Mayor Bloomberg threw open his Upper East Side townhouse for a fundraiser for Borough President — and potential mayoral hopeful — Marty Markowitz on Wednesday, drawing a crowd of 80 or so well-heeled donors and boosting the still undeclared campaign of the term-limited Beep.
News of the June 20 fundraiser — first reported on www.BrooklynPaper.com last week — has fueled speculation that the lame-duck Markowitz is jump-starting his on-again, off-again run for mayor.
The borough president told The Brooklyn Paper that he raised “slightly more than $250,000” at the fundraiser.
“It went very well,” he said. “I was very proud to have the mayor hold it on my behalf. As you know, I have a very good relationship with him.”
Markowitz hasn’t publicly declared his intentions, but he’s sitting on a million-dollar war chest for the 2009 election — and he’s already spent at least $200,000 on such candidate-related expenses as political consultants and polling.
But for all that spending, Markowitz is still not completely sure he’s making the race, though he hinted that a decision is very close at hand.
“Every day I don’t decide makes it more and more challenging,” he said. “The question is, can I do for New York City what I think I’ve done for Brooklyn.”
While the Wednesday night fundraiser may have filled the coffers, Markowitz’s campaign dashed the notion that Bloomberg was anointing a successor.
“I don’t think [the fundraiser] is an endorsement of anything specific that Marty wants to do or will do,” said Mike Weiss, Markowitz’s campaign treasurer. “I think it’s just an offer out of friendship. They’ve gotten along well and seen eye-to-eye on a lot of things.”
Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf agreed.
“The mayor held a fundraiser for [Councilman] Simcha Felder,” said Sheinkopf. “Does it mean he’s supporting Simcha for Comptroller? This does not mean he’s supporting Marty for mayor. … But can Marty use this as a way to generate buzz for a run for mayor? Absolutely.”
It’s not just Markowitz’s fundraising that is generating buzz. Like Bloomberg himself — who flirts with his own higher-office run — Markowitz has been dropping one rhetorical hint after another about his plans, starting with the infamous fortune cookie episode at his State of the Borough address in February, when he wondered aloud if he should run for mayor and then cracked open the cookie to reveal the message, “If it’s good for Brooklyn, it’s good for New York City.”
The hint-dropping continued this week, when he told the New York Observer that his Bloomberg-hosted fundÂÂraiser indicated “the first step on the journey to possibly running for Mayor of New York City.”
In the interview, Markowitz cited Fiorello LaGuardia and Ed Koch (hmm…) as the pols with whom he identifies.
In an earlier interview with City Hall News, he said he had ruled out the other two citywide offices: Public Advocate and Comptroller.
“Comptroller would not interest me … because I think you have to have some experience in finance. … If I was in my 40s or early 50s, the possibility of Public Advocate would certainly be something that I would review, but truth of the matter is…every day or almost every day, you got to wake up and challenge the mayor or his agencies … And that is not me personally.”
With those two offices ruled out, only one citywide office remains. And while a MarÂÂkoÂÂwitz Administration is a longshot, it’s not out of the question. “In a crowded field, anything can happen,” Sheinkopf said.
