Bill de Blasio's Intriguing Capitol Hill Opportunity

Ex-NYC Mayor's congressional run may be a great idea or a Beto-esque failure

Former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday morning he is running for New York’s 10th congressional district after leaving his mayoral position in January. “The polls show people are hurting, they need help, they need help fast and they need leaders who can actually get them help now and know how to do it,” 61-year-old de Blasio said in his announcement.

First things first, let’s digest the fact that de Blasio announced this on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, a longstanding program that does moderately OK in terms of viewership and consistency. But for all things considered, announcing this on national television instead of local NYC networks has got to be one of the most Bill de Blasio ideas ever.

Sure, the ex-mayor has to grab the attention of the 4 semi-wealthy liberal mega-donors that watch MSNBC at 9:00 AM on a Friday and begin to network for a congressional race that is less than 6 months away. But which staffer thought this was the way to streamline a major announcement instead of spreading out interviews through local outlets, where the vast majority of NYC constituents watch TV?

Don’t be surprised in the slightest if de Blasio were to derail his own campaign by campaigning from network studios instead of the conventional ‘front-porch campaign,’ which is how the NYC constituency thrives?

Not to mention, the congressional district he’s running for was recently redrawn to include a portion of Rep. Jerry Nadler’s (D - NY) area, which would certainly be one hell of an uphill battle for someone whose reputation has been on pandering and something — don’t forget, he’s a groundhog murderer.

Granted, the attention span of an average voter is exceedingly short but de Blasio’s political history stretches to his abysmal 2020 presidential run, failing to consistently poll over 1% — alongside another failed NYC candidate: Andrew Yang. What’s worse, approximately 75% of NYC voters did not want de Blasio to run in that race. How telling.

With all that said, I think de Blasio will find a way to dig a hole from Brooklyn to the Capitol Hill tunnels by means of fundraising and — I’ll give it to him — a newly redrawn congressional district, which barely has comparable competition, as of this writing (only a handful of non-noteworthy state representatives and so forth.) Only time and money alike will tell as to whether or not de Blasio will be another example of ‘Betoism’ or another namesake going through the revolving door.