De Blasio back to selling favors, this time to fund his White House run

It looks like Bill de Blasio means to run for president just as he has run for mayor: by relying on “pay-to-play” deals to fund his campaign.

Sponsoring the Boston fundraiser for his Fairness PAC was Suffolk Construction executive John Fish, who happens to be expanding his firm’s presence in the city.

Another “friend” of Fairness, de Blasio’s new federal fundraising arm: Frank Carone, an attorney tied to the Brooklyn Democratic machine who represents owners of 17 buildings recently bought by the city for $173 million — though the city’s first appraisal valued them at just $50 million.

Carone gave the maximum five grand to Fairness while that deal was being struck. His company also provided a landing pad for Shola Olatoye upon her exit as the mayor’s NYCHA chief.

De Blasio plainly learned all the wrong lessons when he escaped prosecution over similar past shenanigans involving clear favors to donors to his mayoral campaigns and to his pocket nonprofits.

US Supreme Court rulings make it near-impossible to convict elected officials over such corruption, but acting US Attorney Joon Kim in March 2017 pointedly noted that his investigation had found “several circumstances” in which de Blasio “made or directed inquiries to relevant city agencies on behalf of” his donors.

Running for re-election, the mayor vowed to stop raising cash from people doing business with city government. Now he’s turning around and clearly violating at least the spirit of that pledge.

The latest Quinnipiac Poll showed that New Yorkers overwhelmingly don’t want de Blasio to run for president. Maybe they want him to simply focus on his day job — or maybe they realize he’ll be selling out their interests to fund his White House quest.