Rendell for Mayor… of NYC?

Ed Rendell Portrait
Former Gov. Ed Rendell

Ed Rendell has been the Mayor of Philadelphia, the Governor of Pennsylvania and the Chairman of the DNC, but does that qualify him to be America’s Mayor? Advisers to outgoing NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg think so. They tried to recruit Rendell to run.

The New York Times reports that Rendell is one of five big names they tried to court for the job:

High-powered advisers to Mr. Bloomberg — and even the mayor himself — have chewed over alternatives, joked about dream candidates and even floated the possibility of a mayoral run to at least five boldface figures, highlighting their worry that City Hall could fall into less nimble hands.

The mayor’s advisers raised the idea of a run with Edward G. Rendell, the former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania and mayor of Philadelphia

“The mayor believes he is special,” Mr. Rendell said in an interview in his Philadelphia office. “He wanted somebody at a very high level to come in to do a job he has often said to me — and he’s not the only person who says it — is the second most difficult job in the country.”

Mr. Rendell lives about 100 miles away in Pennsylvania and would have to move to New York City to run. Despite having grown up in New York, he said he knew little of the city beyond Manhattan. “I’m not sure how many times I’ve stepped foot in Brooklyn,” he said. “I have no understanding of Queens and no understanding of the Bronx.” Running for mayor of New York, he said, “didn’t sit well with me.”

The suggestion to Mr. Rendell came from a longtime Bloomberg adviser, Bradley Tusk, even though Mr. Tusk is now informally advising Ms. Quinn. Mr. Tusk, a former Rendell intern who ran Mr. Bloomberg’s 2009 campaign, said the impetus to approach Mr. Rendell “came from a few people in the business community, and not anyone remotely connected with Mayor Bloomberg.”

Read the full story here.

In the time since he left office, Rendell has resumed practicing law and is a frequent commentator on national cable news.

4 Responses

  1. Only a city on its way to becoming a clone of L.A. or Chicago would replace a tiny wantabe dictator with a man whose ego excels the width and height of the current mayor, Bloomberg.

  2. The only reasons to run Rendell in NYC are to improve their cheese steaks and get them switch from “subs” to “hoagies”.

    … oh, and gun control

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