Pledging to “leave no New Yorker behind” by focusing on public education and neighborhood and pocketbook issues, Bill de Blasio, the city’s public advocate, announced on Sunday that he was entering the race to become the city’s next mayor.
Mr. de Blasio, 51, made his long-expected announcement in front of his three-story row house in Park Slope, Brooklyn, accompanied by his wife and teenage son. The modest, homespun tableau stood in calculated contrast to the formality of an announcement at City Hall, to reinforce Mr. de Blasio’s pitch as a family man from outside Manhattan, embodying the city’s diversity.
Cheered by several hundred bundled-up supporters chanting “Bill!” and “Yes, we can,” Mr. de Blasio outlined several priorities, including improving public education, aiding small-business owners and revamping stop-and-frisk police procedures.
And picking up on his wife’s introduction of him as an “outer-borough working dad,” he vowed to be a “mayor for our neighborhoods” and cater to New Yorkers who feel that they have been “ignored and priced out” under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who is in the final year of his third term.
“Let’s be honest about where we are today: a city that in too many ways has become a tale of two cities, a place where City Hall too often has catered to the interests of the elite rather than the needs of everyday New Yorkers,” Mr. de Blasio said.
Mr. de Blasio’s rhetoric echoed the “two New Yorks” theme that was central to the unsuccessful bids of Fernando Ferrer, the former Bronx borough president, in 2001 and 2005. But while some critics charged that Mr. Ferrer’s language was divisive, Mr. de Blasio sought to both praise and bury Mr. Bloomberg, who currently enjoys strong job approval ratings.
For instance, Mr. de Blasio applauded the mayor’s anti-obesity and antismoking initiatives, as well as his national push for immigration reform. But he also hammered the mayor — and obliquely, a major Democratic rival, Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker — for the “back-room deal” that allowed Mr. Bloomberg to seek a third term.
“Democracy bends to no one man,” Mr. de Blasio said.
Recent polls suggest that Mr. de Blasio, despite being elected to citywide office in 2009, is relatively unknown; while his job approval ratings are solid, many voters still do not know enough about him to form an opinion.
Even so, Mr. de Blasio is viewed as one of three top-tier Democrats in the race, along with Ms. Quinn and William C. Thompson Jr., a former city comptroller who lost to Mr. Bloomberg in 2009.
Another major Democratic officeholder, John C. Liu, the current comptroller, is also likely to run but has been hampered by a federal investigation into his campaign finances.
Bruce Berg, a professor of political science at Fordham, said “it’s Quinn’s race to lose” for now.
But he said Democratic primary elections often skewed toward the most liberal voters, adding that Mr. de Blasio, who is banking on union support and voters outside Manhattan, had “already got a base of credentials upon which he can move as far to the left as he needs to, in order to separate himself from the other Democratic candidates.”
The winner of the Democratic primary is likely to be favored in the November general election because Democrats outnumber Republicans, 6 to 1. Still, no Democrat has won the mayor’s office in two decades, and this year’s Republican primary has attracted several candidates, including Joseph J. Lhota, a former deputy mayor and former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Mr. de Blasio worked for Mayor David N. Dinkins, then as a regional housing administrator in the Clinton administration under Andrew M. Cuomo, now the governor. He later managed Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2000 campaign for Senate, before winning two terms as a city councilman, starting in 2001.
On the Council, he became a passionate voice on the homeless and housing issues. As a citywide official, he has been a strong supporter of government transparency and changes in campaign finance rules.
Mr. de Blasio was introduced on Sunday by his son, Dante, a high school sophomore, and his wife, Chirlane McCray, whom he met while both worked in the Dinkins administration. His daughter, Chiara, is a first-year college student in California.
Mr. de Blasio appeared to choke back tears when mentioning his late father, a subject he rarely addresses in public. His father, he said, was a World War II veteran who lost a leg in the Battle of Okinawa and then suffered what the candidate now assumes was post-traumatic stress.
“He became an alcoholic,” Mr. de Blasio said, before recounting how his parents’ breakup, when he was 7, cemented for him the importance of family and friends.
De Blasio Kicks Off Campaign for Mayor
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De Blasio Kicks Off Campaign for Mayor
