Three days after endorsing Andrew M. Cuomo for mayor of New York City, Michael R. Bloomberg put his money where his mouth is.
On Friday, Mr. Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor, gave $5 million to Fix the City, a super PAC that is supporting Mr. Cuomo’s bid for mayor, according to a person familiar with the donation. That brings the PAC’s haul to roughly $20 million. Even before this donation, it was the biggest super PAC in New York City history.
The new infusion of resources will amplify the PAC’s ability to target Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist candidate now perceived as Mr. Cuomo’s main target in the June 24 Democratic primary.
Before Mr. Bloomberg’s donation, the PAC had raised roughly $15 million, according to a spokeswoman, and spent about $9 million, much of it on advertising seeking to draw a contrast between a purportedly can-do Mr. Cuomo, 67, and Mr. Mamdani, a 33-year-old state assemblyman from Queens who is described in the ads as a “risk.”
The donations came the day after an apparently draft piece of PAC campaign literature was leaked to a reporter showing an altered photo of Mr. Mamdani that made his beard appear thicker and darker, next to language suggesting he was anti-Jewish. The PAC said it rejected the proposed literature and that it was never sent out. Mr. Mamdani, who is a Muslim, described the literature as Islamophobic.
Mr. Bloomberg’s donation will allow Mr. Cuomo’s allies to flood the airwaves just as early voting begins on Saturday. Some of his rivals have super PACs, though none have raised anywhere close to even Mr. Bloomberg’s individual contribution. New Yorkers for Lower Costs, a super PAC created to support Mr. Mamdani, has reported raising $400,000.
That Mr. Bloomberg should throw his support behind Mr. Cuomo may, at first blush, be surprising given how often the two clashed during their overlapping tenures. But Mr. Bloomberg, who is Jewish, is also a fierce supporter of Israel and is unlikely to have looked kindly upon Mr. Mamdani, who has supported the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement and suggested he does not support the existence of Israel as a Jewish state.
Mr. Bloomberg is also a member in good standing of New York City’s establishment, and that establishment has puts its backing firmly behind Mr. Cuomo.
Mr. Bloomberg’s $5 million donation to Fix the City is the PAC’s largest, followed by a $1 million donation from DoorDash, which is lobbying city officials on regulations that could affect its business model. The PAC has also received $250,000 each from the real estate developers Peter Fine, Two Trees Management and Scott Rechler; IAC chairman Barry Diller; and the hedge fund managers Daniel Loeb and Bill Ackman. Several of the PAC’s donors have also donated to President Trump.
Stu Loeser, a spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg, declined to comment.
“Mayor Bloomberg said it best in his endorsement: there is ‘one candidate whose management experience and government know-how stand above the others,’” said Liz Benjamin, a spokeswoman for the PAC. “We agree, and we greatly appreciate the mayor’s commitment to ensuring a safe and affordable New York and preserving and building on the Bloomberg legacy by electing Andrew Cuomo.”
Unlike regular campaign accounts, which New York City strictly regulates, super PACs are allowed to raise unlimited sums of money from donors. They are also forbidden from coordinating with the campaigns they support.
A workaround mechanism, known as a “red box,” allows campaigns to post messaging guidance on their websites for super PAC supporters. New York City outlawed that practice last year, and has penalized Mr. Cuomo’s campaign for apparently violating those restrictions.
Dana Rubinstein covers New York City politics and government for The Times.
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