WEDNESDAY, JULY 31 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE K C3
help people see what that experi-
ence means, because it’s just a
pure differentiator. There are a lot
of people who have not had execu-
tive experience. There are other
people who have had it but not in
a setting as challenging as this.”
De Blasio doesn’t name names,
but South Bend, Ind., for example,
has a population of 102,000,
which is 20 times fewer people
than live in the borough of
Queens.
Yet, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, as
the New York Post pointed out in
July, has raised more from New
York City residents ($2.35 million
in the past three months) than de
Blasio has nationwide, in his
whole campaign ($1.1 million).
“I think the voters, not the
insiders, not the pundits, always
care about what you can do to
improve their lives,” de Blasio
says, in response. “One of the
leading Dems in Iowa said to me
that his belief with caucus voters
is the vast majority don’t make a
firm final decision until 10 days
before. That puts you well into
January.”
De Blasio has reason for irratio-
nal confidence; he wasn’t sup-
posed to be mayor. “What I’ve
learned time and time again, al-
ways as an underdog,” de Blasio
says, “is that people make their
decisions very, very late, and it’s
based on trying to find who will
actually reach them, who will ac-
tually change their lives.”
In the 2013 race, for a very long
time, he was running fourth. “De
Blasio wins the primary because
he’s like that speed skater, Apolo
Anton Ohno,” Cunningham says.
“Everybody else fell down, and he
went across the line and got the
gold medal. Weiner fell down,
Quinn fell down, Thompson fell
down. They all self-destructed in
one way or another, and he just
managed to skate across the fin-
ish line and won the primary and
became mayor.” He just needs
23 people to fall down this time.
[email protected]cal science, has a great Afro and is
a paid adviser on his dad’s cam-
paign. An ad he recorded for
De Blasio’s 2013 mayoral bid is
said to have turned the tide in the
election.
“He’s a great mayor,” says Sha-
mika Lilley, who came over to get
a selfie. “The thing about the
blackout, I didn’t know they ex-
pected everyone to be everywhere
at the same time. It’s ridiculous.”‘A joyful campaigner’
So why run for president?
For one, he seems to like it.
“He’s so happy,” says Grace Rauh,
a reporter and podcaster for NY1,
who covers the mayor at home
and on the campaign trail. “He’s a
joyful campaigner. In South Caro-
lina, he high-fived me on the way
into an event. I couldn’t believe it.
He wouldn’t even break into a
smile when he sees a reporter in
New York.”
For another, he’s passionate
that his presidency would ulti-
mately help New York City: “We
can’t fix our infrastructure and
our public housing, for example,
without a much greater federal
role.”
His longtime friend and advis-
er Peter Ragone says, “If you have
a record and a vision, why not
throw your hat in the ring? He
certainly has a lot more executive
experience than most of the other
candidates.”
Here are the facts: New York
City is the largest city in America.
It has the largest school system,
the largest police force and a
budget of almost $93 billion.
De Blasio hopes if he can ham-
mer that home on the debate
stage this week, that all those
massive systems were under his
purview and didn’t fall apart,
while he kept crime down for
six years and managed to create
half a million jobs, he might stand
a chance. “I think the question
always is how do you put your
ideas into action?” he says. “My
job is to make that vivid and tokids getting poisoned by lead
paint; hundreds of people with-
out heat in the winter or air condi-
tioning, right before the heat
wave — that a federal monitor had
to take over. And then there’s de
Blasio’s fundraising woes. He was
under investigation in 2016, and
much of his campaign funds have
come from big donors in New
York who have a stake in his
mayoral business.
His support among African
Americans has taken hits of late.
“All you have to figure out for an
example of why he should not run
is Eric Garner,” says Bertha Lewis,an activist and founder of the
Black Institute, who is a former de
Blasio supporter.
De Blasio said his actions in the
Garner case were slowed by the
Justice Department’s investiga-
tion and need to ensure due proc-
ess, but in the future “unless
stopped by court order or the
request of kin, we will immedi-
ately begin our disciplinary proc-
ess when an unarmed civilian is
killed at the hands of an officer.”
Still, judging from the recep-
tion he was getting at the pool, the
idea that everyone hates him isn’t
at all true.
People there want to know
about his wife, Chirlane McCray,
who does unpaid work for the city
including running a mental
health initiative called
ThriveNYC. She is African Ameri-
can and very popular. Their son,
Dante, is a New York State policy
debate champion, just graduated
from Yale with a degree in politi-they are college-educated, and
they don’t like his attitude.”
(Asked about his presidential
campaign, she said, “I was hoping
it wasn’t true.”)
If you know anything about
him, you probably know about his
gym routine. Every day, while liv-
ing on the Upper East Side in
Gracie Mansion, he drives
11 miles in a taxpayer-funded SUV
to the YMCA in his old neighbor-
hood, Park Slope, Brooklyn. It’s
mentioned in practically every
article written about him. When
he announced his presidential
bid, fliers appeared at the Y stat-ing, “By entering these premises,
you agree not to run for President
of the United States in 2020 or in
any future race.... You agree to
focus solely on your current job
here in New York City, which you
are not excelling at.”
Talk to de Blasio about the gym,
and he doesn’t see it as a lark, but
a personal imperative. “I’m proud
to say I’ve lost weight,” he says.
“This is like conditioning for ath-
letics. You want to be maximum
energy.... I was carrying prob-
ably 10 or 15 more pounds than I
am now.”Different perceptions
Petty issues, such as the may-
or’s choice of a gym, have some-
times obscured the bigger prob-
lems of his tenure. The homeless-
ness population is nearly 60,000,
which is a drop from a historic
high, also during de Blasio’s ten-
ure. The New York City Housing
Authority, was in such disarray —not-so-bad record.
Stop-and-frisk policing has re-
duced dramatically under de Bla-
sio, but BLM protesters are upset
that the officer who killed
Eric Garner is still on NYPD pay-
roll, five years after Garner’s
death, and that de Blasio hasn’t
taken a stronger stance. Cops be-
lieve de Blasio, who has pushed
for retraining the entire force to
foster better officer-community
relations, hasn’t stood up for
them in controversial shootings
when it’s mattered. While he fre-
quently cites the more than
100,000 units of affordable hous-
ing he’s created or preserved, crit-
ics say they’re not helping the
poorest New Yorkers and have
increased racial segregation.
“It’s the second-toughest politi-
cal job and the world’s toughest
press corps, so there’s always go-
ing to be a natural friction,” says
Eric Phillips, de Blasio’s former
press secretary. “But he was elect-
ed in a race that no one thought he
would win, so take that into ac-
count. There’s a very, very narrow
band of people who dispropor-
tionately don’t like the mayor.”
Among the claims he’s staking
his “Working Families First”
presidential race on: He delivered
on his promise of universal pre-K;
he mandated two-weeks paid sick
leave; he raised the minimum
wage to $15 an hour.
“The thing that is confounding
is that Upper West Side liberals
should love him,” says Bob Hardt,
political director of the local TV
network NY1. “But he’s so inter-
ested in bridging the haves and
the have-nots that he’s alienating
the white middle and upper class
— not the 1 percent, but the
10 percent.”
Rebecca Katz, a former de Bla-
sio strategist, adds: “He started
off his tenure railing against
elites, and he was unapologetic. It
just so happens that a handful of
reporters and columnists fall into
the categories he’s attacked. Then
they go write think pieces becauseand brown folks who make up de
Blasio’s base; according to an
April Quinnipiac poll, he enjoys a
66 percent approval rating
among black voters, a 40 percent
approval rating among Hispanic
voters, and a 58 percent disap-
proval rating among white vot-
ers.
Somewhere across the pool, a
chant begins: “De Blasio for Presi-
dent! De Blasio for President!”
De Blasio, who is 58 years old
and 6-foot-5, was one of the last
candidates to toss his hat into that
Dunkin’ grab bag of a Democratic
field, but unlike the 23 other can-
didates, he’s endured a barrage of
derision from press and citizens
alike who don’t like the idea of
their mayor looking for a second
job — particularly when many of
them don’t think he’s done a good
job at this one. De Blasio seems to
be boldly raising the question: Is
it possible to both run a city of
8.6 million opinionated people,
and run for president simulta-
neously, and do either of them
well?
History would say no. John
Lindsay, the only other sitting
New York City mayor to run for
president, mounted a failed at-
tempt for the Democratic nomi-
nation in 1972. And he looked like
a Kennedy.
“The thing de Blasio is going
through is something every may-
or goes through. New Yorkers love
to quibble with or totally destroy
their mayors,” says Bill Cunning-
ham, a former political and City
Hall aide for Mayor Michael
Bloomberg. Former mayor Ru-
dolph W. Giuliani might have cut
crime, Cunningham says, but half
the city despised him before 9/11.
Bloomberg raised taxes his first
year in office and got eviscerated,
and still got reelected.
De Blasio hasn’t made it easier
on himself, particularly in recent
days.
Case in point, the Saturday be-
fore the heat wave, he’d been
campaigning for the presidency
in rural Iowa when a major black-
out plunged the West Side of Man-
hattan into darkness. Rather than
make a big show of setting up a
command center in Iowa or use
his (rather small) campaign funds
to charter a private plane, he
stayed where he was for an hour
or so, then drove four hours to
Chicago, where he missed the last
plane of the night, and didn’t get
back to the city until the morning,
long after the lights had come on.
“The most important thing in
the first hour was to be in a
location where I could have con-
sistent communication to know
what’s happening and give the
right instructions and confirm
the right people are in place,” de
Blasio said afterward. Once his
team saw the blackout had
spread, they moved quickly to get
him home, but the damage had
been done.
A day later, the New York Post
ran a cover demanding the may-
or’s resignation: “De Blasio Must
Go!”
The resignation demand was
“ludicrous,” de Blasio said, but
being gone during the blackout
was not a good look.
‘Natural friction’
De Blasio’s presidential cam-
paign announcement was greeted
with another classic New York
Post cover declaring, “Everyone
Hates Bill!” claiming he’d pulled
off the rare feat of uniting Black
Lives Matter protesters, cops,
community activists and Whoo-
pi Goldberg in agreement that he
should definitely not run. Then
Vox published a piece called,
“Why Bill de Blasio is so hated,
explained,” that was actually a
nuanced examination of the bad
press he’s received relative to his
DE BLASIO FROM C1
De Blasio’s relationship with New Yorkers: It’s complicated
ED REED/MAYORAL PHOTOGRAPHY OFFICE
Mayor Bill de Blasio at Orchard Beach in the Bronx last weekend. “It’s the second-toughest political job and the world’s toughest press corps,” says his former press secretary.(2006, William Morrow). This
guide is written by two moms, is
easy to read and contains lots of
illustrations.
I enjoy your column!
JulieJulie: “Tired Mom” was dealing
with an uncooperative,
uncommunicative teen. This
mom wondered if she could
somehow just skip the teen
years, altogether.
Given that skipping this
important and challenging
parenting phase is not advisable
— or possible — I completely
agree that “How to Talk... ” will
be a useful guide.Amy’s column appears seven days a
week at washingtonpost.com/advice.
Write to [email protected]
or Amy Dickinson, P.O. Box 194,
Freeville, N.Y. 13068. You can also
follow her @askingamy.
© 2019 by Amy Dickinson distributed by
Tribune Content Agencyboyfriend won’t acknowledge it.
One partner suddenly
choosing to stay up frequently
after the other goes to bed at
night is on a shortlist of red flags
that could signify trouble for you
two. (Other red flags are
mysterious texting/calling at odd
hours, or spending lots of extra
time at work or at the gym).
Your boyfriend might not feel
that anything is lacking in your
relationship, but you do. He
should acknowledge this and, if
he wants to keep your
relationship on track, you two
should quite simply spend more
quality time together, including
at night.Dear Amy: I am a
psychotherapist and work with
lots of teens.
A great resource for “Tired
Mom” might be the book “How
to Talk So Teens Will Listen and
Listen So Teens Will Talk” by
Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlishweeks it has been three to five
times a week. He says he wants
to stay up later because he often
comes home later than I do.
However, when we don’t go to
bed together, our love life falters.
There is a lot of intimacy in
sharing a bed with a loved one,
and I have felt robbed of that
lately.
It has started to chip away at
my self-confidence.
I have brought this to his
attention, but he says he didn’t
realize the change and doesn’t
feel anything is lacking in our
relationship.
Am I overreacting?
Sleeping AloneSleeping Alone: Any time you
and your partner experience a
major change in your habits,
your relationship will change,
too.
Not going to bed together up
to five times a week qualifies as a
major change, even if yourYounger family members may
not comprehend the real-world
consequences of restricting and
outlawing abortion, and your
experience taking on the risks of
an illegal abortion may help
them to understand the stakes.
Thank you for your
willingness to tell your story.Dear Amy: My boyfriend and I
have been together for two years
and have lived together for
almost one year. Things have
been great — but I feel there’s
been a shift in the wind,
recently.
Although I have a set schedule
and my boyfriend does not, we
typically go to bed together at
the same time. However, lately
my boyfriend has wanted to stay
up later than he normally does,
while I head to bed alone.
This has been getting under
my skin. Before, he might have
stayed up later once or twice a
month. But in the past couple ofexperiences being what they are.
We always planned to keep
this private until now, when a
woman’s right to choose is under
full assault.
No one should have to go
through what we and many
others went through to end an
unplanned and unwanted
pregnancy.
So here’s the dilemma, Amy:
Should we share our experience
in support of women’s rights and
risk the fallout or continue to
keep this private?
In a QuandaryIn a Quandary: I am, with your
express permission, publishing
your statement — where it will
be seen by millions of people. I
applaud your choice to speak as
a couple who chose abortion and
then went on to have a family
together, without regrets.
Yes, as a couple, I hope you
will hold hands and personally
disclose this to your family.Dear Amy: Back
before we were
married — in the
1960s (pre-Roe v.
Wade), my wife
and I borrowed
$500 and went to a small dusty
town on the other side of the
Arizona-Mexico border to get an
abortion. The “clinic” was tiny. It
only had screens for windows.
Our journey was not without
risk and danger.
Among other experiences, we
remember having to stand under
the sweltering sun after the
procedure while border
patrolmen meticulously
searched our car for drugs.
However, unlike some other
friends in similar circumstances,
the outcome was okay for us.
While we have never regretted
our decision, we have never
shared it with our closest friends
of the last 50 years, or with our
children or grandchildren —
people’s own judgments and
A couple wonders whether they should share a decision they made decades ago
Ask Amy
AMY
DICKINSON
“If you have a record and a vision, why not
throw your hat in the ring? He certainly has
a lot more executive experience than most of
the other candidates.”
Peter Ragone, de Blasio friend and adviser