De Blasio blames suspicious death of Staten Island Chuck as one of the main reasons for being unpopular
It’s Groundhog Day all over again.
Bill de Blasio is well aware that he wasn’t the most popular mayor — and he’s pointing a posthumous finger of blame at Staten Island Chuck.
The ex-mayor Tuesday cited the bizarre but mostly forgotten 2014 death of the famed groundhog in explaining why he is pulling the plug on an expected bid for governor.
“I made my share of mistakes,” de Blasio admitted. “I was not good with groundhogs. At all.”
That’s a bit of an understatement.
In 2014, the 6-foot-6 mayor handled New York City’s answer to Punxsutawney Phil while participating in the annual Groundhog Day ceremony at the Staten Island Zoo.
The city’s most famous rodent was supposed to find out if it could see its shadow and predict whether there is going to be six more weeks of winter. Instead, it tumbled from the grasp of the mayor to the hard ground below.
The groundhog didn’t seem any worse for wear from the fall and supposedly participated happily in several events in the following days.
A week to the day after the fall, Charles (Chuck) A. Hogg, was found dead in its pen.
The zoo inexplicably kept the death secret for seven months. Officials belatedly released the results of an official autopsy. It blamed “sudden internal injuries.” that could have been inflicted “overnight while in its exhibit.
Adding to the scent of a cover-up, the zoo admitted that the groundhog in question was actually Charlotte, the daughter of the original Chuck.
It all amounted to a burgeoning scandal for de Blasio, who was still enjoying something of a honeymoon after his 2013 election to City Hall.
One Republican city council member demanded a probe into “what the mayor knew and when he knew it.”
Chastened by the tragedy, de Blasio attended the 2015 Groundhog Day ceremony but was separated by a Plexiglass barrier from the new version of Chuck, whom zoo officials identified as the slain groundhog’s younger sister, Charlotte Jr.
After that, he never showed up again.
“I tried it, it didn’t end well, I won’t be back,” de Blasio explained in 2020.
Why did de Blasio dredge up the ghosts of Groundhog Days past in a speech to announce that he’s not running for governor?
Hizzoner was hoping his lack of popularity, which made him a national punchline during his final years in office, as a straw man to trumpet his wonky policy achievements on a host of issues like universal pre-kindergarten, the COVID pandemic and police reform.
According to his latest video, he’ll keep fighting the good fight but at least New Yorkers don’t have to worry about Staten Island Chuck.
