Mayor de Blasio is in talks to publicly support 2016 candidate Hillary Clinton and will make his endorsement “soon”, a source familiar with the mayor’s thinking told the Daily News.
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“I’m waiting to hear, as I’ve said, her larger vision for addressing income inequality”, the mayor said in June when explaining why he was skipping a major Clinton rally.
De Blasio managed Clinton’s successful 2000 Senate campaign and has close ties to the ex-secretary of state and her husband, the former president, both of whom sat on stage for his 2014 mayoral inauguration.
Despite that, de Blasio had hesitated to back Clinton.
In an effort to gear up for a 2017 re-election, de Blasio scheduled a campaign event Thursday to try to lock in early supporters.
That left a few Democrats accusing him of putting his own goals of becoming a national liberal leader ahead of party unity or loyalty to the Clintons.
That after Clinton’s campaign launched its “Hillary for New York Leadership Council”- a group of over 100 elected officials, community, coalition and grassroots leaders who will help build a grassroots-driven volunteer team that will help Hillary to win the New York Primary on April 19.
A stout 47 percent thought de Blasio didn’t deserve a second term, according to the poll.
“If he hasn’t seen [her vision] by now, then I don’t know when he’ll see it”, said Kovner.
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The mayor also plans to hold a “progressive values” forum in Iowa, but thus far candidates have reportedly been less than forthcoming about signing on. “When we have something to say on the political front, we’ll say it”, Mr.de Blasio, a Democrat, said at an unrelated press conference in Queens. News of those talks was first reported by Politico New York on Monday. The Clinton spokesman declined to say whether she would attend.
