Cuomo’s pick for mayor positions bid by backing Hillary
US Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, not Mayor de Blasio, has emerged as New York’s best-known defender of Hillary Clinton, in a “bigger political play” aimed at positioning the Brooklyn congressman to run for mayor next year, a prominent activist has told The Post.
The activist, with close ties to the Congressional Black Caucus and the Clinton campaign, cited several high-profile moves by Jeffries to defend Clinton in the face of attacks by Bernie Sanders as evidence of his newly emerged point man’s role.
“Read the tea leaves and you see what’s going on, what the bigger political play is: they don’t have de Blasio out there as a surrogate for Hillary, do they?’’ said the activist.
“It’s Hakeem who is out there as one of the lead people for Hillary. He’s everywhere from WNYC to CNN. By putting Hakeem forward they’re embarrassing de Blasio, who wound up having to walk the suburban blocks of Des Moines [Iowa] without an invitation or anyone from Hillary’s campaign being anywhere nearby.
“The calculation is that if Hillary is president next year, she’ll be in a position to help Hakeem take de Blasio out,’’ the activist continued.
De Blasio, who incurred the wrath of Clinton’s campaign by flirting with his own possible campaign for president and then waiting until almost the last minute to endorse the former secretary of state and New York senator, has also been targeted for ouster by Gov. Cuomo, who has privately sought to enlist Jeffries as a candidate for mayor next year.
Jeffries, a leader of the Congressional Black Caucus, has ripped Sanders in recent days for his criticisms of Clinton and President Obama in the wake of the last week’s Clinton/Sanders debate.
Meanwhile, some Democrats are beginning to fear for the first time that Sanders could beat Clinton in the state’s April 19 primary.
That possibility wasn’t taken seriously until recently, but Sanders’ strong showing in the Iowa caucuses, new national polls showing him in a virtual dead heat with Clinton, and his landslide victory in the New Hampshire primary have radically altered that outlook.
“Bernie is on a roll, with money and young voters flocking to his side, and if it remains that way through the South and he is standing tall after Super Tuesday, it’s possible he could win New York,’’ said a prominent Clinton backer.
Republican pollster John McLaughlin, who has worked on many New York campaigns, said, “Sanders could have a good chance to win New York if he maintains his momentum in the South, where, so far, a majority of African-Americans favor Hillary.”
Virtually all of New York’s leading Democrats have backed Clinton’s candidacy, but Sanders has the support of the state’s Working Families Party.
Ted Cruz’s campaign reached out from Texas to a longtime upstate Republican operative last week in hopes of finding someone to head his New York campaign leading up to the April 19 primary.
The call came “out of the blue’’ to the operative, who was described as “stunned” that he would be approached by the national campaign since he had done nothing on Cruz’s behalf, said a source familiar with the conversation.
“He asked them who would be leading Cruz’s operations here and the bottom-line answer was that they have no organization at all in New York,” the source continued.
The operative responded that he would “think about it over the weekend.”
Of the six Republican presidential hopefuls, only Donald Trump has what could be considered an active organization in New York — headed by Buffalo builder and failed 2010 gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino.