Ex-U.S. Attorney Says City Is ‘Out of Control’ : Giuliani Enters GOP Race for N.Y. Mayor

Former U.S. Atty. Rudolph W. Giuliani, who won a national reputation fighting crooked stock traders, corrupt politicians and Mafia chieftains, announced Wednesday that he is a candidate for mayor of New York City, charging that the city is “out of control.”

The 44-year-old Republican, who has the endorsement of New York’s Liberal Party also, entered the race as the clear early favorite in the polls for both the primary and the general elections. After introducing his wife, Donna Hanover, and holding up his 3-year-old son, Andrew, he made crime fighting the cornerstone of his campaign.

“Today, our top priority must be crime,” Giuliani said in the same political clubhouse where three-term Republican Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia announced his candidacy for the first time in 1933.

Lists City’s Ills

“New York is a city overwhelmed by crime, crack and corruption. The assassination of police officers and federal agents, the record number of homicides, the chaos of prisoners floating on barges, the fear in our streets, parks and subways all point to a city out of control.”

Giuliani faces former U.S. ambassador to Austria Ronald S. Lauder, an heir to the Estee Lauder cosmetics fortune, in September’s Republican primary. Lauder so far has spent more than $2 million of his personal fortune on that race but trails Giuliani by 5 to 1 in some polls.

Giuliani, who spent 5 1/2 years as U.S. attorney, said that “if you’re happy with the way things are, reelect Ed Koch. If you only want to see minimal change, choose one of the others. But, if you want to see real, honest, fundamental change in this city, then vote for me.”

Koch Counters Challenge

Koch, who is scheduled to announce today the hiring of about 3,500 more policemen for the next fiscal year, quickly countered that Giuliani “knows nothing about government.”

The mayor, who is expected to seek a fourth term by entering the Democratic primary, charged that Giuliani was “a miserable failure” in dealing with drug dealers.

Should he become mayor, Giuliani’s name would almost certainly be added to the list of potential Republican candidates for national office. But New York can sink national ambitions, as John V. Lindsay, the last Republican to occupy City Hall, found. After he changed parties and ran for President as a Democrat in 1972, Lindsay discovered that New York’s continuing problems diminished his national appeal.

The opening salvos of the mayoral election are being fired at a particularly turbulent time in New York.

The city is in the midst of major governmental reform as the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled the composition of the Board of Estimate, a fundamental governing body, is unconstitutional. The nation’s largest school system was thrown into shock after the sudden death last week of its chancellor, Richard Green, who suffered a massive asthma attack and died of heart failure. AIDS, crack, health care and the homeless continue to be major problems.

Koch is “an incumbent mayor in serious political trouble,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute of Public Opinion. “But this should be put in the context of a campaign that is just beginning to unfold, and Koch has been a very successful campaigner in the past.”

The latest Marist poll shows Giuliani defeating Koch by a 2-1 ratio. The former prosecutor would face a far stiffer test against Manhattan Borough President David N. Dinkins, who is seeking to become New York’s first black mayor. Richard Ravitch, former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, also is a candidate in the Democratic primary. Harrison J. Goldin, New York’s comptroller, is expected to join the field.

The general election will be held in November.

While serving as U.S. attorney, Giuliani successfully prosecuted the heads of several organized crime families in New York. He obtained the conviction of Wall Street financier Ivan F. Boesky, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to file false financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission. And he convicted Bronx Borough President Stanley Friedman on corruption charges.