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Rude Rudy returns
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May 12, 2000 | NEW YORK -- As if that question hadn't been asked enough during the two weeks since New York Mayor/U.S. Senate contender Rudy Giuliani announced he had prostate cancer, the viability of his candidacy now seems more tenuous then ever. With Giuliani's pronouncement on Wednesday that he is seeking a separation from his wife, Donna Hanover -- and Hanover's subsequent announcement that their marriage had failed in part because of his relationship with his former press secretary -- rumors of Giuliani's political death have reached a fever pitch.
Despite his seemingly imminent demise, however, two Republican elected officials said they received calls from Giuliani's campaign Thursday insisting that the mayor will remain in the race. One of the officials is Rep. John Sweeney, former executive director of the state's Republican Party and a close confidant of state Republican Party Chairman William Powers. The speculation about Giuliani's future came on a day when the mayor denied several news reports that he was leaning toward dropping out of the race. "I haven't made up my mind if I have the energy and the capacity to run," he said Thursday in the lobby of an East Village elementary school jampacked with reporters and television cameras. "I made no decision yet to drop out of the Senate race," he said. "I didn't discuss that with anyone. I didn't say that to anyone. "Rumors of my demise," he later added with a chuckle, "are greatly exaggerated." Despite his comments, other potential candidates for the Republican nomination are circling. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., told the Associated Press that he "would seriously consider running." "I've been making some phone calls and doing some television appearances to get my name out there," said King. "If there's some significant support, I'll definitely go." In addition, Rep. Rick Lazio, King's fellow Long Island congressman, and Wall Street financier Theodore Forstmann have said that they would consider running if Giuliani withdraws. State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, whose comments a day earlier that Giuliani needed to resolve the issues in his marriage seemed to push Giuliani to finally announce his separation plans, said Thursday: "I expect him to stay in the race." But New York's top Republicans may have reason to worry about Giuliani's ultimately being their Senate candidate. Bruno controls only a slim majority of Republicans in the state. A battered U.S. Senate candidate at the top of the party's ticket in the fall could hurt local legislators running for reelection and cost the Republicans their state Senate majority -- as well as the considerable patronage, contracts and other assorted goodies that go along with it. As one longtime local political operative explained: "You're a conservative Republican from upstate. You hate Hillary, you hate the Clintons. You say, 'OK, Rudy's from the city, but I'm still going to vote for him.' Then you read about all this stuff and there's a feeling in the pit of your stomach that this is not what you're going to elect, and you're not going to vote for Hillary, so you say, 'Fuck it. I'm not going to vote at all.' And if you don't vote for him, you don't vote for the lesser people on the ticket either. "For Bruno to have made those comments the other day shows that he's very worried," he added.
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