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Year After Groundhog-Gate, Mayor Bill de Blasio Mum On Groundhog Day Attendance


January 30, 2015 | Prachi Gupta

The saga of most important political scandal of our time has taken another non-turn turn: The mayor’s office is staying silent on whether or not Bill de Blasio will attend Monday’s Groundhog Day ceremonies at Staten Island Zoo.

You may remember that de Blasio dropped the groundhog at last year’s ceremony and it died just a week later, causing some consider de Blasio a homicidal maniac. Further stoking controversy, the world learned that the groundhog he held was not veteran winter forecaster Chuck (who had once bit former Mayor Bloomberg), but his mate Charlotte. The whole experience was disillusioning, for adults and children alike.

Following up on this twisted story of conspiracy and intrigue, the Staten Island Advance wanted to know if the mayor would be attending the zoo’s annual ceremony on Monday. Considering that de Blasio’s office “does not typically release any details about his schedule more than a day in advance,” it may not be suspicious at all that “a de Blasio spokesman did not directly answer or respond to several inquiries from the Advance in recent weeks about the mayor’s attendance.” But then again…maybe that’s exactly what de Blasio’s office wants us to think.

The zoo, for its part, will be taking some additional precautions: Chuck (actually Charlotte, his daughter) will be kept in a “Plexiglass enclosure” during the ceremony.

(Photo: Staten Island Advance)