Michael R. Bloomberg, New York City’s billionaire former mayor, on Wednesday put $1.5 million into a super PAC supporting Andrew M. Cuomo’s bid for mayor, suggesting that he may see the race between Mr. Cuomo and Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani tightening.
Filing show the money went to Fix the City, a group run by a longtime Cuomo ally that has been responsible for anti-Mamdani advertising and a get-out-the-vote operation during the campaign.
This is Mr. Bloomberg’s first foray into the mayor’s race since the Democratic primary, when he spent more than $8 million backing Mr. Cuomo’s failed bid to become the party’s standard-bearer.
While threats from the city’s business elite to spend as much as $100 million trying to knock out Mr. Mamdani failed to materialize, super PAC spending against him has ticked up in the final days before next Tuesday’s election.
Mr. Bloomberg, a centrist three-term mayor, had been a holdout. After Mr. Mamdani trounced Mr. Cuomo, the former governor of New York, in the June contest, Mr. Bloomberg even hosted the assemblyman at his Midtown Manhattan headquarters in September.
At the time, Jeffrey Lerner, a spokesman for Mr. Mamdani, called the meeting “candid and productive.”
Howard Wolfson, an adviser to Mr. Bloomberg who participated in the meeting, came away impressed with Mr. Mamdani, whom he recently described as “intelligent and engaged and engaging.” He has said the former mayor was impressed too.
“Whether that means he’ll be a good mayor is another question,” Mr. Wolfson recently said of Mr. Mamdani.
Mr. Bloomberg, a proud capitalist, and Mr. Mamdani, a proud democratic socialist, do have areas of policy overlap. As mayor, Mr. Bloomberg launched a program to subsidize grocery stores. Mr. Mamdani wants to open five city-run grocery stores. Mr. Bloomberg endorsed free transit. Mr. Mamdani wants to make the city’s buses free.
But the former mayor and the aspiring one still have key differences. Mr. Mamdani, for example, is a harsh critic of capitalism, billionaires and Israel; Mr. Bloomberg is politically moderate billionaire and a longtime defender of Israel.
Mr. Bloomberg, who feuded with Mr. Cuomo when he was governor, apparently continues to believe that Mr. Cuomo is a safer bet for New York City.
A spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg had no immediate comment.
Dana Rubinstein covers New York City politics and government for The Times.
Nicholas Fandos is a Times reporter covering New York politics and government.
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