Blas’ New Ba$e
Mayor de Blasio escaped criminal charges from the federal and state probes of his various fund-raising scandals — but it looks like he’s still paying a price. Most of the big-bucks donors who helped put him in City Hall have been keeping their ample checkbooks closed this time around.
An analysis by The New York Times and CUNY’s Urban Research Center shows that only 16 percent of those who made the maximum donation ($4,950) to de Blasio’s 2013 campaign have given to his 2017 committee.
Indeed, as of mid-March, only 8 percent of the 12,368 people who contributed in 2013 had donated this cycle.
Why so many “missing” donors? Perhaps they’re idealists, disappointed by the mayor’s performance. Perhaps they feel they already got what they paid for.
Or perhaps they don’t want to risk being caught up in some future de Blasio fundraising scandal.
The mayor himself last year stopped taking meetings with one longtime friend and fund-raiser, uber-lobbyist James Capalino, amid speculation that the veteran fixer was getting favored treatment for his clients.
Capalino rose to become the city’s topearning lobbyist in the de Blasio years, repping clients such as the luxury-condo developers who took over the site of Long Island College Hospital (which candidate de Blasio had vowed to save), as well as investors involved early on in what became the notorious Rivington House flip.
Capalino doesn’t seem offended by the mayor’s distance: He’s already raised $44,940 for the 2017 campaign.
And, to replace all those less-loyal fundraisers and donors, the mayor’s gone national: For example, he held several campaign-cash events during his West Coast trip last week, collecting checks from Silicon Valley and Hollywood progressives.
Of course, de Blasio’s new fans aren’t that interested in serious New York City issues like homelessness, deadly bungling at the Administration for Children’s Services, etc.
No, they’re giving because the mayor takes every chance to “confront” President Trump.
Get ready for a long election year, with lots of de Blasio posturing for his distant paymasters — and not a lot of talk about what really ails the city.