The conversation around Mayor Bloomberg’s dinner table is about to get mighty interesting since his longtime companion, Diana Taylor, is going public with her support of Reshma Saujani, the novice candidate trying to unseat veteran Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY).
Mayoral aides say Taylor is acting strictly on her own, and not in concert with Bloomberg.
“I think Reshma is very smart,” Taylor told The Post.
“I’ve met her several times, and she has a great command of the issues. She’s exactly the kind of person we need to have running for congressional office.”
Taylor made a $1,000 contribution to Saujani, a 34-year-old hedge-fund manager. It’s the first check Taylor has written to any candidate.
Some Maloney backers tried to play down Taylor’s move, speculating she acted out of friendship.
But Taylor sounds like she’s going to take a much more active role in the September Democratic primary.
“I will be as helpful as I can in her campaign,” she declared.
Maloney declined to weigh in on Taylor’s motives.
But she insisted her relationship with the mayor is as strong as ever.
“I would say it’s good,” Maloney said. “We’re working together on a number of things.”
She sat next to Bloomberg at President Obama’s speech last week on reforming Wall Street, and the two could be seen chatting amiably.
Still, there was some distress in the Bloomberg camp when Maloney, along with everyone else in the city’s congressional delegation except Eliot Engel, voted last year to impose higher taxes on Wall Street bonuses.
But Maloney is a strong favorite to win a 10th term, and sees eye to eye with the mayor on most other issues.
So this may be a case where it’s wisest for him to steer clear of the race, making for a unique situation where Taylor is the one hitting the campaign trail, while Bloomberg stays on the sidelines.