Why Bill de Blasio?

With New York Mayor Bill de Blasio entering the Democratic primary, there are now 23 Democrats running for president. As Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) once said of consumerism — “You don’t necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants or of 18 different pairs of sneakers” — do Democrats really need a choice of 23 presidential candidates?

They already have one self-proclaimed socialist (Sanders). They already had loads of white men (13). The far-left lane of the party has a pileup of candidates, including a white liberal from New York, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. There is no shortage of “coastal elites” (at least 10, depending on how you count). There probably isn’t a “market” for most of the candidates in the race.

De Blasio’s entrance was met with a lot of eye-rolling by all-too-candid New Yorkers and Democrats only too eager to speculate about the reason for his run. (Ego? Boredom? Pinning for a spot as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development?) It may come as a shock to him, but de Blasio may very well find out that not many people outside New York know who he is.

Does his entrance into the race matter? I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that he won’t be the nominee, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t affect other contenders.

The most obvious loser is Sanders. He was already sinking in the polls, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) nipping at his heels, but it’s possible that the progressive New York mayor will shave a couple more points off Sanders’s support, which might be the difference between getting delegates and not getting delegates in a primary with a 15 percent threshold.

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