NY mayor Bloomberg to seek third term: report
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will seek a third term next year, believing the Wall Street crisis is so grave that a law barring him from running again should be altered, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
The Times, citing three people who have been told of his plans, said he would make an announcement on Thursday to propose changes in a 15-year-old measure that limits mayors to two four-year terms.
The billionaire and former Wall Street bond trader was observing the Rosh Hashanah holiday on Tuesday and unavailable for comment. His press office said there would be no comment and that his chief spokesman also was observing the holiday.
Bloomberg weighed a bid as an independent candidate for U.S. president this year. But in the end, he opted not to run for the White House.
A Democrat before running for mayor as a Republican, he now calls himself an independent. He was elected in November 2001 and re-elected in 2005.
The report on the Times website followed a story in the New York Post on Tuesday that the man who financed New York City's term limits law now supports a third term for Bloomberg.
Cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder told the New York Post he backs a one-time exemption to the 1993 law that would force Bloomberg to step down once his second term ends at the end of next year.
"To me, Mayor Bloomberg's brilliance in the financial sector, particularly Wall Street, would be invaluable," Lauder told the Post. He did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
MONEY MAN
Lauder, 64, the son of Joseph and Estee Lauder who founded Estee Lauder Inc, bankrolled the term limits movement with more than $4 million of his own money, the Post said. Voters approved the law in 1993 and again in 1996.
Lauder was behind a recent television advertising campaign urging officials to maintain term limits, so his about-face removes a big obstacle to efforts to change the law.
Former Mayor Ed Koch supports allowing mayors to serve 12 years consecutively, not eight as in the current law.
"Many people who are for term limits and normally would keep it at eight years have said publicly that these are extraordinary times and we need someone like Bloomberg," Koch told Reuters.
A Democrat who plans to run for mayor in 2009 blasted the idea.
"It is absolutely disgraceful that the mayor is now putting himself ahead of the democratic process, saying only he can run the city and only he can get us out of this crisis," Councilman Tony Avella told Reuters.
By amending the term limits measure, the City Council would allow numerous officials to seek an additional term.
Bloomberg founded the financial news and data company Bloomberg LP, a competitor to Thomson Reuters. Forbes magazine ranks him as America's eighth richest person with an estimated net worth of $20 billion. A separate Forbes list of the world's billionaires ranks him 65th globally with a net worth of $11.5 billion.
(Editing by Xavier Briand)
