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Bloomberg hedges on veep run

February 29, 2008

Mayor Bloomberg put the kibosh on two years of speculation Thursday that he’ll run for President — but did his typical shuffle when asked if he’d want to be vice president.

“Nobody is going to ask me to run for vice president,” said the rarely modest mayor when asked what he would do if Sen. Barack Obama asks him. The two centrist politicians chatted over a breakfast meeting in Manhattan in November — the last time Bloomberg said he had met with any of the four presidential candidates.

Bloomberg silenced his presidential buzz by declaring in a New York Times Op-Ed piece Thursday: “I listened carefully to those who encouraged me to run, but I am not — and will not be — a candidate for president.”

A source close to the mayor said he made the final decision on Tuesday but had been leaning in that direction for weeks.

He did not alert the White House hopefuls about his plans before the article appeared in the newspaper, the source said.

The White House hopefuls will have to earn his endorsement, Bloomberg said.

“I’ll offer my support to a candidate who does the right things and tries to make this country that I’m lucky enough to have been born in … better,” Bloomberg told reporters Thursday.

The billionaire’s endorsement — and financial support — could prove a valuable prize in the heated race.

“He is a very able man with a combination of mega-billions and mega-ego, so he can do what he wants and have fun doing it,” said Charles Dunn, an expert on conservative politics at Regents University in Virginia.

Federal law limits individual campaign contributions to $2,300 in general, but Bloomberg has a vast fund-raising network that could pump up any candidate.

“If I want to get the message out, it is relatively easy to do that,” he said. The mayor pays for advertising to promote his Mayor’s Coalition Against Illegal Guns and could do the same for his candidate of choice.

Obama was trying to woo Bloomberg Thursday, saying, “I hope that Mayor Bloomberg will look at my track record … and conclude that I’d be in the best position to put forward the kind of pragmatic, common sense solutions that he’s championed in New York. I will definitely be reaching out to him.”

Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey reportedly had a “master plan” to get his boss on the ballot in 50states and had been collecting massive data on Bloomberg’s chances of winning in addition to his job overseeing governmental affairs.

Bloomberg said he decided not to run because “I just think the best way I can make a difference in this country is by being a mayor who makes a difference in this city.” A Quinnipiac poll out Thursday showed he had only single-digit support when matched up to three presidential candidates in swing states. With Michael Saul

Source: NY Daily News

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Written by NY Politics · Filed Under Bloomberg Watch 

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