Inside the Last, Desperate Days of de Blasio’s 2020 Campaign

So what are these people who have given money to him get in return in city business, in the future...?

Trump and deBlasio - two sides of the same narcissistic, greedy and corrupt coin.

No money donated will be WASTED, I guarantee it...!

Makes Rick Perry in 2016 look like a serious candidate.

So if I max out my individual contribution is it legal for me to give my son $2800 for him to pass to Blasio’s campaign? Blasio has zero chance of winning the nomination, any contribution was an act of kindness or hope that Blasio might pass some city tax revenue your way. Legal corruption, but it’s still corrupt.

Wait, is that legal? To take those donations days before dropping out? And where did he get the money to run for President? Did he take taxpayer money?? Although he may have forgotten about us, his constituents want to know.

My suggestion would be he should have made those calls in a bathroom with the sound of a toilet flushing to emulate where their donations were going. Why feel sorry for Him? Horrible mayor and glad for the cities sake there are term limits.

This is all so dirty, had to wash my hands after reading it.

The Mayor’s hubris knows no bounds. Any thinking, rational person knew his campaign was doomed from the start; he was re-elected only because of the lack of a qualified opponent. That he would call people he had pledged not to, and demand money, is both anger inducing and pathetic, at the same time. If he had any integrity, he would resign now, as he clearly has demonstrated no real interest in being mayor any longer.

Sigh.... Big city mayors - the more things change - the more they stay the same. "We shall reach greater and greater platitudes of achievement." ~ Richard J. Daley

Yes, but Don Quixote was pure of heart. Bill de Blasio is corrupt.

Weird. What sort of mature person, facing elimination, takes money ($2800) knowing full well the race is lost. Maybe someone who’s never run a business. Someone who’s used to government and doner largesse. Seems desperate. Sleezy.

I found his presidential campaign to be less than pathetic. At least Don Quixote made for some great literature. I find it hard to believe that he ever really thought he had a chance. And throwing good money after bad sounds a lot like government.

Reading this, it is so easy to pile on to the Mayor. What strikes me is how disconnected from reality he (and most politicians) are. I don't know if you call it sociopathic, but man, the people leading our city and country seem to have zero understanding of what's actually going on around them.

Leave it to the Wilponzis to be the official last donors to the ludicrous vanity campaign of a life long Boston Red Sox fan. Perhaps he should throw out the first pitch on Opening Day next season... if he could get there on time.

Any walk around any part of New York City at any time (let alone a few days of reading this newspaper) should inspire anyone with any imagination and intelligence at all with a lot of ideas about what could be done to make things better. EVERY DAY. Yet somehow a man gifted with two terms as mayor can't seem to be bothered. I feel like the city is running on auto pilot. DeBlasio would have been the worst possible president the Democrats could possibly have selected. Luckily, everybody understood that but him... and apparently some rich donors.

Yes, I am NOT a fan of our Mayor, ... and that animus has increased over time as he has done less and less to earn respect - much less a 6-figure salary. Everything about his run for President - and much of his entire political life - smells very bad. Even more than Cuomo - and I admit that some of this may be "optics" - his PAY-TO-PLAY mentality is part and parcel of why populism has taken hold in many places. People USED TO view many of the people who represented them as true "public servants," people who delivered on a promise to REPRESENT their constituents and to try to make their lives better. Mayor Bill is clearly one of those "NO, I look after ME most of the time" fellas. Too often, this comes at the expense of the 8 million or so people that expect more and deserve more from our Mayor. I have little doubt that if one looked at the donor list - including the sad-sack "Mets family" - you would see a scary amount of "he/they profit from having a friend in City Hall" every bit as much as convicted Mayors in NY's past and more recent ones in Baltimore and other places. What the article says about Bill's quest for higher office is also punches pulled. The race was not quixotic - it was ABSURD! Only in near nutty 2019 is failing-to-do-a-decent-job-as-Mayor-of-NY somehow NOT disqualifying in terms of "higher office." Fortunately, for all that you can fool MANY voters much of the time, this time, common sense prevailed! RIP, BdB - in terms of any future in politics.

I like Bill DeBlasio (it's not true that New Yorkers don't like him) he just wasn't my first (or second or third) choice for president.

In the great city of New York, there must be a good candidate for Mayor who can replace this one. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/07/nyregion/chiara-de-blasio-security-detail.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Fj.-david-goodman&action=click&contentCollection=undefined®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=4&pgtype=collection

"He told people that he wasn’t interested in small donations from casual supporters. .." The woke social justice warrior asking fat cats for support. And getting it in a way that feels like the Ukrainian quid pro quo.

"I felt sorry for his pain, not so much for him. I heard a person who was in pain." I think this is the most trenchant and profound comment I've ever read on Warren Wilhelm (also known as Bill de Blasio), both as a person and a politician. No one likes or feels sorry for the man. But we all recognize the evanescent traces of humanity in his behavior. And we can't help but feel like our own humanity is at stake in the pain of another. The fourteen months remaining in his current mayoralty will, I expect, be much like (spoiler alert!) the period between when Old Yeller was bitten by the wolf and when Old Yeller was put out of his misery.

Anyone wonder where those late contributions will go, how they will be spent, and what will be done for the donors?

Money being funneled to people who have no chance of mounting a campaign for office is money lost to the Democratic nominee for president. Or to other Democratic candidates. Republicans have the upper hand in campaign funds.

Without actually saying it, the article makes clear what was going on. The last minute donors knew they weren't contributing to a viable presidential candidate. They were New York business people giving money to a sitting mayor for their presumed mutual benefit.

"Others were less forthcoming with their reasons for helping a mayor whose campaign was slowly coming apart." Allow me to speak for these reluctant-to-go-on-the-record donors: They gave cash in advance now in exchange for favors from de Blasio later. Next question?