New York mayor holds 1st town hall, discusses housing issues

Jeffries then criticized liberal New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) for refusing to endorse Clinton’s 2016 bid.

Asked what he thought about de Blasio not endorsing Clinton, Jeffries at first demurred. He has repeatedly pointed to skyrocketing housing costs as the biggest drain on New Yorkers’ finances and has vowed to make housing more affordable as part of his fight against income inequality.

Jeffries said Clinton’s main rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen.

People listen as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks during a Town Hall meeting at the Gregorio Luperon High School for Science and Mathematics Wednesday, October 14, 2015, in New York.

When pressed further, Jeffries reiterated his view that de Blasio was the first progressive New York mayor in 20 years, and it was his fondest wish that he will succeed.

They also peppered the lawmakers with questions about de Blasio positioning himself to be the progressive kingmaker with his upcoming progressive presidential town hall meeting in Iowa. We’ve got homelessness spiraling out of control here in New York City.

Karen Hinton, a spokeswoman for Mr.de Blasio, shot back at Mr. Jeffries.

“I’ve got tremendous respect for Senator Bernie Sanders but he’s got a narrow appeal and it’s not clear to me [that it] will extend beyond certain segments in Iowa and New Hampshire and I think the polls have born that out to date”, he added.

De Blasio is to leave Thursday night for Israel and stay through Sunday. He said he it wasn’t his place to determine Mr.de Blasio’s endorsement timetable.

Jeffries insisted he has no interest in running for mayor – at least for now.

“I think that he has made a decision to go through a process and we will see what this process yields”, she said.

Ms. Clarke, an early supporter of Mr.de Blasio when he ran for mayor in 2013, said the Democratic mayor wasn’t being disloyal to Ms. Clinton. “We have come to the conclusion that for us and the people that we represent, Hillary Rodham Clinton is the candidate of choice, the candidate we must choose in order to move this nation forward”.