“The other” was politics, which was back with a vengeance less than a month after the World Trade Center cataclysm. Suddenly, the “empire” in the Empire State is Byzantium. After wild behind-the-scenes maneuvering, Giuliani announced that he would not go along with efforts to change the term-limits law and, unequivocally, would not run for a third term. By doing so, the mayor hoped to get the public to focus once more on his much-praised role in managing New York in its moment of peril. He told reporters he had called Mike Long, chairman of the New York State Conservative Party, to tell him to end his scheme to get Giuliani on the ballot.
“Some day before I die I’d like to be on his [Long’s] line,” the mayor joked, though there was a serious subtext. Rudy Giuliani is far from finished politically. He could run for the U.S. Senate against Sen. Charles Schumer in 2004 or, more likely, for governor of New York in 2006. He also would be a leading contender to replace Dick Cheney as a vice-presidential candidate in 2004 should Cheney’s health prevent him from staying on. More immediately, every misstep Attorney General John Ashcroft makes (like his comment this week warning of “a very serious threat” of new terrorist activity, immediately denied by the White House) will lead to speculation about Giuliani replacing him.
Until then, Giuliani still hopes to hang on for three months past Jan. 1, the date on which a new mayor is supposed to be sworn in. Two of the three major candidates to succeed him–Democrat Mark Green and Republican Michael Bloomberg–have agreed to let Giuliani extend his term, though Green insists he never agreed to a full three months. The third, Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, who will face Green in a runoff for the Democratic nomination on Oct. 11, has blasted the idea.
The main stumbling block in Giuliani’s plan was Sheldon Silver, speaker of the New York State Assembly. Silver and other Democrats in Albany were cool to the idea of reversing term limits (as was the New York City Council). As for extending the transition period, Silver has said he must consult other Democrats when they caucus later this month. If Green were to win next Thursday’s runoff, they might go along with the idea.
Ferrer, who narrowly won the first primary round last week, has the momentum going into the runoff. He received the endorsement on Oct. 2 of former mayor Ed Koch, who says he finds Green “obnoxious.” Ferrer’s Hispanic base is highly energized, and he has made inroads into Green’s support among blacks. Many reform Democrats, needed by Green, disagree with Green’s participation in what’s come to be called “The Yom Kippur Arrangement,” when Giuliani summoned the candidates last week to ask if he could extend his term.
But Giuliani’s announcement Wednesday might help Green. At a minimum, the mayor, who has feuded with Green for years, is now bent on wrecking Ferrer’s candidacy as best he can. “It’s deflate Freddy time–into the weekend,” says one top Giuliani aide.
Without mentioning Ferrer directly, Giuliani said that “anyone who thinks they’re ready [to assume office] on January 1 given the monumental task ahead doesn’t understand the job very well” and is “cynical.”
Ferrer has been saying that there is no reason he couldn’t assume office as scheduled. One of his most prominent supporters, the Rev. Al Sharpton, said “any bozo” could have run New York in recent weeks, a comment New Yorkers can expect to hear about again, though Green has said he won’t use the Sharpton endorsement in negative ads.
Giuliani’s critics assume that he only wants to stay on for three months out of personal ambition. It sets a bad precedent, they say. Perhaps so, but there are practical reasons for him to seek a slower, smoother transition. More than 100 commissioners and 1,000 other officials will turn over when a new mayor comes in. (Although Bloomberg will keep on much of the Giuliani team). These officials, working almost round-the-clock out of a semisecret command post on Manhattan’s West Side, have a heavy-duty challenge just keeping the city running. The Fire Department lost more firefighters in a day than they had in a century. Giuliani explained that when he became mayor in 1993, no one had a clue how to do their jobs until March. And at that time, of course, there was no crisis.
However the term extension bid plays out, it is not nearly as “divisive,” in Giuliani’s words, as the threat that he would seek another full term. That effort dented Giuliani’s halo, but hardly destroyed it. For now, a fragile city, with a huge task ahead, will still look to its mayor for the road out of the rubble.
