By Ben Fractenberg
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Newspaper publisher Mortimer Zuckerman will not run for the New York State Senate, according to his flagship paper The Daily News.
Seventy-two-year-old Zuckerman said in an interview on the paper’s Web site that he is not running for personal and professional reasons.
"It demands unhindered attention, which I am unable to give at this time," he told The News.
Zuckerman considered running after recent Democratic controversies gave the Republican party a rare opportunity at the Senate seat. His decision comes just days after former Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford Jr. announced he is not running against Senator Kristen Gillibrand in the New York State primary.
Forbes magazine estimated Zuckerman’s wealth to be $1.5 billion. His fortune made him an especially attractive option for the Republican party, whose candidate would need to raise millions of dollars to run an effective campaign against Gillibrand.
“It was nothing short of stunning to me,” Zuckerman told The New York Times about the support he received. “It made me very serious about it.”
