Among the likely candidates for mayor in 2013, Tom Allon is a decided long shot, given that in a field likely to be crowded with familiar names, most New York voters probably have no idea who Mr. Allon is.
But he is hoping to gain some traction by hiring one of the city’s biggest Democratic fund-raisers.
Mr. Allon, a publisher of community newspapers, has hired Cynthia R. Darrison, who helped to power the fund-raising machines of Andrew M. Cuomo in 2010 and Eliot Spitzer in 2006.
Ms. Darrison, the chief executive of Darrison Barrett & Associates, which has offices in Manhattan and, soon, Nashville, Tenn., has raised more than $100 million for Democratic candidates and committees since 1989. In 2009, she helped Cyrus R. Vance Jr. become the Manhattan district attorney and helped Bill de Blasio become the public advocate. That year she was also part of William C. Thompson Jr.’s failed bid to unseat Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
Ms. Darrison said in an interview that she had not planned to participate in the 2013 mayoral election. But one of her recent corporate clients has been Mr. Allon’s Manhattan Media company, which owns community newspapers including The New York Press and City Hall. And when Mr. Allon began talking about running for mayor as a pragmatic non-ideologue, emphasizing education reform, job creation and economic development, she found his pitch so appealing that she dropped him as a corporate client and took him on as a political one.
“I found in our discussions that I like his ideas for New York City,” she said. “Education is crucial in terms of the future of this city and Tom understands, from both his education and business experience, how it all fits in.”
Ms. Darrison said that the Allon campaign had already set up about 50 house parties and fund-rais-ers for the fall, in hopes of raising the $500,000 to $1 million by January that the campaign believes would demonstrate to the political establishment that Mr. Allon is a viable candidate, and not an also-ran. People in the business, real estate and education community have been especially interested, she said.
Of course, Mr. Allon has a difficult challenge trying to join a group of possible mayoral rivals who have been on the public stage for years: Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker; Mr. de Blasio; Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president; and John C. Liu, the city comptroller. Mr. Allon must also overcome a deep-rooted sense of Bloomberg fatigue, or even anger, among rabid Democratic primary voters. After all, he has long been an avid supporter of the mayor, and the Bloomberg campaign placed $2 million worth of ads in Mr. Allon’s newspapers in 2009.
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