According to the New York Daily News, Rudy Giuliani is fast approaching his "poop or get off the pot" moment as he contemplates a 2010 Senate bid against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
It looks like he is getting off the pot (h/t: SSP):
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani is expected to announce Tuesday he is not running for U.S. Senate or anything else in 2010, effectively ending his storied - and often stormy - electoral career, The Daily News has learned.
This doesn't come as a shock, in the final analysis: Giuliani has not been actively raising money, nor has he been chatting up county chairs or holding "listening tours". In short, if Giuliani still has a campaign apparatus, it has been dormant throughout this bizarre courtship between the state GOP and Rudy.
Also telling was the fact that, earlier this month, Giuliani accepted a security consulting gig with the 2016 Olympic Committee in Rio de Janeiro.
Despite a lack of active preparation, many speculated that Giuliani could still pull off a viable campaign. His universal name recognition meant that he could get in late without paying too precious a premium for it, especially on the fundraising front. Furthermore, the GOP field to take on Gillibrand was essentially frozen waiting for him, anyway. This meant that no other Republican candidate would have had the benefit of a prohibitive head-start over him.
This is an enormous blow to the New York Republican Party, which now has to recruit a remotely viable candidate for the Senate despite a weak bench. Of course, they are already looking at an underwhelming cast of characters in their gubernatorial race. In fact, deeply unpopular incumbent Governor David Paterson actually leads GOP frontrunner Rick Lazio in trial heats.
Their wait for Giuliani has been a protracted one, which was not what many folks anticipated.
Recall that just before Thanksgiving, it appeared imminent that Giuliani would announce for the Senate. At the time, the rumor was that a decision was being made within hours. It has now been a month.
There is precedence, of course, for a Rudy Giuliani flirtation with a statewide bid, only to see Giuliani leave the New York GOP at the altar. You'll recall that in 2000, New York Republicans breathlessly waited for him to be their firewall against a Hillary Rodham Clinton bid for the U.S. Senate. After looking very much the serious candidate, he parachuted out in May of 2000, amid a flurry of unpleasant stories about his personal life and a diagnosis of prostate cancer.
This left the GOP, ironically enough, with current gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio, who eventually lost by double digits.