BLOOMBITO MAY SEEK FOURTH TERM

Mayor Bloomberg's aides plotting path around term limits, sez source
BY KIRSTEN DANIS DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF
Saturday, April 12th 2008, 9:29 PM
Rosier/News

Hizzoner may not be in a hurry to leave City Hall, a source said.
Aides to Mayor Bloomberg discussed finding a way for the popular mayor to get around term limits so he could seek another four years in City Hall, a source said Saturday.
But while the Bloomberg administration has talked about revising the City Charter on term limits, the mayor has not committed to the idea, the source said.
A spokesman for the mayor said Bloomberg promises to abide by the law, which limits elected city officials to two four-year terms in office.

"The mayor is absolutely not seeking a third term," said Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser.
Asked if the mayor would promise to leave at the end of 2009, Loeser replied, "Yes."
Bloomberg has often expressed support for term limits, which voters approved in ballot referendums in 1993 and again in 1996.
"The mayor has repeatedly said that the current term limit is the will of the voters," said Jeff Simmons, spokesman for City Controller Bill Thompson, a potential mayoral candidate. "We take him at his word."

Thompson, 54, is in his second term as controller, which expires at the end of 2009.
It is difficult to see how the mayor could accomplish changing the charter. Bloomberg has announced plans for a charter commission, but one has not been established, and it would be a tight squeeze to get a vote on the ballot to overturn term limits before the 2009 city election.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) maintains that the Council has the legislative authority to overturn term limits. But possibly seeking the mayoralty herself, Quinn said definitively in December that she will not direct the Council to vote on the issue.

While the mayor supports term limits, he finds himself in the difficult situation of trying to remain relevant when he and everyone else knows he'll be out of a job in less than two years.
He said last month that he would not run for President, despite months of buzz. Open speculation by his political aide, Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey, that the mayor would make a good vice president does not appear to be picking up much steam.
"It's called not being a lame duck," said a source close to the mayor. "I wouldn't be surprised if he made a play for it [a third term], but it would be a play - it wouldn't be serious."