Back To Abnormal

In her latest Political Points commentary, CBS News Senior Political Editor Dotty Lynch takes a look at Rudy Giuliani's campaign to stay in office after his term runs out.

Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been acclaimed nationally for his leadership during the crisis, and New Yorkers have been grateful for his qualities of command and compassion. The financial community has been particularly comfortable with the mayor, and several of its leaders started to worry that a successor wouldn't provide the expertise and continuity needed to rebuild the financial district. Ideas were floated to cancel the elections altogether or to have Giuliani run again, even though New York, in 1993, had voted to limit the mayor to two consecutive terms.

Giuliani, who had been flawless in his actions since Sept. 11, got intrigued with the idea of staying on. Some combination of ego and responsibility caused him to start a series of events he characterized as "thinking outside the box." Earlier this week, aides put out the word that Giuliani was going to announce an interest in running again at a press conference the day before the rescheduled primary, hoping voters would write his name in on the primary ballot. Other, cooler heads argued strongly against this strategy and urged him to reconsider. Guiliani hesitated, told voters not to write his name in, but didn't completely rule out a reelection bid.

The next night, in an interview with Dan Rather for CBS News' 60 Minutes II, Giuliani said, in fact, he would be open to remaining in office and wanted to talk to people like New York Gov. George Pataki about how to do it. Exit polls of primary voters showed that 78 percent of Republicans and 39 percent of Democrats would vote for Giuliani over the candidate for whom they had just cast a ballot.

But Democratic leaders in the state legislature were cool to the idea of overturning term limits in an emergency session, and by Wednesday evening the mayor had come up with a new scheme – to go for a three-month extension of his term and get all the potential candidates to sign on to the idea. Two of them did. Michael Bloomberg, the Republican whom Giuliani has nominally endorsed, and Mark Green, the Democrat who hopes to pick up the support of Giuliani fans.

The third candidate, Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, balked, saying that term extension would set a bad precedent. Instead, he said he would name Giuliani to head the city's rebuilding effort. On Friday, the Conservative Party said it would give Giuliani its line in the November election, even thoug it would be illegal for Giuliani to serve if term limits aren't overturned.

The mayor, who has urged New Yorkers to go back to work, back to shopping and back to their routines, has thrown into chaos one of the most routine and cherished institutions of our democracy – the orderly transfer of power. The New York Times called this a "dangerous idea." It's also unbelievably politically stupid for Rudy. His actions in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks had transformed him from a "go for the gut" local politician to a true statesman. His political future knew no bounds and many in Washington saw him in major national terms – a big post in the Bush administration, possibly an ambassadorship, and then, who knows.

As always, the best policy is the best politics. What Giuliani needs to do is think about New York City first. To assure the people of New York that it is their interest he has foremost in his mind, he should take Ferrer's suggestion: Say that he'll work with the next mayor to rebuild the city and support an orderly succession, one that doesn't necessitate any suspension of the law.

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