How to buy friends and influence cronies

From the NY Times:

On Tuesday, [Bloomberg] took his campaign of affability a step further: he asked a group of city officials to join him at Yankee Stadium, for the team’s opening home game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, aides confirmed.

The mayor extended invitations to Bill de Blasio, the public advocate; John C. Liu, the comptroller; Christine C. Quinn, the speaker of the City Council; James Oddo, the minority leader of the Council; Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn borough president; and Rubén Díaz Jr., the Bronx borough president.

At the game Mr. Bloomberg bought his colleagues a round of beers and hot dogs.

What’s behind Mr. Bloomberg’s sudden burst of third-term congeniality?

City Hall insiders said it coincided with the arrival of Howard Wolfson as deputy mayor for intergovernmental affairs who was also at Tuesday’s game. Mr. Wolfson, they said, is pushing for the mayor to socialize with fellow elected officials, and bolster his (at-times strained) relationship with the New York newspapers that cover him.

While Mr. Bloomberg holds daily news conferences with reporters, he is loath to conduct sit-down interviews with members of the New York political press, and doles them out sparingly.