Fernando Mateo, founder of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, came clean about the blatant violation of election law after The Post learned he had personally solicited a donation for Hizzoner and then had Ahlam Jaoui take credit for it.

The 31-year-old Bay Ridge woman, who has no political or fundraising experience, claims in campaign finance records to have collected 15 donations totaling $18,800 that were given to the de Blasio campaign in January.

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Mateo, a well-known Republican supporter, told The Post that he “called my people” to give money to Democrat de Blasio’s campaign and had Jaoui take credit for the donations. Mateo’s name does not appear on Jaoui’s January campaign finance report.

He claims that his motive was to help Jaoui land a city job.

“That’s the way politics works,” Mateo said. “If Ahlam worked hard for his candidacy, you’d think [the mayor] would say, ‘I employ thousands of people, why not at least bring her in for an interview?’

Surrogates have blasted out a litany of mayoral achievements by email, on Twitter and in op-eds articles. Aides have pointed to supportive words from a small number of voices rising to defend the mayor.

Returning to the “two cities” theme, the mayor has fashioned an array of boogeymen to rail against, from “billionaire media owners” and hedge fund managers to state investigatory agencies and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who has been increasingly willing to punch back publicly. It is a refrain that the mayor has underscored since a recent strategy discussion in which he embraced the idea, one adviser said.

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Faced with the opposition, the mayor’s strategy has been threefold, aides said: Stay focused on the job; keep in constant communication with supporters and allies; and get the message out on the radio, in town-hall-style meetings and through community events.

His team assembled an elite spreadsheet of major campaign donors, powerful lobbyists and celebrities as candidates for the coveted slots doled out by de Blasio.

This internal spreadsheet — obtained by the Daily News — reveals a blatant and highly choreographed effort to reward donors and New York power players with high-profile VIP appointments.

The 2014 list even goes so far as to suggest that de Blasio appoint lobbyists who were and are actively lobbying his administration on behalf of their wealthy clients.

At least 14 of the mayor’s top “bundlers” who used a legal loophole to collect big bucks far in excess of donation restrictions made the list. So did four early donors to de Blasio’s now-defunct lobbying group, the Campaign for One New York.

“Confidential notes” on the list reveal the candidate’s business ties, but do not highlight actual qualifications for specific appointments. They do, however, reference support for the mayor, sometimes in financial terms.

That’s a 19-point swing from the previous Q poll, in January, when he de Blasio had a positive, 50-42, rating.

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The mayor has acknowledged making calls for the Campaign for One New York, a nonprofit group set up to support his agenda whose donor solicitations are now under investigation, and de Blasio has defended the calls as routine.

But elected officials with ties to similar nonprofits have largely avoided taking such a direct role in soliciting money for those groups, and the calls from the mayor were unusual enough to become a topic of conversation among business leaders and CEOs.

One business person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described receiving a surprise call from the mayor at his office early in his first term. De Blasio spoke generally about the need to support his administration’s agenda and to marshal resources for the inevitable attacks against the mayor’s plans for affordable housing and universal pre-kindergarten.

De Blasio did not directly ask for a contribution, according to this person, but said to expect a follow-up call from Ross Offinger, who served as the chief fundraiser for the Campaign for One New York, a nonprofit group dedicated to backing the mayor’s agenda. Offinger did call, but this person ultimately decided not to donate.

Some potential contributors who spoke with the mayor but were not inclined to support the Campaign for One New York instructed their assistants to screen the follow-up calls from Offinger, according to several sources.

The solicitations are now part of a sprawling series of investigations into de Blasio’s administration and its fundraising practices, and whether donors received preferential treatment from de Blasio and his aides. De Blasio’s staff has declined to disclose who the mayor contacted on behalf of the group.

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