(Photo: Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan)

Democratic donor and Hillary Clinton supporter John Catsimatidis has switched parties and vowed to spend more than $40 million of his own money to become the next mayor. And now the oil-refining and grocery-store magnate has at least one plan for what he’ll do if elected: He’ll bring back the World’s Fair. Last month, he started a nonprofit called New York’s World’s Fair of 2014, and he’s drafting letters to “all the major leaders” around town to join his effort, which he says is a better idea than Mike Bloomberg’s failed bid to draw the Olympics. “It hit me,” he says. “We’re spending all this money and kissing everyone’s rear end to spend billions and billions on something that goes away in three weeks. You blink your eyes and it’s gone.” The 1964 World’s Fair ran for two six-month seasons. Fifty years later, the 2014 fair would be dedicated to “the dreams of the 21st century” like “the curing of diseases.” Meanwhile, he’s also looking to buy an SUV: “You’re not a real candidate if you’re not in a Suburban.”

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Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Geoffrey Gray
• Table of Contents: Oct 29, 2007 issue of New York | Subscribe!