NEWS & POLITICS ARCHIVES Forget 2016; Bloomberg Wanted Hillary to Run for NYC Mayor Next Year
by John Surico
In terms of electability, what have we learned from Mayor Bloomberg? Well, for one, you don’t have to come from a political background to win three terms as the head of New York City government. Two, being a billionaire can be a viable campaign strategy (sorry, Mitt Romney). Three, political loyalties mean nothing (read: Republican turned Independent). And four, mayoral races in this town are absolute conundrums that we will never really wrap our heads around.
With that being said, we were not surprised when we read The New York Times story yesterday that, after confirming with three sources, reported on a phone call between the mayor and ex-First Lady, ex-Senator, now-about-to-be-ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In it, Bloomberg asked Clinton to think about succeeding him as the next Hozziner. The two have a past together: For seven years, Clinton’s time as senator was conjoined with this long-reigning mayor — during that time, the top dogs bonded over the city-state relationship.
But, apparently, she was not into it.
As we all know, Bloomberg is a big fan of flaunting his influence on a national level. Here are a few examples to jog our memory: his super PAC for gay marriage and Congressional candidates; his straightforward advocacy of gun control (much to the NRA’s dismay); the soda ban; the smoking ban; his massive donations to education in other cities; and, of course, his lukewarm endorsement of President Obama just two weeks before the election.
Unlike his predecessor, he’s a big fan of pulling the strings from the outside. And, after seeing what happened to Giuliani in the 2008 Republican primaries, we should probably be thankful that Bloomberg stands behind the curtains.
But asking Hillary to run for mayor is a bold move; he must hear the 2016 chatter that is subtly injected into every story within recent memory written about the former First Lady. Did he seriously think she would say ‘You know, I’ll consider it?’ Or are we over-thinking an exchange that probably wasn’t too exciting (like every phone call ever)?
Who knows. The only thing we do know is that Hillary will not be mayor of New York anytime soon. That doesn’t mean we’ll forget her family trip to Roberta’s in Bushwick, though.