Government officials commonly switch to campaigns, but de Blasio had the advantage of a massive staff that dwarfs the size of a Senate office. | Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office De Blasio presidential campaign bankrolled by donors with city interests

Mayor Bill de Blasio preached the gospel of campaign finance reform during his brief and ill-fated presidential run, but he practiced under a different code.

Despite disavowing the role of big money in politics, de Blasio relied primarily on donors who have business dealings with the city, are often wealthy and are rarely motivated by ideology — something reinforced by the campaign’s most recent federal filings from this month.


Relatives of Brooklyn developer Rubin Schron, a financial backer of a Sunset Park facility seeking a rezoning from city government, gave a combined $5,600, for example. Schron is listed in the “doing business” database — a list of people and companies with active financial dealings before the city whose donations would represent a conflict of interest. However, in this case the donations came from Schron’s son and daughter-in-law, who are not on the list.

The Industry City rezoning proposal has been in the works for years and has backers within the administration, but is subject to the whims of a mercurial City Council member who has rendered the initiative’s fate uncertain. Schron did not respond to a request for comment.

An official with Bike Rent NYC, which calls itself the “official bike rental company” of the city’s parks department, gave $2,000 in September, three days before de Blasio dropped out of the race. The donor, Mergen Saryyev, did not respond to calls for comment.

And a real estate firm tied to the New York Mets gave $5,400 as the campaign was winding down. The company is pursuing a lucrative development project next to Citi Field in Queens that will ultimately be decided by the mayor’s office. While the principals of the company who appear in the database did not give, the money was funneled through others at the firm. The donors declined to comment.

They were among those who gave in the final weeks of de Blasio’s four-month, long shot campaign to clinch the Democratic nomination for president — an aspiration he dropped when he could not secure anywhere near enough donations to qualify for the third national debate.

People who have a business stake in the policies and actions of his administration largely underwrote the $1.4 million he raised to bankroll his candidacy, including at least eight who appeared on the “doing business” list, according to a POLITICO analysis. His campaign said all those donations were either returned or were from people who were erroneously included in the database.

The final filing also showed de Blasio did not adhere to his own rhetoric about not relying on wealthy donors. “My message is not going to be one that appeals to wealthy donors,” he said during an August interview with POLITICO.

Yet the money that fueled his trips around the country mostly came from a small group of well-heeled contributors who gave $2,800, the maximum allowed in a presidential race.

In fact, these top-dollar donations added up to nearly $925,000, or roughly two-thirds of the campaign’s total haul.

The de Blasio camp said he received about 17,500 contributions and only 1,000 were from those giving more than $200. But larger donations made up $1.28 million of his modest war chest.

Self-interested donors are not unique to de Blasio — Pete Buttigieg has been criticized for his reliance on lobbyists and Joe Biden reportedly took money from credit card companies while vouching for one of their causes when he was in Congress.

But as New York City mayor, de Blasio has vastly more power than a federal lawmaker to shape the professional fortunes of people in the private sector, particularly those in the real estate industry who have long given money for his political ambitions.

De Blasio fancies himself a reformer among the likes of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, whose grassroots fundraising apparatuses bear no resemblance to his.

Yet even when he did rely on small-dollar contributions, they were often from people who wanted something in return.

Realizing he was far short of the donor threshold to qualify for the third national debate, de Blasio leaned on allies in the Orthodox Jewish community to pitch in $1 each. In a Yiddish email obtained by POLITICO, Satmar community leaders acknowledged de Blasio had little chance of winning, but urged people to give regardless to “support your needs, the entire ultra-Orthodox public and our rights and needs.”

The city’s hotel workers union, one of de Blasio’s few endorsers, helped him raise much of his total. Shortly before the June endorsement in the headquarters of the Hotel Trades Council, de Blasio had instructed his Department of City Planning to study the feasibility of expanding one of the union’s policy priorities.

Fundraising was not the only way de Blasio’s day job helped him in the campaign. Being mayor afforded him a uniquely prominent bully pulpit and a taxpayer-funded infrastructure that helped bypass the growing pains of an underdog presidential campaign.

For instance, de Blasio tapped two high-ranking government officials in February to run his political action committee — a precursor to his presidential campaign, and one that is the subject of two complaints filed with the Federal Election Commission for sidestepping the protocols of exploring a run for office.

Once he jumped in, he relied on familiar faces to run the show — at least seven government staffers left their City Hall jobs to work for his campaign, often depleting their paid vacation days before being put on the campaign payroll. The setup saved money for de Blasio’s lean operation at a time when he didn’t have much to work with.

Other government aides volunteered for weekend travel, getting reimbursed for airfare and hotels but sparing the campaign the cost of more full-time employees. (The cost of de Blasio’s security detail, which customarily travels with all New York City mayors, was billed to taxpayers at a tab the mayor’s aides will not release.)

Government officials commonly switch to campaigns, but de Blasio had the advantage of a massive staff that dwarfs the size of a Senate office, as well as employees with a generous amount of paid time off in the bank.

And perhaps his biggest asset — the platform that comes with being New York City mayor — gave him an opportunity to get attention for government policies that formed the foundation of his pro-worker campaign message.

He rolled out his signature line about American wealth being “in the wrong hands” during his annual State of the City address in January — a quote that got national attention and became his biggest applause line during his bid.

He trumpeted support for a stalled 2014 City Council bill to require paid vacation for all workers at a rally in City Hall, and the proposal turned into a talking point of his candidacy, despite being in limbo for four years.

He also made a policy announcement about building emissions on government time, but the press conference in the lobby of Trump Tower had undeniable political overtones. He jumped into the race later that week.

In the end, being mayor proved as much a curse as a blessing: He entered the race with national notoriety, diminished by six years of negative headlines that shaped the opinions of voters beyond the five boroughs. In poll after poll, he surpassed his competitors in one area: negative favorability ratings.

De Blasio and his team say they maintained a separation between City Hall and the campaign, and did not take money from people listed in the "doing business" database. But that list excludes people angling for city contracts or land use deals, and those who work for companies that interact with city agencies on a more quotidian basis and may want additional entrée to air grievances or push a request.

“As we’ve said many times, all city decisions are made based on the merits,” senior adviser and de facto campaign manager Jon Paul Lupo said in a statement. “But sure, you cracked the code.”

“Politicians running for other offices have advantages. They also have disadvantages,” he added. “Clear your shelf for award season.”

Lupo, who worked in City Hall before leaving for the campaign, is now a private consultant and will resurrect the mayor’s Fairness PAC, which he said would raise funds for like-minded candidates around the country.

It remains to be seen whether de Blasio will be able to expand his donor base for that goal.