Until last night, the only signal that former New York Stock Exchange chief Dick Grasso wanted to run for mayor against his nemesis, Eliot Spitzer (who as attorney general sued Grasso over his $140 million compensation package), was a gossipy early-March Post column by Charles Gasparino. And even then, Gasparino noted that “[t]he Grasso-for-mayor notion is a longshot (Grasso, who didn’t return a phone call, is known for playing practical jokes).” But maybe it’s not quite as far-fetched after all. In a speaking appearance at Wagner College on Staten Island last night, Grasso basically guaranteed he would run if two conditions are met:
Obviously, those are two big ifs. Kelly has been rumored to be interested in a mayoral run in the past (New York’s Geoffrey Gray reported last year that before Mayor Bloomberg decided to go for the three-peat in 2009, Kelly met with Bob Dole’s campaign manager to discuss a run of his own). But the post of FBI director is opening up in September, and Chuck Schumer has suggested Kelly would be perfect for it. According to DNAinfo’s Murray Weiss, late of the Post, sources say the job “is [Kelly’s] for the taking.”
Then there’s Spitzer, who is clearly interested in getting back into politics if his reputation recovers enough to allow it. The odd thing about Grasso’s statement, though, is that he specifically says he’ll run if Spitzer runs as an independent. Is that just because that’s what he expects Spitzer to do, or is it another condition of Grasso’s? (Presumably, if Spitzer ran as an independent, he would split the liberal vote with the Democratic nominee, giving Republican Grasso an easy win.) We’ll just have to wait and see how everything plays about, but this is all very exciting.
Ex-Chairman of New York Stock Exchange May Run for Mayor [NYT]
