He has aroused little or no interest in the early 2020 caucus and primary states he’s visited. His own constituents think it’s a terrible idea. A host of political experts and advisers, including his mayoral campaign consultant Rebecca Katz, have told him it’s a bad idea. According to one report, even his wife is less than enthusiastic.
Nonetheless, the Daily News reports that New York mayor Bill de Blasio is going to announce a presidential candidacy next week:
Mayor de Blasio is expected to announce he’s running for president next week, according to three sources with knowledge of the plans.
The 2020 announcement could come as early as de Blasio’s birthday on Wednesday, when he’ll turn 58, said one source. The kickoff was initially expected this week but pushed back, according to another source.
All he wants for his birthday, it seems, is a schedule of trips to Iowa and New Hampshire.
The Daily News stink bomb of a report is not uncontested:
De Blasio’s federal political action committee, Fairness PAC, recently polled Iowa voters. The PAC also bankrolled the mayor’s recent travel to key early voting primary states, including trips to Nevada, Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Fairness PAC spokesman Mike Casca — who took an unpaid leave of absence from City Hall last month to work for the committee — said “no decision” has been made yet and wouldn’t explicitly deny that de Blasio was announcing a campaign next week.
“Very hard to announce something without a decision — nearly impossible, some might say,” Casca said in a text message on Friday.
But given how stubbornly he’s resisted months of negative signals about this bad idea, reports that it’s full speed ahead are entirely credible. It does sound like aggrieved New Yorkers and Democrats everywhere who are tired of the endless expansion of the 2020 field will have a few days to wail and gnash their teeth and rend their clothes in hopes of convincing Hizzoner not to run.
If he crashes ahead like a bull elk in rut, de Blasio will be the 22nd candidate to run (Montana governor Steve Bullock is reportedly going to announce in a couple of weeks, making it 23). If there’s a “lane” for this left-of-center white man with underwater job-approval numbers, it may be the doomed collection of candidates running for reasons other than any remote chance of victory. About the only suspense his candidacy might generate is whether his famous constituent, the president of the United States, bothers to give him a nickname.
