Over all, 52 percent of New Yorkers say the city is on the wrong track, including 62 percent of whites and 51 percent of Hispanics. Black residents are evenly split.

Mr. de Blasio’s support among white residents has descended to a level so dismal that it has challenged a core assumption of his political strategy: that in a diversifying city, moderate white voters had lost much of their electoral influence, and that the mayor’s path to re-election runs through nonwhite communities.

[. . .]

The mayor’s advisers are now making concerted efforts to recapture the support — or, at least, tamp down the opposition — of a group that, aides fear, could rally around a potential challenger in 2017.

Last year, that task proved daunting for the mayor. This year was different.

Mr. de Blasio arrived on time — a few minutes early, even — to the service in Queens, taking a small step toward repairing his reputation for tardiness among attendees still angry about his late appearance a year ago.

[. . .]

Geri Prado, executive director of the Progressive Agenda Committee, said in a statement on Tuesday that the forum had become unnecessary, because inequality had already moved to the center of the campaign conversation.

The committee had circulated invitations to leading Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, asking them to participate in a public event at the University of Iowa on Dec. 6. The deadline for candidates to respond to the invitation was to be Thursday, according to a copy of the invitation.

As of Tuesday, the University of Iowa had not received notification that any candidate had accepted the invitation, Jeneane Beck, a university spokeswoman, said.

[. . .]

The cancellation was met with expressions of relief by some members of Mr. de Blasio’s inner circle, which was deeply divided over whether the mayor should continue pursuing a forum that many had come to view as a folly.

The 2015 period coincides with Mr. de Blasio’s work in Albany with the Real Estate Board of New York, an industry group, to get state lawmakers to renew — with some changes — a city subsidy for developers known as 421-a.

Over the same months, the Campaign for One New York spent about $700,000 on political consultants, national travel and research as the mayor worked to bolster his progressive agenda — and profile.

[. . .]

The mayor’s advisers said people are giving to the group because they support Mr. de Blasio’s positions on issues like affordable housing and prekindergarten. They emphasized the group is limited to issues advocacy and can’t directly support a re-election bid by Mr. de Blasio.

[. . .]