Wooing ‘Hometown Industry,’ de Blasio Meets Wary Wall St.

Facing a bespoke-suited audience of moguls and financiers rattled by his anticorporate rhetoric and eagerness to siphon off more of their wealth, Mr. de Blasio, a left-leaning Democrat, tried to reassure them that he was not plotting to go to war with them.

 “Wall Street is our hometown industry,” Mr. de Blasio told the group, according to several attendees at the lunch last week in the glassy headquarters of Viacom near Times Square. Mr. de Blasio, who is the city’s public advocate, told them that he knew his campaign oratory had earned him few friends in the room, but that he was plainly aware that the city’s economy hinged on the health of businesses like theirs.

The executives, who included Lloyd C. Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs; bankers from Blackstone and other private-equity firms; and Rupert Murdoch, the media magnate, told friends later that Mr. de Blasio’s remarks were somewhat reassuring. But the lunch did not erase all their worries.

Wilbur L. Ross, a billionaire and a buyout specialist, later pronounced himself unmoved — and anxious that Mr. de Blasio’s liberal worldview could imperil the gains made by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the gleaming cityscape, cleaner streets and innovative urban initiatives.

Mr. de Blasio could “undo all of the progress made in reducing crime,” Mr. Ross wrote in an e-mail after the Oct. 3 meeting.

Taking issue with the candidate’s views on education as well as public safety, Mr. Ross wrote: “My hope is that since he is so intelligent, he will revise his thinking on both topics before too much damage is done.”

Few factions of New York City have been stung by Mr. de Blasio’s rapid rise more than the financial elite, who are grieving the imminent departure of a mayor sprung from their own ranks. Mr. Bloomberg, a billionaire, has comforted beleaguered bankers when the public has turned on them —  in one case, conspicuously sharing a burger with Mr. Blankfein — and blended seamlessly into their social circuit of ballroom galas and golf retreats.

In private gatherings, they are pressing Mr. de Blasio about his vision and how he intends to pay for it. Their concerns are not only about his attitude toward the affluent; they have used the safer, cleaner New York as a selling point to compete for talent with financial hubs like London or Greenwich, Conn.

Aware that he will never replace Mr. Bloomberg in their hearts, Mr. de Blasio is engaged in a delicate courtship, determined to portray himself as progressive but reasonable and pragmatic about business. Aides say Mr. de Blasio understands that his ambitious plans for housing and education could be undercut by a revolt in the financial sector, which generates a significant portion of city revenues.

“Bill wants to be a great mayor,” said Sean Coffey, a corporate litigator who recently represented Fabrice Tourre, a former Goldman Sachs trader, in a case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. “To do that, he knows he can’t be at war with Wall Street.”

There are more immediate benefits as well. Mr. de Blasio, who scarcely appears in public these days, has been holding closed-door fund-raisers at a breakneck pace, collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the same bankers and Wall Street lawyers whose excesses he has frequently bemoaned.

In the last two weeks, Mr. de Blasio met with donors in lavish homes on Park Avenue and off Gramercy Park and at a breakfast in the Yale Club with a few dozen A-list financiers, a gathering that raised more than $50,000 in an hour. A reception at the white-shoe law firm Gibson Dunn is planned for later in the month.

And on Oct. 21, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodman Clinton and a collection of executives from the worlds of real estate and finance, including Meyer S. Frucher, the vice chairman of Nasdaq, will gather at the Roosevelt Hotel for the most expensive event yet.

Mrs. Clinton is inviting donors to bundle $25,000 for a private reception, and $10,000 if they wish to pose for a photograph with her and Mr. de Blasio. Those sums are unheard-of in city campaign fund-raising, where the most an individual can contribute is $4,950.

For Wall Street traders, Mr. de Blasio, who led his Republican opponent, Joseph J. Lhota, by more than 40 percentage points in recent polls, looks like a sure bet. But not long ago, he was viewed as an unelectable liberal, who repulsed many bankers by proposing higher taxes on the wealthy and offering a pep talk at the Occupy Wall Street encampment, praising the protesters for “speaking to what people are feeling all over this country.”