Kerrey Officially Not Seeking Gracie Mansion
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
A former Nebraska senator, Robert Kerrey, made it official yesterday, releasing a statement saying he will not run for mayor of New York City after musing aloud over the weekend that he might.
“I am not running for the mayor of New York City, nor do I intend to be a candidate,” the Democrat said in a written statement.
Mr. Kerrey, president of New School University in Manhattan since 2001, said in an interview with the New York Times over the weekend that he was considering running against Mayor Bloomberg because the mayor hadn’t fought vigorously enough at Washington when it came to issues like money for homeland security and federal tax policy.
Mr. Bloomberg told reporters yesterday that he would still welcome the support of Mr. Kerrey, and he reminded reporters that when he took office in 2002, American Samoa got more homeland security money than New York City on a per-capita basis. After he lobbied Washington on the city’s behalf, Mr. Bloomberg said, the formula changed. President Bush’s proposed 2006 budget would distribute $2 billion based on terrorism risk.
“We’ve now gotten hundreds of millions of dollars because of our work with the administration and with Congress,” the mayor said.
