By Josh Rogers
Mayor Mike Bloomberg, in a scheduled stop-and-chat outside City Hall on Tuesday, endorsed Daniel Squadron for state Senate in the Sept. 9 Democratic primary.
“We’ll never get reform in Albany if we don’t send reformers there,” Bloomberg said in a prepared statement. “By helping move hundreds of millions of dollars out of our school bureaucracies and into city classrooms, and by helping us raise nearly $3 billion for transit infrastructure, Daniel Squadron’s record getting things done for New Yorkers is already more impressive than many lifelong legislators.”
Squadron faces incumbent state Senator Martin Connor in the 25th District. The district includes the East Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Little Italy, Chinatown, Tribeca and Lower Manhattan and, in Brooklyn, Williamsburg, Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill.
“I’m proud to earn his endorsement,” Squadron told The Villager. “I don’t agree with him on everything but we do agree on a lot. … We both think government should do big and bold things.”
Squadron said reforming Albany is at the top of his list, too. He said Bloomberg aides had reached out to him, and after several meetings they told him recently that the Bloomberg endorsement was imminent.
Squadron, a former aide to U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, also worked on the Bloomberg administration’s school empowerment program in 2006 and worked on the state campaign to pass a transportation bond act in 2005.
Mike Barfield, who started as Connor’s campaign manager this week, said the endorsement taints Squadron since the mayor has contributed heavily to state Senate Republicans.
“It really shows that Dan Squadron stands for Senate Republicans and maintaining their status quo in Albany,” Barfield said.
Squadron said he’s “a progressive Democrat.” He has also been endorsed by two organizations that usually back liberal Democrats — the Working Families Party and Acorn, which joined Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh in endorsing Squadron on Monday.
