Iowatch out, Blas in town
Unions balk as DeB takes show on the road
DES MOINES, Iowa — Six weeks after being re-elected to a second term, Mayor de Blasio said he’ll keep traveling around the country to help reform the Democratic Party — insisting his national efforts won’t interfere with his ability to run the city.
“I can walk and chew gum at the same time,” the mayor told reporters Tuesday before delivering a speech at a fund-raiser for Progressive Iowa, a lefty advocacy group.
At the end of the press conference, de Blasio stuck a piece of gum in his mouth and walked away from reporters.
“Now I’m going to do a visual,” he said. “This is gum. I’m chewing the gum now. Now watch this. It’s going to be amazing. I’m walking while chewing the gum.”
The comments came during the mayor’s third trip to Iowa — a critical launching pad for presidential hopefuls — in four years.
“This is what I feel called to do,” de Blasio said of his efforts to make the Democratic Party more progressive. “And I’m going to do this kind of thing wherever possible, whenever possible.”
He insisted his focus “every single day” is on managing the city, saying out-of-town trips “will be a select thing.”
“I hope to have as much impact as possible with the time I have. But the notion of sitting on the sidelines when change is really needed right now just doesn’t make sense to me.”
Before the Progressive Iowa fund-raiser, de Blasio met with mayors from across the state during a buffet lunch at the Des Moines Embassy Club.
“We just kind of swapped stories about being a mayor,” said Waukee Mayor Bill Peard, adding that de Blasio’s potential presidential ambitions were “not even brought up” — though Peard admitted it was an unusual visit by a big city mayor.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a common thing,” he said. “I haven’t had it happen very often in my — I’ve been mayor for 11 years.”
De Blasio took heat from three major city labor unions, including the Correction Officers Be- nevolent Association and the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, which sent members to protest outside the fund-raiser.
The Transport Workers Union took out a series of digi- tal, billboard and newspaper ads in the state that let Iowans know they think de Blasio is “phony as a $3 bill.” Additional reporting by Danika Fears in New York