De Blasio Warns Senate Republicans: Get On Board My Agenda, Or Else
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A crushing Election Day defeat has sent Bill de Blasio on the warpath.
According to CBS2's Marcia Kramer, New York City's mayor is warning victorious Senate Republicans to support his agenda, or else.
Pundits say there's no question that the biggest loser on Election Day was de Blasio – and he wasn't even on the ballot.
"It was a repudiation not only of his program but of him personally," Baruch College political consultant Doug Muzzio said. "So I would give Bill definitely the biggest loser of the night."
Muzzio was talking about de Blasio's massive campaign to defeat Senate Republicans in Albany to make his progressive wish list -- higher minimum wages, a tax on the wealthy -- a reality.
"He spent time, money, staff trying to defeat these people who ultimately won," Muzzio said.
According to Kramer, Muzzio is right. The mayor sent his own staffers to run campaigns against the Republicans and he got unions and people who do business with the city, like John Catsimatidis -- to donate massive amounts of money.
But it was all for naught. Republicans won control of the Senate outright. Many won by campaigning against Mayor de Blasio directly.
But as WCBS 880's Jim Smith reported, de Blasio said the Republican strategy linking him to certain candidates statewide was not the reason for the Democratic losses.
"I don't think that's how politics work. I think it is about the issues the candidates chose. I think it's about the vision they put forward. I think it's about how they rich people at the grassroots," de Blasio said.
De Blasio Warns Senate Republicans: Get On Board My Agenda, Or Else
"The bottom line here is that the Republicans are going to have to think long and hard about how to comport themselves on issues like minimum wage," the mayor said.
De Blasio was unbowed by the defeats and on Wednesday he doubled down on his threats, saying his coalition of liberals and unions will continue.
"We're going to go forward with the same platform -- increasing the minimum wage, the Dream Act, the Women's Equality Act, campaign finance reform," the mayor said. "A lot of Republicans are going to try to resist that. I think they will do that at their own peril."
Are the Republican senators likely to knuckle under?
"As we would say in Brooklyn, fuhgeddaboudit. He ain't getting it," Muzzio said.
The mayor claims he'll have a better chance of success in turning the upper chamber Democratic in 2016 when, he hopes, the presidential race will bring more Democrats to the polls, Kramer reported.
De Blasio also said he intended to speak with Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos sometime Wednesday night.
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