” You might be surprised but most people don’t recognize him outside of New York City.”

Eric Phillips, the mayor’s spokesman, about his boss

“Mayor Bill de Blasio is up against four Democratic challengers: Sal Albanese, Richard Bashner, Robert Gangi and Michael Tolkin. Mara Gay, who covers City Hall for The Wall Street Journal, participates in a lightning round on the candidates as well as a look back on a week that featured the second of two debates between de Blasio and Albanese… and some in-your-face personal attacks on the mayor courtesy of the only Republican in the race, Nicole Malliotakis.”

“Mayor Bill de Blasio should be at the peak of his powers. Crime is down. The economy is up. He has scared away his most serious possible challengers this election year. But in two dozen interviews, with Mr. de Blasio’s own aides and allies, city officials, leading political strategists and veterans of New York politics, there was near-universal agreement that though Mr. de Blasio is on more of a glide path to re-election in New York City than any mayor in a generation, he is still struggling to project his political voice in a job that has long produced towering national figures.”

“We may be less than a week away from the New York City municipal primaries, but hospital advocates wouldn’t be blamed for not realizing that. Four years ago, the dangerous trend of hospital closures and declining quality of care was on the tip of every political candidate’s tongue in the city. Council members, state legislators and even our future mayor were arrested protesting to stop the unfair and deceitful closure of Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn. Today, things haven’t changed. LICH is gone, the city’s public hospital system remains in a precarious financial situation and hospitals continue to close across the city – with the latest closure coming to Mount Sinai Beth Israel i