De Blasio Plans Progressive 'Contract With America'

In the run-up to next year’s presidential race, Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to make sure the issue of how to fight income inequality is front and center in the debate.

To that end, he and his wife Chirlane McCray convened a meeting of more than a dozen national progressive leaders at Gracie Mansion on Thursday to devise a strategy to make sure candidates are forced to take a stand on the issue. Their first step is to create a policy document with an unlikely inspiration.

“I will explicitly parallel it to the 1994 Republican Contract with America,” explained de Blasio, who qualified that comparison with the obvious note that the politics would be different.

That plan was introduced just weeks before Republicans took control of the House for the first time in 40 years. On the other hand, Democrats just lost control of the U.S. Senate.

But it will be similar in that the group will also develop specific policy proposals, but to combat income inequality. They will then seek signatures in support of their contract.

De Blasio said the group will reconvene in Washington, D.C. in May with their signatories. Later in the year, the group will hold a bipartisan presidential forum where all announced candidates will be urged to take a position on this platform.

The meeting was attended by a range of progressive champions, including elected leaders like Connecticut Gov. Daniel Malloy and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, along with author Toni Morrison and Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of the left-leaning magazine and website The Nation.