Taxpayers foot the bill to put DeBlasio son on short-lived campaign
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's presidential campaign may have ended Sept. 20, but new details about how his campaign spent its money — or didn't — are now available through de Blasio's final FEC filing posted Tuesday night.
One revelation? De Blasio paid his son Dante de Blasio the equivalent of a roughly $33,000-a-year annual salary to act as his campaign policy analyst. De Blasio's son, a recent Yale University graduate, made $650 a week from Aug. 1 to Sept. 16, The New York Post reported.
The campaign's South Carolina political director, Breanna Spaulding, only made $175 a week more than Dante de Blasio, according to The Post.
Democratic presidential candidate New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio delivers campaign speech as his wife Chirlane McCray and his son Dante de Blasio look on at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, Aug. 11, 2019. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
But what's unknown is how much de Blasio cost taxpayers over the course of his presidential run. He caught flak this summer for letting city taxpayers foot the bill for his NYPD security on out-of-town campaign trips.
"I'm obviously in a high-profile situation here. ... Everything we do is with the understanding that we're trying to do things economical and smart," de Blasio told radio host Brian Lehrer when he pushed the mayor about his security costs in May.
Both de Blasio and NYPD Deputy Commissioner Phil Walzak have declined to detail the cost or size of de Blasio's security, claiming it could jeopardize the mayor's safety.
"We have as a matter of long-standing policy going back several administrations declined to answer questions about specific numbers of personnel or data that could be used to extrapolate the same," Walzak told nonprofit news site The City in July.
The City estimated that the arrangement cost taxpayers at least $100,000 in travel expenses for NYPD bodyguards in the first two months of de Blasio's campaign. His wife Chirlane McCray also has a security detail.
That contrasts with South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, also a Democrat. Buttigieg does not have a full-time security detail as mayor and hires security contractors on the campaign trail. His campaign told The Post it spent roughly $135,000 on security between April and June.
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De Blasio's campaign launched on May 16 and shuttered with roughly $43,000 cash on hand.
FOX Business' inquiry to City Hall was not returned at the time of publication.