The Independent View: NYC Mayor 2017 Race Begins

Running at Mayor Bill de Blasio from the Left

Bradley Tusk, a former aide to Michael Bloomberg and Founder of anti-de Blasio campaign New York City Deserves Better, announced a partnership Thursday with a nonprofit coalition of churches that aims to unseat the Mayor by running a successful challenger in the 2017 Democratic Mayoral Primary. "We are here to address... the crisis of our great city under the comprehensive failure under the current Mayor Bill de Blasio," Johnnie Green, the Founding President of Mobilizing Preachers and Communities (MPAC), the church coalition, told reporters in Harlem.

Tusk told reporters that he sees the partnership with MPAC as two-pronged. The groups will fund-raise for a challenger to de Blasio, and, unless the "U.S. attorney takes care of this for us and there's an indictment," Tusk said, the groups will mount a challenger in the Democratic Primary. Who that will be, however, remains in question. Asked if the groups agree on who should mount a campaign, MPAC and Tusk answered with a quick chorus of "nopes."

Shaun Donovan, President Barack Obama's Budget Director, wants to run for Mayor of New York City and one of Michael Bloomberg's top political hands is putting together a preliminary effort to draft him into the 2017 Primary race against incumbent Bill de Blasio. The moves come as de Blasio, who's been on the outs with the White House after saying President Barack Obama showed up late to the income inequality conversation and is in such bad shape with the Clintons that all the Mayor got was a mid-afternoon speaking slot at last month's Democratic Convention, is battling rocky poll numbers and a list of investigations that has grown almost by the week. Donovan, who also served as Obama's Housing and Urban Development Secretary though the mortgage crisis recovery before moving into his current job, has been quietly talking up the idea of running for years in private, and those conversations had picked up recently, according to several people who've been involved in them.

Running at Mayor Bill de Blasio from the Right

Paul Massey, President of New York investment sales for real-estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, said he intends to seek the Republican nomination for Mayor next year. Massey, 56, announced his intended candidacy in a news release Thursday, saying his knowledge of the City as an investor would help him as a candidate.

He co-founded the privately-owned commercial property brokerage firm Massey Knakal Realty Services in 1988, and sold the company to Cushman & Wakefield in 2014. 'My partners and I built a successful business over three decades based on an intimate knowledge of every neighborhood in the five boroughs,' he said in the statement. 'I look forward to deepening my connections to each of those communities as a candidate and as a mayor.' Massey, who had been a resident of Larchmont, Westchester County, a suburb North of the City, registered to vote as a Manhattan resident last year, according to John Conklin, a spokesman for the State Board of Elections.

If Mr. Massey, a Republican, wanted to project the image of a capable manager, his first act as a declared candidate did little to help that cause. Although a news release announced that Mr. Massey had filed papers to begin his run for Mayor with the City's Campaign Finance Board (CFB), a spokesman for the Board, Matthew Sollars, said that officials there were not aware of having received any such filing. At the same time, John Conklin, a spokesman for the State Board of Elections, said that papers were filed on Thursday to form a Political Committee called Massey for Mayor 2017, but that the filing was missing a required document and the papers were returned.

The CFB stated the following candidates have filed disclosure statements for Mayor:

- Bill de Blasio (D)

- Michael J. Faulkner (R), former New York Jet Michel Faulkner announced that he is kicking off his 2017 City Hall campaign at a fund-raiser at the Harvard Club. The Republican gridiron star, a Manhattan Pastor who also ran for Congress in 2010, said in an email to supporters his campaign will focus on affordable housing, keeping the city safe and education.

- Josh Thompson (D), former Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch’s top aides announced he is running for Mayor of New York City in 2017. A key player in Finch’s education reform effort, made his announcement across several social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, and set up a campaign website. “I’m so honored and humbled to announce we’re running for Mayor of New York City."

Other Possible Candidates

Republican City Councilman Eric Ulrich is also eyeing a bid.

On the Democratic side, City Comptroller Scott Stringer, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and former Council speaker Quinn are considered potential challengers.