By Jon Schuppe
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN—Former mayor Rudy Giuliani announced Tuesday that he would not run for governor or for the U.S. Senate, saying he wanted to focus on expanding his consulting and law firms.
Giuliani, who abandoned a senate run in 2001 and remains deep in debt from his failed campaign for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, said he would campaign for other GOP candidates. He started by endorsing gubernatorial hopeful Rick Lazio, who joined him at a Midtown news conference.
Giuliani, whose two-term mayoralty ended in 2001, said he was not ruling out other future races.
“The reason is I’ll literally be too busy with things I’m very enthusiastic about and very interested in and that I can’t pull myself away from,” Giuliani said. “And that’s the only thing that it’s about. I have no idea if I’ll run for something else or never run again. I just have no idea.”
Turning to Lazio, Giuliani said the former Long Island congressman’s strength in the gubernatorial race would be his pro-business fiscal conservatism.
“This election will be about our economy,” Giuliani said. “It should be because our economy is in very bad shape and the budget of the state is in even worse shape.”
Lazio, who lost the 2000 Senate race to Hillary Rodham Clinton, said the state’s most pressing problem was a government that “over spends, over taxes, overreaches and is tainted by a…toxic polarization that creates stalemate and ineffectiveness.”
Though the podium was fitted with Lazio signs, the news conference was clearly about Giuliani, who had flirted for months over running for a statewide office. The former mayor said his consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, had suffered financially during his presidential run but was picking up domestic and international clients—including Brazil’s national Olympic committee. His 5-year-old law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, had grown to 70 lawyers. And he said he’s managed to cut his presidential campaign debt to about $1 million, from around $3 million.
Giuliani said he still envisioned himself as a national Republican cheerleader. He said he was going to campaign in Florida for state Attorney General Bill McCullum’s gubernatorial bid, and in Texas for Gov. Rick Perry’s re-election.
He also is contemplating backing several races in the Northeast.
Giuliani said he made his decision not to run in 2010 around Thanksgiving, and contacted Lazio two weeks ago to offer his support.
Giuliani said he is still considering whom to endorse in the GOP campaign against Democratic U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
