Bill de Blasio exploring run for Congress

By Associated Press
and Brooklyn Eagle staff

From brooklyneagle.com

Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says he’s considering a run for Congress after a legal battle over the state’s political maps opened up a seat in Brooklyn.

The two-term Democrat, who left office at the end of 2021, said Wednesday that he’s formed an exploratory committee for New York’s 10th Congressional District. The Democratic-heavy district will include a large slice of western Brooklyn, including de Blasio’s own Park Slope.

New York’s 10th District is currently represented by Demo- cratic U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler, but the state’s political maps are being redrawn under the super- vision of a New York judge after a court found they were uncon- stitutional and gerrymandered in favor of Democrats.

The court this week un- veiled new proposed maps that significantly redraw a number of New York City-based districts. Nadler said he believed the maps were changed so much that they are also unconstitutional, but if the proposed districts become final at the end of this week, he intends to run in the 12th District representing Manhattan.

The primary contest has been pushed back from June to August 23.

De Blasio toyed with running for governor this year before deciding to sit it out. He also had a short-lived run for president in 2019.

De Blasio originally came to prominence as a Brooklyn councilmember representing Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Red Hook and Carroll Gardens. While in the City Council, he was arrested in a protest to keep open firehouses that were earmarked for closure by the FDNY.

Both as a councilmember and as the city’s public advocate, he was active in the fight to keep Long Island College Hospital in Cobble Hill open. But once he became mayor, he instead pushed for a solution that would maintain a walk-in clinic on the LICH site as well as real estate development.

As mayor, he was known for his advocacy of universal pre-K education as well as his opposition to stop-and-frisk policing.