I Decline
Call it the unmaking of a mayoral candidate.

April 11, 2001 5:30 p.m.

Dear Mike,

After giving the matter careful thought over the last several weeks, I have decided not to take up your offer to run for mayor.

I agree with your assessment entirely that the current field is, to be charitable, lacking. Indeed, it is rather stunning that no one in the race is going to defend, let alone amplify, the ideas and initiatives of Rudy Giuliani, without question the most effective New York mayor of the 20th century.

New York City still desperately needs to be freed of the enervating and outdated collectivist ideology to which it is held hostage. And it needs to return to its mid-century function of easing its residents into the middle-class, not just in terms of wealth, but of habits and mores.

It is especially dismaying that the presumptive Republican nominee is so unsuited to this task. If Michael Bloomberg weren't thinking of running himself, he would, no doubt, be contributing to Mark Green's campaign.

Bloomberg's embrace by the GOP is another sign of the rotten state of New York's Republican establishment, not only in the City, but at the state level, where Gov. Pataki (who sorely deserves a Conservative challenger in his race next year) is currently doing all he can to make himself indistinguishable from Mario Cuomo.

But I have reluctantly concluded that I can best serve the cause in ways other than jumping into the race myself. I hope to continue to comment on the campaign, and will be available to help the Conservative Party in any way you consider appropriate.

I appreciate both the opportunity you offered me, and all the work you do to keep conservative, reformist ideas alive in New York.

All the best,

Rich Lowry