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New York Democrats Battled Bloomberg As Mayor. Now Some Back His 2020 Blitz.

On a surprisingly warm day in 2004, Mike Bloomberg, then the GOP mayor of New York City, took the stage at the Republican National Convention in Madison Square Garden to urge his fellow Republicans to nominate George W. Bush for another four years as president.

Across town, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) partied with the city’s top Democrats at what they called the “Mission Not Accomplished Masquerade Ball,” a jab at Bush’s unpopular war in Iraq.

“We’re telling the truth about those people over there,” Meeks told a CNN reporter at the event, referring to the Republican National Convention where the billionaire mayor spoke. “There’s no champagne and caviar over here.”

A year later, Meeks’ name was floated as a potential Democrat to run against Bloomberg. He didn’t end up running, but his supporters may have wished he did. Bloomberg trounced his Democratic opponent and went on to serve a legally dubious three terms, during which he donated millions to maintain Republican control of New York’s state Senate, escalated racist policing of Black and Hispanic neighborhoods, and oversaw the most extensive rezoning in the city’s modern history, resulting in what critics called the “racialized displacement” of working-class minorities. Then, just before leaving office, Bloomberg attempted to sway the 2013 Democratic primary for mayor, putting his finger on the scale for former Council Speaker Christine Quinn, his chosen heir.

So it may be surprising that, when Meeks appeared on CNN earlier this month, it was to bash Bloomberg’s top rival for the Democratic presidential nomination for not showing enough fealty to the party. It was perhaps even more surprising when the congressman from Queens expressed his full-throated support for Bloomberg’s run, giving the billionaire, who registered as a Democrat in October 2018, one of his biggest endorsements to date.

“Sometimes, where a person spends their money tells you where they...

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