Mayor Bill de Blasio presidential tease tour turned up a notch Monday as he announced plans to travel to the early presidential primary state of New Hampshire.
De Blasio is traveling Thursday to Boston to speak at Harvard University and will continue on northward Friday to New Hampshire.
“He wants to make sure ideas like Pre-K for All, paid personal time, and mental health are on the table as Democrats debate the party’s vision for the future,” said spokesman Michael Casca.
He plans to meet with Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess on Friday morning and head to Concord for a meeting with local liberal activists that evening.
The trip was first reported by Politico.
It’s the latest move made by de Blasio and his staffers, both subtle and not, to try to build his national operation and profile — or at least national interest in him building his profile.
His political operation has quietly hired a top digital consulting firm launched by one of the gurus of Sen. Bernie Sanders upstart 2016 presidential bid, sources told the Post.
“You don’t hire them to di– around,” said a well-connected Iowa Democrat.
De Blasio’s political committee, Fairness PAC, declined to comment before publication, but afterward denied the report. Campaign finance filings show the PAC worked with the company during the 2018 race, spending $4,500.
The firm, Aisle 518 Strategies, did not return a request for comment.
Company founder Tim Tagaris, the digital director for Sanders’ first presidential campaign, told Politico in January he plans to work for the self-described Vermont socialist if he runs again.
The hire came as de Blasio mounted a national media tour that’s included appearances with controversial HBO comedian Bill Maher and an appearance on CNN’s public affairs program, State of the Union.
All the while, his administration has confronted a storm of negative headlines back home over the city’s embattled Housing Authority, sprawling Police Dept. corruption case and quietly axing a City Hall staffer accused of sexual harassment.
De Blasio’s latest flirt with the national political scene follows his disastrous attempt to build turn himself into a kingmaker in 2016 presidential race, which included a failed attempt to organize a presidential candidates forum.
He eventually endorsed Hillary Clinton, whose campaign consigned him to door-knocking in Iowa and gave him a little watched time slot for his speech at the Democratic convention. His predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, got primetime.
It is also unclear what base of support would fuel any de Blasio presidential bid.
A January Quinnipiac survey put Hizzoner in dead last place when pollsters asked New Yorkers which prominent state pols they thought would make the best president.
Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg placed first, scoring 29 percent of respondents, while Gov. Andrew Cuomo came in second.
De Blasio claimed just 5 percent of respondents in the poll, even coming in behind newly minted Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez — who isn’t even old enough to run for the White House.