Posted on 04/21/2005 4:57:27 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan
Bob Kerrey: No plans to run for NYC mayor
4/19/2005, 11:53 p.m. ET
The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey said Tuesday he does not intend to run for mayor of New York City, ending a brief flirtation with the race.
"I am not running for the mayor of New York City, nor do I intend to be a candidate," the Democrat said in a statement.
He said he "seriously considered" running for mayor because he has deep concerns about the future of the city. He said he would continue to speak out on issues that concern New Yorkers.
Kerrey said he was committed to leading New School University, where he has been president since 2001.
On Sunday, The New York Times published an interview with Kerrey in which he said he was "just crazy enough" to run for mayor and was upset that Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg had not stood up to Washington.
Kerrey faulted Bloomberg for not opposing frivolous tax cuts and not fighting hard enough to win federal homeland security money for the city.
Kerrey, a former Nebraska governor and a 1992 Democratic candidate for president, is under contract to New School University until 2011 but had said he could break the contract.
The Vietnam veteran served on the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks and has said he became a New Yorker on Sept. 11, 2001.
Political analysts stressed that Kerrey would have faced huge obstacles if he ran, including an extremely late start on fund-raising, organization and building name recognition in the city.
His decision not to run for mayor leaves four Democrats in the race — City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, Manhattan borough president C. Virginia Fields and former Bronx borough president Fernando Ferrer.
Some Democrats have grumbled that none of the four has caught fire or appears ready to topple Bloomberg, a former Democrat.
Earlier Tuesday, before the Kerrey announcement, Bloomberg defended his work to win homeland security money for the city and said he would still welcome Kerrey's support.
Kerrey did not say whom he planned to back in the race. Before he began musing about running, he had agreed to head Democrats for Bloomberg.
I remember when two Freepers kicked his booty by making him blow his cool. Wasn't it Kristen & Dr. Raoul (sp?)?
Yeah, but he'd probably have been the most conservative guy in the race by far. Bloomberg is a joke.
I've decided I won't run for NY Mayor either.
That said, just to clarify, Kerrey's no conservative.
If I lived in New York City I would vote for you.
Nice! I'm honored to have your hypothetical vote. I'll be running on a reinforced platform.
my favorite part of the story>>> "former Nebraskan"
This of course brings to mind that most famous of campaign jingles:
Without Mayor Quimby, our town would really stink
We wouldn't have our tire yard or mis-sized rollar rink
We wouldn't have our gallows or shiny Bigfoot trap
It's not the mayor's fault that the stadium collapsed
Vote Quimby
If you were running for mayor, he'd vote for you
That school is hard line communist; it is not even socialist. They are too Red for even NYU (it is only a few blocks from NYU.)
Both the fact he is at that school and the fact that he was on that committee should be national scandals.
That the GOP did not call the Dems on this is amazing to me.
It goes to show that should they ever get both the Hill and the WH back at the same time we are all done for.
The great thing about the New School is that its students hate Democrats (too conservative!) as much as we do... Some of them lean far enough to the Left that a persuasive argument can pull them to the right side of things without them even realizing it. It is a political freak show, but the undergraduate liberal arts division (Eugene Lang College) and the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science are academically strong, once one has past the millionth reference to "deconstructing the colonialist hegemon." ;-)
It is a very fun place for a conservative who enjoys arguing with liberals (I think the NSSR has the only Left-wingers whose arguments extend beyond "Halliburton!" and "Rethuglican!"), and I am grateful to those NSSR students I know who cast a "protest vote" against Kerry the "war criminal" for President Bush! Now if they could only come to their senses regarding politics and social issues in general...
Bob Kerrey seems hell-bent, though, on destroying the place-- not only is he politically ridiculous, but he is not a terribly great university administrator either.
I fully support any attempt to "run him out of the City," or out of the country, for that matter. :-D
It is true that the Left has acquired way too much power and that terrible things would be in store should they recapture Congress or the White House, and bastions of liberal thought such as the New School show just how disastrous the Leftist "vision" could be.
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