Bloomberg Presidential Speculation Gets a Boost

A Newsweek magazine cover story that hits newsstands today is pumping new life into the speculation that Mayor Bloomberg will run for president as an independent candidate.

Aboard Mr. Bloomberg's Falcon 9 jet flying to Seattle from Washington, D.C., last week, Mr. Bloomberg's chief political adviser, Kevin Sheekey, stoked the 2008 hype by telling the magazine: "This is a billion-dollar campaign."

Mr. Sheekey, considered the driving force behind Mr. Bloomberg's possible candidacy, later changed his statement, but only slightly, Newsweek reported.

"If it happens, it's a billion-dollar campaign," Mr. Sheekey said. National talk of Mr. Bloomberg entering the presidential race as a third party candidate soared in June when he left the Republican Party, but has quieted down in recent months amid his denials that he would run. In early October, the New York Times wrote that excitement over his possible candidacy seemed to be dissipating.

The 6,955-word profile by the magazine's editor, Jon Meacham, seems to change all of that, framing Mr. Bloomberg as a national candidate who is pro-choice, pro-gun control, and pro-gay rights. He is described as "a billionaire wild card, a centrist who has the means to make one of the most significant third-party bids for the White House in American history."

The headline of the article reads: 'The Revolutionary: He has the money and the message to upend 2008. Michael Bloomberg's American Odyssey.' That Mr. Bloomberg cooperated with the magazine, giving an interview at Gracie Mansion and a rare invitation to travel on his jet, also indicates he is committed to keeping the presidential narrative alive.

Within the past week, he has been taking on issues of national and international importance, announcing in Seattle last week that he supports a tax on carbon emissions and that he plans to travel to the island of Bali in Indonesia to attend a United Nations summit on climate change next month.

The story "raises the speculation again," Edward Rollins, a former adviser to Ross Perot, who waged an independent presidential campaign in 1992 and 1996, said. "I think it had quieted down, because he kept knocking it down."

Mr. Sheekey told Newsweek he believes Mr. Bloomberg's decision about whether to run will come March 5, the day after the Texas primary. Mr. Meacham writes that the mayor will not run unless Mr. Sheekey can convince him that "winning the necessary 270 electoral votes is not only possible, but likely." The story also focuses on Mr. Bloomberg's rise from modest beginnings in Medford, Mass., and his Jewish identity, which is expected to be a subject of national discussion should he run for president. Mr. Meacham outlined three instances in which Mr. Bloomberg's family encountered anti-Semitism, and touches on his visits to Temple Emanu-El on East 65th Street and Fifth Avenue.

Mr. Bloomberg's attendance at temple and religious beliefs aren't often given close scrutiny by the New York press, with a recent exception being a June story in a newspaper that focuses on Jewish issues, the Forward, which said that in Mr. Bloomberg's public life, "his Jewish identity has hardly been overriding."

A professor of public administration at Columbia University, Steven Cohen, said the story would generate a new wave of interest in Mr. Bloomberg's presidential aspirations. "The idea that this is going to be a really disgusting, negative presidential campaign does leave an opening for someone who can be above the fray," he said. Mr. Cohen said he does not think it's likely Mr. Bloomberg will run.

Either way, he said, landing on the cover of Newsweek presents "no downside" for Mr. Bloomberg, because it keeps him relevant and influential.

"The more of this kind of conversation, the better for him," he said.