N.Y. / REGION

Mayor de Blasio’s Days on the Road Fuel Criticism at Home

By 
Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York on the Des Moines riverfront with Michael Carey, an aide, last month. Ryan Donnell for The New York Times 
A rally by the steps of the United States Capitol. Fire-up-the-base speeches in Iowa and Wisconsin. Cross-country political trips, paid for with private money, and a Silicon Valley fund-raiser hosted by tech moguls, with tickets going for up to $10,000 apiece.
Clinton? Rubio? Bush?
No. De Blasio.
After 16 months as mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio seems determined to escape the confines of his day job and to prompt a national liberal movement — even as he leaves himself open to criticism that he is not focusing on problems at home.
This week, Mayor de Blasio, a Democrat, is off to Washington to spend two days pressing federal lawmakers to shift their policies leftward. He flies from there to California, where he will speak about economic inequality and raise money for his national effort at a private reception in San Francisco, with the former president of Facebook, Sean Parker, as a co-host.
By the time Mr. de Blasio returns, he will have been traveling outside New York on political trips for at least a portion of 10 of the last 31 days. (Throw in a vacation to Puerto Rico and college visits with his son, and the mayor has spent about a third of April and May on the road.)
The mayor, who has steadfastly defended his trips, argued on Monday that his federal and municipal efforts were intertwined, and pointed to his efforts on housing, immigration and education as signs that he remains focused on the city.
“Mayors before me have understood it the same way: They’ve had to speak to national issues, while making sure things work here every day,” Mr. de Blasio said at a news conference in Queens. “My job is to do both.”
Still, Mr. de Blasio is pursuing his extracurricular activities at a notably early stage of his mayoralty. And at times, he has risked sounding like an outsider, evaluating his constituents from afar.
“A lot of people outside New York City understand what happened in the first year of New York City better than people in New York City,” Mr. de Blasio said in a profile in Rolling Stone, referring to the first year of his administration. “But I’m convinced something very special happened here.”
The remark prompted a cartoon in The Daily News that depicted the mayor with a giant balloon for a head, floating away from a puny body. “Caution,” the caption read. “Do not overinflate.”
Advisers to Mr. de Blasio said his comment had been misinterpreted, saying the mayor wanted to draw a distinction between the preoccupations of New York City tabloids and what he viewed as his broader achievements, like starting a free prekindergarten program for 53,000 students, as well as a municipal identification card program.
“He’s using every tool as mayor of New York City to combat the central issue of our times, which is income inequality,” said John Del Cecato, a political consultant who is helping to oversee Mr. de Blasio’s travels.
“But he knows there is only so much that a mayor can do on his own,” Mr. Del Cecato added. “He really feels it’s an obligation to his constituents, to 8.4 million people, to help push the federal government to do its part.”
When it comes to municipal matters, though, Mr. de Blasio has shown varying degrees of enthusiasm.
In Queens on Monday, he announced a more stringent inspection regimen for the city’s troubled homeless shelters, denouncing an “unacceptable” status quo and adding, “I’m very proud of what is being done here.”
But at a required lengthy city budget presentation last week, the mayor seemed less excited. After joking with reporters that driving to Las Vegas was “an appealing prospect as this press conference wears on,” he ended the event on an ironic note. “Thank you for sitting through this long and fascinating presentation,” the mayor said, dryly.
Wanderlust among mayors is hardly new.
Michael R. Bloomberg, a political independent, eagerly pursued a national profile while mayor, urging other cities to adopt his ban on smoking and leading a coalition to end gun trafficking; he also mulled a run for president, although those activities took place well after his first term. Mr. Bloomberg also traveled frequently to Bermuda.
Rudolph W. Giuliani, a Republican, ran for the United States Senate toward the end of his tenure as mayor. John V. Lindsay, a Republican who later switched parties, campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination late in his second term.
“You have to strap them to the mast, like Odysseus,” said Gordon J. Davis, a senior aide to Mr. Lindsay and former city parks commissioner. New York mayors, he added, can find the lure of fame “intoxicating.”
But Mr. Davis, who was a speechwriter during Mr. Lindsay’s presidential bid, said he also believed the job required shining a spotlight on urban issues.
“Is it the obligation of the mayor of the city of New York to be a spokesman on national issues? Absolutely, it is part of the job,” Mr. Davis said. “There may be some style issues on when you do it, and how you do it, but I think it’s perfectly appropriate.”
Mr. de Blasio has denied any presidential ambitions — at least before his re-election fight in 2017 — but he is embracing the national spokesman role. Besides Rolling Stone, he gave an interview on MSNBC and wrote an op-ed article in The Washington Post with Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts.
Chirlane McCray, the mayor’s wife, is also courting a national audience, speaking with National Public Radio and publishing a Mother’s Day essayin Time magazine.
Mr. de Blasio has been less forthcoming recently with his local press corps. Until the event on Monday, the mayor had allowed City Hall reporters to question him, without restrictions on the topic, three times in the last three weeks, including once after he bumped into reporters on the City Hall plaza. (Aides to the mayor said the shooting death of a police officer and the budget presentation last week took precedent.)
In Washington this week, the mayor is scheduled to attend an event with Ms. Warren, before joining allies to unveil a list of federal policy demands, which he describes as the liberal equivalent of Newt Gingrich’s “Contract With America.” In California, the mayor is speaking at his daughter’s university and appearing with Robert Reich, the former labor secretary.
On Thursday in San Francisco, Mr. de Blasio is also set to attend a fund-raiser for the Campaign for One New York, a political nonprofit group established to advance his agenda. The group, which can accept large contributions outside New York City’s campaign finance limits, is paying for the mayor’s California trip.
George Arzt, a longtime aide to former Mayor Edward I. Koch, a Democrat, recalled that Mr. Lindsay’s presidential ambitions were harmed when a Brooklyn Democrat urged the mayor to end his travels with the much-publicized comment, “Little Sheba better come home.”
“It is extremely difficult being out of the city a significant number of days while telling city residents you are in charge,” Mr. Arzt said. He recalled that Mr. Koch, who ran for governor in his second term, rarely spent a night away from the mayoral residence, Gracie Mansion, for fear that something might go awry.
Mr. Koch had a saying, Mr. Arzt recalled: “If a sparrow dies somewhere in the city of a heart attack, it is my fault.”