Bloomberg loves the GOP. He loves them not. Bloomberg loves the GOP.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg's on-again off-again romance with the Republican Party may be warming up once more, the New York Post reported today. While the mayor will most likely running on a third-party line, perhaps one of his own creation, Bloomberg has also been feeling out GOP leaders in the five boroughs about running on the Republican line when he seeks a third term, the Post reported.
After being spurned by Bloomberg in 2007, local Republicans are little cool to the mayor's advances. But there's nothing like money to mend a broken heart.
"A lot of them [GOP leaders] told me they will not carry petitions for Mayor Bloomberg," one GOP source told the Post. "They feel he bought us and sold us." But at the same time, the source added, "Let's be real. He's got $20 billion."
So despite saying like "I don't think either national party stands for anything. Individuals stand for things. There isn't any philosophy for any party," while he was flirting with a run at the White House in the summer of 2007, the $1.5 million he has added to state Republican coffers since entering politics speaks much louder.
That kind of cash could be why some local GOP chairs are voicing nominal resistance to Bloomberg but leaving themselves plenty of wiggle room.
"If there's a credible Republican that's running, I'd have to support that person first," Queens GOP Chairman Phil Ragusa, who has not been contacted by Bloomberg's team, told the Post. "If the mayor wanted to re-register as a Republican, I might think of it."
