Former de Blasio attorney and MSNBC legal analyst taps Warren adviser for likely mayoral bid
Maya Wiley tapped a former Elizabeth Warren adviser ahead of her likely bid to succeed Mayor Bill de Blasio, her former boss, in next year’s Democratic primary.
Wiley has selected Maya Rupert, who also ran the presidential campaign of Julián Castro, to manage her race if she decides to run, a person working with Wiley said. Rupert also worked in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Wiley also hired Akilah Ensley of Invictus Strategy Group — who worked on Andrew Gillum’s run for Florida governor and Michael Blake’s congressional bid — as her finance director. Precision Strategies, Brilliant Corners Research & Strategies — which was founded by Cornell Belcher and worked on former President Barack Obama’s campaigns — and GPS Impact will handle communications, polling and digital strategy, respectively, the person said.
The new hires could help Wiley distance herself from de Blasio, who hired her as his top lawyer when he was elected. After two years in City Hall, Wiley chaired the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board — a police accountability panel — before working as a law professor at The New School and as an MSNBC legal analyst.
The outgoing mayor won election in 2013 and 2017 with a multiracial coalition, but has steadily lost the support of white and progressive New Yorkers during his rocky tenure. Wiley’s connections to him are likely to be a drawback with certain voters and will fuel a line of attack from others in the race. She has already sought to address concerns by calling on de Blasio to fire his police commissioner, Dermot Shea.
Wiley is close to Patrick Gaspard, Open Society Foundations president and a former Obama ambassador to South Africa who has deep ties to New York City’s Democratic and labor circles. He is also one of de Blasio’s oldest friends and advisers in politics, and has been pitching Wiley’s candidacy to 1199SEIU, the large health care workers union where he previously worked.
She has hired Jon Paul Lupo, who worked in City Hall and on de Blasio’s brief presidential campaign, as her general consultant and Alison Hirsh, who recently left her City Hall job, as her senior adviser. Hirsh worked for 32BJ, a union representing building service workers, before joining the mayor’s team last year. She was working on the schools reopening plan in her final months, but left before students returned to school.
The person working with Wiley said she is “in the final stages of her decision” and the team is “ready to launch on a moment’s notice.” Wiley has recently begun fundraising, but her donations are not publicly available yet.
Scott Stringer, the city comptroller who has won tough races throughout his career and tacked left to appeal to that ascendant faction of Democrats, announced his campaign in September. He has $2.3 million in his campaign account and is currently staffing up, his team said.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, a Black former cop who is close to the Democratic party establishment in his borough, also has more than $2 million on hand. Adams is likely to kick off his campaign later this year, and is expected to work with political consultant Nathan Smith at Red Horse Strategies, and communications adviser Evan Thies of Pythia Public.
Smith and Thies worked on the late Ken Thompson’s successful campaign for Brooklyn district attorney in 2013 and the Democrats’ takeover of the state Senate.
Shaun Donovan — who ran Obama’s Office of Management and Budget and Department of Housing and Urban Development and worked as housing commissioner to former Mayor Mike Bloomberg — has $453,538 in his campaign account. He is likely to launch his bid later this year as well.
Donovan’s campaign is chaired by Mike Fishman, former president of 32BJ. He is being advised by Bill Hyers, who ran de Blasio’s 2013 campaign, Rick Fromberg, who oversaw the mayor’s 2017 reelection, and Amelia Adams, who worked as a top adviser to former City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.
Ioanna Niejelow is Donovan’s finance director; Audrey Litvak is his special assistant and Yuridia Peña is his communications consultant.
Others in the race include Dianne Morales, an Afro-Latina from Brooklyn who is CEO of a social services nonprofit in the Bronx; and Loree Sutton, de Blasio’s former veterans affairs commissioner. Morales has $106,977 on hand and Sutton currently has no money in her campaign account.
Former de Blasio Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia recently left her job to consider a run for mayor, and Citigroup Vice Chair Raymond McGuire is being urged to run by the city’s dissatisfied business leaders.