“He doesn’t know a thing about the city government,” Mr. Ravitch stated, previous “thing” with an expletive, earlier than including: “Do I think Ray would be the best of the candidates? Yes.”
Gale Brewer, the Manhattan borough president and one other authorities long-timer with whom Mr. McGuire has spoken, stated diplomatically that there was solely a lot she may convey in a telephone name.
“It’s a hard city,” she stated.
Mr. McGuire has stated that voters ought to prize govt expertise over authorities résumés. On this rating, some former colleagues at Citi report combined returns. In interviews, they appraised Mr. McGuire as an approachable chief and prepared mentor, notably to youthful Black expertise, but in addition as an image-conscious supervisor who may wrestle with indecision if a looming selection appeared destined to upset somebody.
Allies have framed such qualities as an intuition for defusing battle, noting that the candidate even tried to play peacemaker between Mr. de Blasio and his rich antagonists: In 2015, Mr. McGuire hosted a reception for the mayor and his spouse, Chirlane McCray, hoping they could develop nearer to assorted enterprise titans. (It didn’t take.)
Some rivals have moved shortly to connect the political stench of banking to Mr. McGuire, whose rivals embody Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president; Scott M. Stringer, the town comptroller; and Andrew Yang, the previous presidential candidate.
Operatives for different campaigns have centered particularly on Mr. McGuire’s enterprise dealings with figures unpalatable to Democrats, just like the Koch brothers.
Friends say that this, too, speaks nicely of him.
“We are investment bankers!” stated William M. Lewis Jr., a co-chairman of funding banking at Lazard who has identified Mr. McGuire since their time at Harvard. “We get paid a lot of money to help bridge differences. People should view it as a compliment that somebody, who is as different at their core as Ray, would look to Ray to try to help them get something done.”
