Photo: Getty Images

Thank God. Colorful Gristedes owner and billionaire wannabe politician John Catsimatidis has not been intimidated out of the 2009 mayoral race by the Candidate of Inertia, Michael Bloomberg. According to the Times (which delights in making fun of him), Catsimatidis recently gave his campaign a $1 million loan to show that he's still in the game, and told the paper that he is "keeping his options open." So far, he's the only candidate who could match the mayor's spending pledge of $80 million dollar for dollar, and he's planning to run on the Republican ticket — a strategy the technically independent Bloomberg has also been considering. He even thinks that he can convince more Republican county leaders to support him, preventing Bloomberg from running on the party line.

This we really hope for. Not because we particularly want Catsimatidis to be mayor, but because if it's only Bill Thompson and Anthony Weiner running against Bloomberg, there's no chance for endless local-supermarket-grade television commercials, starring the prettiest girl in the company with a bad blowout, asking you to vote for somebody. That's what the mayoral race really needs.

A Mayoral Hint From a Supermarket Mogul [City Room/NYT]