Bloomberg Gives $1.5 Million to Pro-Cuomo Super PAC

Michael R. Bloomberg, New York City’s billionaire former mayor, put $1.5 million into a super PAC supporting Andrew M. Cuomo’s bid for mayor on Wednesday, and urged New Yorkers to vote for the former governor.

Filings show the money went to Fix the City, a group run by a longtime Cuomo ally that has been responsible for anti-Mamdani advertising and a get-out-the-vote operation during the campaign.

This is Mr. Bloomberg’s first foray into the mayor’s race since the Democratic primary, when he spent more than $8 million backing Mr. Cuomo’s failed bid to become the party’s nominee.

While threats from the city’s business elite to spend as much as $100 million in an effort to knock out Mr. Mamdani failed to materialize, super PAC spending against him has ticked up in the final days before Tuesday’s election.

Mr. Bloomberg, a centrist three-term mayor, had been a holdout. After Mr. Mamdani trounced Mr. Cuomo, the former governor of New York, in the June contest, Mr. Bloomberg hosted the assemblyman at his Midtown Manhattan headquarters in September.

At the time, Jeffrey Lerner, a spokesman for Mr. Mamdani, called the meeting “candid and productive.” And Howard Wolfson, an adviser to Mr. Bloomberg who participated in the meeting, said he had come away impressed with Mr. Mamdani, whom he recently described as “intelligent and engaged and engaging.”

But in a statement on Wednesday, Mr. Bloomberg said that he stood by his earlier endorsement of Mr. Cuomo and had voted for him.

“Being mayor of New York City is the second toughest job in America, and the next mayor will face immense challenges,” he said. “Andrew Cuomo has the experience and toughness to stand up for New Yorkers and get things done.”

Mr. Bloomberg feuded with Mr. Cuomo when he was governor. But the former mayor, a proud capitalist, and Mr. Mamdani, a proud democratic socialist, have starker differences.

Mr. Mamdani, for example, is a harsh critic of billionaires and Israel; Mr. Bloomberg is a politically moderate billionaire and a longtime defender of Israel.

Still, the two men do have areas of policy overlap.

As mayor, Mr. Bloomberg started a program to subsidize grocery stores. Mr. Mamdani wants to open five city-run grocery stores.

Mr. Bloomberg endorsed free transit. Mr. Mamdani wants to make the city’s buses free.