De Blasio Has No Plans to Quit Day Job If He Runs For President

NEW YORK — Bill de Blasio still believes he can walk and chew gum at the same time. The mayor said he will not resign from his current job if he decides to launch the presidential campaign he's been mulling for weeks.

"A lot of things are working. These things need to continue," de Blasio said on Fox 5 Wednesday morning. "I’m fully committed and focused every single hour to make them continue."

The mayor's pledge to stick around City Hall came ahead of his planned trip this weekend to New Hampshire, home of the first presidential primary. That will be his third jaunt to a key presidential state in about a month; he also recently visited Iowa and South Carolina.

De Blasio has repeatedly said that he's not ruling out a long-shot White House run. His final decision will be "first and foremost" about family, de Blasio said, adding that he and first lady Chirlane McCray would make it together.

"But on the question of serving this city, this is what I came here to do, and whatever I do I’m going to do it with full consideration of what has to get done in this city, what I believe — my sense of the mandate I have to get things done," the mayor said.

The mayor touted the city's strong job numbers, high graduation rate and low crime, but said other problems such as infrastructure and mental health funding have to be addressed in Washington.

De Blasio would face a tough fight against high-profile Democratic figures such as Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren if he jumped into the crowded primary race. Zero percent of likely Democratic Iowa cacusgoers said he was their first choice for president in a Des Moines Register poll published March 9.

But the mayor is apparently undeterred by that poor performance.

"I never paid attention to the polls or I wouldn’t be sitting here," he said Wednesday.