As the Wednesday vote for City Council speaker nears, Mayor de Blasio is leaning harder on pols to support his pick, Melissa Mark-Viverito, sources say.
He approached Bronx Democratic Chairman Carl Heastie on Friday for a meeting to peel votes away from Mark-Viverito’s main rival, Dan Garodnick, according to fellow Bronx Councilman Fernando Cabrera.
“The mayor is requesting to meet with The Bronx [council members],” Cabrera told The Post. “We haven’t decided if we’re going to or not. It’s going to come down to the wire.
“I’m just baffled. Why is the mayor getting involved so much in this thing? . . . Where’s the dignity and the pride?”
Even as Hizzoner took part in a photo-op at his own swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday, he urged council members Stephen Levin of Brooklyn and Andrew Cohen of The Bronx to vote his way, two sources with knowledge of the exchanges revealed.
“The mayor wants to see a united council,” a source said.
Levin is among the 30 council members Mark-Viverito claims are supporting her — four more than the 26 she needs to win the second most powerful position in city government. Cohen is expected to back Garodnick.
De Blasio began his campaign for Mark-Viverito before even taking office.
“I got a phone call from Mayor de Blasio,” recalled Councilman Inez Dickens of a conversation before Christmas. “He simply asked me to vote for Melissa. There were no threats of any kind, but the fact that the mayor is calling you is intimidating.”
“These council-speaker battles are done behind the scenes,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran political strategist. “It’s never a done deal until the final vote.”