ALBANY — Mayor de Blasio’s attack on Gov. Cuomo last week regarding his handling of the fractured state Senate Democrats is considered a first salvo designed to damage the governor as he heads into his own election year, some close to Hizzoner say.
De Blasio has spoken out against Cuomo over the years, most notably accusing the governor in 2015 of governing by “vendetta.”
But safely reelected to a second and final term, de Blasio is said to be ready to speak out more frequently and forcefully against a governor who has tortured him politically.
“The roles are reversed this time,” said a source close to City Hall. “He gets to enact revenge on Cuomo and is a good progressive. He can damage him as governor and kill his presidential chances.”
But by doing so, de Blasio risks his already tenuous dealings with Albany heading into the new legislative session, something some close to City Hall say he recognizes.
The Senate Republicans already despise him, the governor is not far behind, and legislative Democrats have been critical as well.
Some close to City Hall say de Blasio will push a progressive Albany agenda in 2018 but is prepared to accept modest results while aggressively going after Cuomo and working to help the Democrats win control of the Senate. He believes the potential payoff would ultimately benefit him and the city in the final three years of his term.
“The longtime health of the progressive movement runs through the Senate,” the source close to City Hall said. “He is willing to give up the session.”
Others close to the mayor aren’t so sure. They say that by upping his attacks on Cuomo, de Blasio and his progressive allies are hoping to push the governor more to the left as he seeks reelection and faces a potential Democratic primary.
De Blasio last week strongly criticized a Senate Democratic reunification plan put forward by Cuomo allies — and accepted by the mainline and breakaway Dems — and suggested that Cuomo is only now serious about the issue in order to boost a potential presidential bid.
Until he made the comments, there had been a brief public detente between the two sides since the recent New York City terrorist attack.
By lashing out, some argue de Blasio hasn’t just further alienated the governor and the breakaway Democrats, but also key party officials like Rep. Joseph Crowley, the head of the House Democratic caucus, and Hector Figueroa, president of the influential Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union.
Crowley and Figueroa both signed on to the reunification deal along with Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown and former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Cuomo’s handpicked state Democratic Party chairman and vice chairwoman, respectively.
“There is nothing new about this — it’s the same old de Blasio and now he’s a lame duck with no friends left in Albany and an entire political class in the city looking to run for mayor themselves in four years,” said one Democratic insider sympathetic to Cuomo.
“The big difference now is that he’s weaker and he is irrelevant.”
The insider noted that polls have consistently shown Cuomo far more popular in New York City than de Blasio.
A source close to the Independent Democratic Conference called the mayor’s comments last week counterproductive.
“At some point, people need to remember you have a higher responsibility than just party politics, and that’s to the people who elected you,” the source said.
“The guy does have a city to run and he does have to negotiate with Albany, whether it be with the left side of the aisle or the right side of the aisle, or the governor’s office.”
But the source said it’s unlikely the lawmakers would seek to hurt the city regardless of what the mayor says or does.
“The difference between him and us, and I include all of us in the Legislature, is we tend to take the job seriously. We may not like each other, we may not like him, but we’re not going to extract revenue on our constituents to teach the mayor a lesson,” the source said.
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A Democratic state legislator says there is a big difference between how the Dems and Republicans in New York handle intraparty disputes.
“Unlike the Democrats, the Republicans never air their dirty laundry in public,” the lawmaker said.
“They always have more discipline than we do. They’re like an alcoholic family. They fight it out behind closed doors and then come out in public, straighten their ties, comb their hair and try to pretend it’s not happening. We like to let it all hang out.”
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Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano is expected later this week to announce he will seek the Democratic nomination for a crucial state Senate special election in Westchester County that could impact which party controls the chamber, a source close to him said.
On the Republican side, commercial litigation lawyer Sarmad Khojasteh, a man who as a young boy fled Iran with his family during the Islamic Revolution to come to America, has created a campaign account to run as a Republican for the same seat being vacated by George Latimer, who is leaving to become Westchester County executive in January.
Spano, who has two years left of his final term as mayor, is one of three Democrats interested in running.
If Cuomo calls a special election for the spring, the candidates will be picked by the county parties, not through a primary process.
Other Dems seeking the nomination are Assemblywoman Shelley Mayer, who formally announced her candidacy last week, and Kat Brezler, who founded a pro-Bernie Sanders group.
Meanwhile, Khojasteh is one of two Republicans who have expressed interest in the Senate seat being vacated by Democrat George Latimer. The other is former prosecutor Dan Schorr.
