a serious situation, I was on the phone to all these folks and we were talking constantly,” the mayor told reporters on Sunday.
On Monday, de Blasio suggested that his handling of the blackout proved he’d be a good “chief executive” for the entire country.
“With some other folks, including folks who are running for president, you can look at their ideas, their words, their proposals – when you’re chief executive, you have to look at the whole picture, what did you get done?” de Blasio said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “In six years, this is a very strong city today and with strong agencies that knew what to do in a crisis and did it in exemplary fashion.”