Thread: (R) Frm, NY mayor Rudy Giuliani takes first step for"08

Giuliani Takes First Step Toward Presidential Bid

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/13/us/po ... tml?ref=us
By SEWELL CHAN
Published: November 13, 2006
Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, has taken the first step toward mounting a presidential candidacy, forming an organization on Friday to explore a White House run.

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Mr. Giuliani stopped short of filing documents with the Federal Election Commission to create a presidential campaign committee, a step that Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa, a Democrat, has taken. Instead, he filed to form a nonprofit group in New York State. Other politicians, like Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, have said they planned to file.

“Mayor Giuliani has not made a decision yet,” John H. Gross, a lawyer at Proskauer Rose and a former campaign treasurer for Mr. Giuliani, said in a statement. “With the filing of this document, we have taken the necessary legal steps so an organization can be put in place and money can be raised to explore a possible presidential run in 2008.”

In another statement, Anthony V. Carbonetti, a former chief of staff to Mr. Giuliani, said, “Rudy has traveled the country campaigning tirelessly on behalf of Republican candidates and has had the opportunity to speak with Americans on a wide variety of issues. They have been encouraging him to run for president, and this filing affords him the opportunity to raise money and put together an organization to assist him in making his decision.”

As news of Mr. Giuliani’s action emerged today, some Democrats rushed to criticize him. “It’s unclear whether or not Rudy Giuliani will be able to just ‘explain away’ the fact that he’s consistently taken positions that are completely opposite to the conservative Republican base on issues they hold near and dear,” a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, Karen Finney, said in a statement.

Mr. Giuliani, who was mayor from 1993 to 2001, has expressed socially liberal views including support for gay rights and abortion rights. He has traveled widely in recent months, stumping for Republican candidates in Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Hampshire, South Carolina and elsewhere. Several of those candidates lost in the midterm elections last week when the Democrats recaptured both houses of Congress.

On Sunday, after a speech in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Mr. Giuliani said he did not view the election as a rebuke to Republicans, but urged the party to commit itself to fiscal discipline and immigration reform.

Federal election law allows individuals exploring a candidacy to “test the waters” before deciding to run for federal office. The prospective candidate does not need to register with the commission, but must abide by the same contribution and spending limits as declared candidates.

The commission advises any individual doing such preliminary exploration to keep detailed financial records, because if the individual formally becomes a candidate, money raised and spent on “testing the waters” will be considered as contributions and expenditures under federal law.

Individuals who are “testing the waters” may pay for polling, phone calls, travel, political consultants, office space and stationery, among other things. But they may not raise more money than “reasonably required for exploratory activity,” use public advertising to publicize their intention to run, make statements that refer to themselves as candidates, or campaign for office.

“It’s likely that presidential candidates will have to raise at least $100 million by the end of 2007,” the chairman of the Federal Election Commission, Michael E. Toner, said in an interview. “Rudy Giuliani is clearly one of those candidates who can raise that amount of money.”

Once prospective presidential candidates file exploratory papers with the Federal Election Commission, they are required to file monthly fund-raising reports. Several aspirants intend to wait until at least January, so that their first fund-raising disclosure is not due until late February, giving them more time to raise money.

If Mr. Giuliani decides to run, he will be able to transfer money from his new organization, the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Exploratory Committee, to his federal campaign committee.

In a four-page filing submitted on Friday to the New York State Department of State and obtained by The New York Times, the new organization was listed as a nonprofit corporation. Bobby R. Burchfield, a partner who handles corporate litigation at McDermott Will & Emery, a firm in Washington, filed the papers. Mr. Gross was listed as a director of the organization, along with Peter J. Powers, a former deputy mayor, and Dennison Young Jr., a former federal prosecutor who was Mr. Giuliani’s chief counsel.

Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting.

Great. It's shaping up to be Clash of the RINOs in '08. Who are Conservatives supposed to be represented by?

Crocket, I could not have said it better myself. I swear if they run this trash I am changing my party. What we will have is one party calling themselves Democrats and another party calling themselves Republicans that are Democrats. Bush is a Democrat, Giuliani is a Democrat. McCain is an idiot. We need a true conservative.

Originally Posted by American_made

Crocket, I could not have said it better myself. I swear if they run this trash I am changing my party. What we will have is one party calling themselves Democrats and another party calling themselves Republicans that are Democrats. Bush is a Democrat, Giuliani is a Democrat. McCain is an idiot. We need a true conservative.

Well, then we had better get busy drafting one.

I think we need to start flooding either Pat B or Tom Tancredo, or Duncan Hunter with thousands of emails, faxes stating our support for them to run for Pres.

Originally Posted by American_made

Crocket, I could not have said it better myself. I swear if they run this trash I am changing my party. What we will have is one party calling themselves Democrats and another party calling themselves Republicans that are Democrats. Bush is a Democrat, Giuliani is a Democrat. McCain is an idiot. We need a true conservative.

Ditto.

Has Rep. Hunter officially declared yet? Right now, he's all we've got.

Originally Posted by MW

Has Rep. Hunter officially declared yet? Right now, he's all we've got.

There's not been word one coming from his quarter. At least not that I've heard.

.

2ndamendsis wrote:

There's not been word one coming from his quarter. At least not that I've heard.

Well, I sure wish he would hurry! We need a pony in the show.

I thought Duncan Hunter already declared that he's running in 08.

Anyway what amazes me is that all these RINO's think that they are presidential material. What because Rudy was acting tough after 9-11 hit his city that I'm suppose to believe he's the answer? Give me a break. It was all for show. He's all for giving illegals sanctuary in his city, he is a complete RINO with not one conservative cell in his body.

Who are Conservatives supposed to be represented by?

Nobody. If we continue to allow the same trash to be reelected time and time again then expect things to get worse.