How Mr. Oddo Is Seeking Draft Of Mr. Bloomberg

The national director of the Committee to Draft Michael Bloomberg is building a network of volunteers to complement what would undoubtedly be a well-financed campaign for the White House, should the mayor run for president.

Joseph Oddo, a freelance writer, consultant, and five-time candidate for public office, has signed up 100 volunteers in 20 states and hopes to eventually gather 1,000. The recruitment effort has been slow going, but gains momentum with each mention of Mr. Bloomberg as a potential presidential candidate in the press, he said.

"It's a very basic start, but you set everything up in preparation," Mr. Oddo, who lives in Springfield, Va., said. Mr. Bloomberg "could certainly bring a lot to the table for our cause."

Mr. Oddo's cause is getting independent candidates to run for office. He said he is a month away from finishing the manuscript for a book he plans to self-publish: "Independent America." It is partly a how-to guide for independent candidates and partly an argument for the creation of a strong, independent third party in America, he said.

He has used his own campaigns to recruit future candidates, and said convincing people to run for office is a tough sell. "People look at me like I have two heads," he said.

Even on Mr. Oddo's Web site, www.DraftMichael.com, an enthusiastic pitch for volunteers to raise money and collect signatures
devolves into a recruiting tool for future candidates. "Better yet RUN for Office!" it says after asking supporters of Mr. Bloomberg to step forward.

"It is the citizens who will make the difference," it says. "We can draft positive legislation to conserve our natural resources, more efficiently allocate our tax dollars and preserve our freedoms."

A political reporter and columnist at the Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Va., who covered Mr. Oddo when he ran in the state's 5th congressional district race in 2006, Bob Gibson, said the perennial candidate was a pleasant sort of gadfly. He forced his opponents, Rep. Virgil Goode, a Republican, and Albert Weed, a Democrat, to debate tax proposals and an intercity rail system Mr. Oddo supports as the solution to America's energy and transportation needs.

"He believes the two parties are both too corrupted and too similar to each other to make much of a difference, and wants to involve the great majority of people, or the majority anyway, who aren't involved in the process," Mr. Gibson said. "I'm sure he feels like somebody like Bloomberg, with his wealth and his name and his reputation, could do more for independents than someone like Joe Oddo."

Mr. Oddo, 49, knows little about New York City politics. One of the few insights he has to offer about life inside City Hall is that he shares a last name with a City Council member of Staten Island, James Oddo. The two are not related.

Mr. Oddo, who has visited New York only a handful of times, has never met Mr. Bloomberg, and said he rarely sees him in action. One of the few times he has heard him speak was last month, when Mr. Bloomberg delivered a storm warning to New Yorkers. Mr. Oddo said he was impressed.

"I guess that's what mayors do. They prepare the city for the worst," he said. "I thought he was very well-spoken. I'm sure he's an excellent campaigner."

In the end, Mr. Bloomberg's speaking style, policy views, and campaigning skills mean markedly less to Mr. Oddo than the effect of a Bloomberg campaign on current and future independent candidates around the country. Mr. Oddo said Mr. Bloomberg absolutely can win the presidency.

"It's like a once in a lifetime thing. We had our Ross Perot, but we didn't have an elected official in Ross Perot," Mr. Oddo said. "That's a new dimension Bloomberg brings."

It's unclear how much money the committee has collected since Mr. Oddo registered with the Federal Election Commission in January. It has not filed any donation totals with the FEC, but the committee is believed to have at least $50, thanks to a reported donation from Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey's mother.

There are 21 draft committees registered with the FEC, one of which is for Mr. Bloomberg. There are five committees to draft Vice President Gore, three committees to draft Senator Obama, and one committee to draft Mayor Giuliani. There is no committee to draft Senator Clinton.

A professor of public administration at Columbia University, Steven Cohen, said draft committees haven't been found to persuadeº candidates to run for office.

"They play a symbolic role to make it look like the people are demanding the candidate run," Mr. Cohen said. "Mike Bloomberg would be the last guy in the country to respond to a draft movement. He is going to decide based on his own sense of whether it makes sense politically and personally to run for president."

A spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg, Stuart Loeser, wrote in an e-mail that the administration is aware of the committee, but the mayor has not visited the Web site.

"And while he thinks the campaign is very flattering," Mr. Loeser said, "he's not running for president."