According to the Times, sources close to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani are saying that he’s decided against running for governor in 2010. Writer Danny Hakim suggests that it might be because he was wary of having to run against the currently very popular Andrew Cuomo, or maybe because he didn’t want to give up his lucrative businesses and speaking career. He also has a strained relationship with the head of the state Republican Party, Ed Cox, which might make a run more complicated. But we’d add to that list all the attention he’s been getting in the past few days for his opposition to the civilian trials of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other alleged 9/11 plotters here in New York. He’s become a primary spokesman for people — including David Paterson and some 9/11 family members — who are against bringing the accused terrorists here from Guantánamo Bay (even though back in 1994 he held the opposite position). It’s gotten him a lot of exposure on a national level, and even if he’s previously indicated he’d rather be a chief executive than a senator, the exposure might have reminded him how much he likes the country’s continued attention. We’re betting that whatever can get him that — be it a race for Kirsten Gillibrand’s Senate seat, a long warm-up to a 2012 presidential re-run, or just a key role in the ending of this whole Guantánamo saga — will be his next step.
Giuliani Is Said to Have Decided Not to Run for Governor [NYT]
Related: Read Michael Crowley’s New York profile on Giuliani from earlier this month, in which friends of Giuliani predicted this move was coming shortly.
