Hillary Clinton may not be wandering the woods for long. According to a “well-placed source” for the New York Daily News, the former first lady is possibly thinking about running for mayor of New York City.
Clinton, who is being pressed by many New York Dems to get back into the game by running for mayor, did not rule out challenging current City Hall occupant Mayor de Blasio in that conversation, the source said.
Although de Blasio has close ties to the Clintons — having worked at different points in his career for both of them — their relationship frayed during the 2016 White House race, when he initially refused to endorse Hillary’s bid.
So far, no high-profile Democrat has jumped in to challenge de Blasio, whose term ends at the end of this year.
The Daily News’ source believes talk of Clinton running is a result of some in Clinton’s inner circle who are still mad about de Blasio’s refusal to endorse the former secretary of state.
If she did jump in the race, however, opinions were mixed as to whether she could pull off a win in the Big Apple.
“She doesn’t really have a natural constituency,” Kenneth Sherrill, professor emeritus of political science at Hunter College, told the Daily News.
“It is much easier to identify her with national and international issues than it is to identify her with urban local issues.”
He continued: “I cannot picture her at a subway stop at 7:30 in the morning (campaigning) for the next several months.”
But some believe she wouldn’t have a hard time at all if she were to run.
“She won New York City in a landslide last November, and she’d win in a landslide again,” Bradley Tusk, a former deputy mayor to Michael Bloomberg told the Daily News.
“She’s wildly popular here, had a great tenure as senator from New York, and mayor is one of the few jobs worthy of her talents,” continued Tusk, who is leading an effort to unseat de Blasio.
Ultimately, however, he doesn’t think she’ll jump in the race.
An October WSJ-NBC 4 New York-Marist poll shows de Blasio’s approval rating at 40 percent, up from an all-time low of 35 percent in April. Still, a majority of Democrats, 57 percent, believe he deserves a second term.
