Giuliani Hints He May Be Write-In

Is Rudy running? New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who has won worldwide praise for his leadership after the World Trade Center attack, dropped tantalizing hints Monday that he might indeed sanction a write-in campaign--a move that would roil the city’s already chaotic election picture.

Term limits bar Giuliani from serving a third term in the mayor’s office, so six candidates are vying in today’s primary for the chance to succeed him.

But a groundswell is building to keep Giuliani in office, and the mayor has not discouraged published speculation that he and his aides are exploring ways for him to seek reelection.

A week ago, the mayor flatly dismissed any talk of staying in office, saying he fully expected to leave City Hall when his term ends Jan. 1.

But his comments Monday appeared to leave open the possibility.

“I have not had time to think about it,” he said. “It is a very important decision, and I need time to talk to people about it.”

While Giuliani discouraged voters from writing in his name on their ballots today, he did note that any plans to have him run “would not involve the primary anyway.” More likely, the mayor might consider a massive write-in campaign in the Nov. 6 general election, according to a longtime local political observer.

Many New Yorkers, it seems, would relish the prospect. Giuliani regularly is greeted by cries of “four more years” as he travels the city, and “Giuliani for mayor” posters are springing up throughout New York. Several newspapers, including the New York Post, the Daily News and the Wall Street Journal, have called for him to remain in office at such a turbulent time.

“He should be given a chance to run for another term,” said former Mayor Edward I. Koch, a Giuliani critic who indicated that he would vote to reelect the mayor. “New York City will be facing an economic catastrophe, people are contemplating moving out and there has to be a restoration of normalcy. We need continuing leadership; we don’t have time to waste.”

But the legal barriers to Giuliani staying on may prove insurmountable. While New York Gov. George Pataki said he would write in Giuliani’s name if he were voting (Pataki is not a city resident), the Republican governor would need the approval of the state Legislature to legally suspend New York’s term-limits law. So far, Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Republican Senate leader Joseph Bruno have flatly opposed such action.

In an interview Monday with Albany radio station WROW-AM, Bruno said that “it would be unfair” for Giuliani to intervene so late in the election cycle. Silver, noting that New Yorkers twice have voted to uphold the term-limits law, said suspending it now would be “opposing the will of the people.”

The law also could be nullified by a vote of the City Council, and then by voters. But council officials oppose such a radical move.

All four Democratic mayoral candidates have said that today’s election should proceed as scheduled. But one mayoral aspirant welcomed Giuliani’s bid for a third term. Herman Badillo, a former Bronx congressman and a longshot candidate for the GOP nomination, said he would step aside and allow Giuliani to claim the Republican nomination if Badillo won the primary. The GOP front-runner, media mogul Michael Bloomberg, had no comment.

The primary originally was scheduled for Sept. 11, the day of the World Trade Center attack.