DeBlasio Lobbying for Labor Secretary in Biden Admin; Pelosi Pushing for Sean Maloney

Edited by: TJVNews.com

It appears that New York City’s former mayor has national political ambitions. According to a New York Post report, two term mayor of the Big Apple, Bill DeBlasio is seeking a position in President Biden’s cabinet.

A source familiar with the matter told the Post that DeBlasio, 61, who had once been a presidential contender for a brief time before dropping out of the race due to lack of support, is now  lobbying to succeed Labor Secretary Martin Walsh.

The source who had a close association with White House insiders told the Post that, “The mayor has had his eye on the Biden administration for a long time and now he sees an opening and he’s making his case for labor secretary to the White House.” The source added that, “He’s calling friends in the Biden administration to help make his case and push his candidacy.”

Walsh, who was a former mayor of Boston has plans to resign his post within days in order to head up the NHL Players’ Association, the Post reported.

Under federal law, the job of labor secretary involves ensuring “the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, to improve their working conditions and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment.”

The Post reported that during DeBlasio’s eight years as mayor, the Big Apple’s municipal workforce ballooned from 297,349 in June 2014 to a record high of 326,739 in June 2019. Six months after DeBlasio left office the number of municipal workers declined to 304,095 at the end of June 2022. This came as a result of a hiring freeze and the deleterious impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During his tenure as mayor, DeBlasio established deals with various labor unions in the city which included a retroactive pact that gave the nearly 100,000 members of District Council 37 annual raises of 2%, 2.25% and 3%, according to the report.

At that juncture, the city saw a 30% increase in payroll spending as it shot up from $41 billion to $53.4 billion due to the effects of DeBlasio’s actions while running the city.

Speaking to the Post, Hank Sheinkopf, a well regarded Democratic political consultant, said DeBlasio “enjoyed a very good relationship with labor unions…but it didn’t give him peace because he was a bad manager.”

He added that, “The Republican argument against him is: He was too pro-labor and his contract-negotiation style is costing the tens of billions of dollars right now. The bad aroma in the post-de Blasio years could be enough to toss him over the side.”

Also weighing in on this issue was Andrew Rein, the president of the independent Citizens Budget Commission who told the Post that DeBlasio “missed the opportunity to use labor negotiations to improve how the city operates to become more efficient and save money.”

The Post also reported that DeBlasio is not the only one vying for this position in the president’s cabinet.

Former congressman Sean Patrick Maloney, who in November was ousted from his seat in Congress by Republican Mike Lawler, is DeBlasio’s competitor for the White House job, the Post reported.

The report also indicated that Maloney’s humiliating loss came while he was chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and it was among the defeats that gave Republicans control of the House.

On Thursday, NBC News reported that the former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi is backing Maloney for the cabinet post.  Citing sources with knowledge of her actions, NBC News reported that Pelosi is lobbying labor leaders and the White House on Maloney’s behalf, the Post reported.

After departing office as mayor of the Big Apple. DeBlasio became a resident fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School Institute of Politics. In November, the Post reported that he was confronted by one of his students for trying to end the test for admission to the city’s elite high schools.