mayor bill de blasio came into office in 2014 telling a tale of two cities, where the poor and the working class were finding it increasingly hard to get by, while the moneyed elite got more moneyed by the day. he envisioned himself as a leader of a growing liberal movement both in new york city and across the nation. he unveiled a national campaign called the progressive agenda and delayed endorsing hillary clinton<u+2019>s candidacy for president, saying on <u+201c>meet the press<u+201d> in april 2015 that he first wanted to <u+201c> see a vision <u+201d> from her. mrs. clinton, a fellow democrat, was said to have no hard feelings over mr. de blasio<u+2019>s dithering. but in a trove of emails recently released by wikileaks, it seemed clear that her aides were, to say the least, wary of the mayor. the messages, which were obtained after the email account of the clinton campaign chairman, john d. podesta, was hacked, suggest that the wariness of the clinton campaign dated back years and grew worse as the primary contest gained steam. <u+201c>i stay in touch with him and his team a lot,<u+201d> huma abedin, one of mrs. clinton<u+2019>s closest aides, wrote to other aides in november 2014. <u+201c>he has recently asked to have increased direct access to her so he can tell his progressive partners what she thinks about issues important to them.<u+201d> those were heady days for mr. de blasio, having won an election many thought he did not stand a chance of winning. <u+201c>he also thinks he can be most helpful to her if he has that kind of relationship,<u+201d> ms. abedin wrote. <u+201c>he wants to be seen as the loudest progressive voice for her and in order to do that he needs access.<u+201d> but it seems that the kind of access he wanted would not be possible. <u+201c>in the next six months, someone else will have to inherit this relationship because it will not be tenable for hrc,<u+201d> ms. abedin wrote , referring to mrs. clinton by her initials. shortly after making his comments on <u+201c>meet the press,<u+201d> mr. de blasio, who served as mrs. clinton<u+2019>s campaign director during her 2000 campaign for senate, reached out to the clinton campaign about the progressive agenda that he was about to unveil. <u+201c>i want to keep you updated on the next steps in our efforts to organize progressives nationally to take on income inequality,<u+201d> he wrote. <u+201c>below is an email going out today for an event coming up in two weeks. i believe you will agree with much of this content. please let me know if you want to discuss.<u+201d> mr. podesta asked , <u+201c>should we care about this?<u+201d> neera tanden, president and chief executive of the center for american progress, replied: <u+201c>politically, we are not getting any pressure to join this from our end. i leave it to you guys to judge what that means for you. but i<u+2019>m not sweating it.<u+201d> the clinton campaign declined to sign onto the event. it would be more than six months until mr. de blasio was satisfied that he had seen enough of a vision, offering his formal endorsement at the end of october. soon after, the clinton campaign issued a news release citing recent endorsements. mr. de blasio<u+2019>s was given fourth billing, after the mayors of chicago, houston and philadelphia. he was on the outs. he volunteered to campaign for mrs. clinton in iowa and was told the campaign did not need any more surrogates. he went anyway. at the democratic national convention this summer, he was not given a prime-time speaking slot, or even one in the evening. instead, he delivered his remarks late one afternoon, speaking after a presentation by the mayor of tallahassee, fla., and a video reel showing well-known democrats now deceased. the clinton campaign did not respond to specific issues raised in the emails but condemned the campaign of donald j. trump, the republican presidential nominee, for <u+201c>cheering on a release today engineered by vladimir putin to interfere in this election.<u+201d> the obama administration has formally accused the russian government of stealing and disclosing emails from the democratic national committee. a spokesman for mr. de blasio did not respond to a request for comment. a version of this article appears in print on october 11, 2016, on page a19 of the new york edition with the headline: clinton aides were wary of de blasio, emails show. order reprints | today's paper | subscribe
hillary clinton aides kept de blasio at arm<u+2019>s length, wikileaks emails show
marc santora