Tonight’s nationally televised town-hall meeting is the latest hope for an answer from Mayor Giuliani on whether he’s in – or out – of the nation’s most closely watched Senate race.
Giuliani remained mum yesterday on what – or if – he’s decided.
For his campaign organization, it was business as usual: distributing the latest poll results to supporters and urging them to attend a rally tonight at 7 before the 8 p.m. town hall session.
At least one source said the mayor was looking for a way to continue his campaign while undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.
“I think if he can run, he will run,” said the source. “First he has to come to grips with medical issues, he has to be comfortable that he can do it.”
Yesterday, Giuliani continued a series of private meetings with long-time friends and former aides that began Tuesday.
One of them, Ken Caruso, a former prosecutor and a mayoral appointee to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, was spotted leaving City Hall just moments before the mayor at 5:20 p.m.
State Conservative Party leader Mike Long, whose relationship with Giuliani is strained, said conversations with politicians across the state led him to believe “more and more” that Giuliani is running.
When he heard that, the mayor chuckled.
“There’s no particularly objective evidence one way or the other about that,” said Giuliani, himself a former prosecutor.
Some of the mayor’s closest aides warned there’s not much point to all the speculation.
“No one knows,” said one insider. “Anyone who says they know doesn’t know what they’re talking about.”
Giuliani, who jolted the political world by announcing his cancer diagnosis on April 27, found himself tailed every time he left City Hall.
Yesterday, he was even shadowed when he strolled a half-block to lunch at a favorite restaurant, 17 on Murray Street in lower Manhattan.
“You don’t have to cover me every time,” the mayor chided reporters.
At Giuliani’s campaign headquarters, two aides were dispatched to Buffalo to begin logistical planning for the May 30 state Republican convention.
Deputy campaign manager Gregory Miley rushed out faxes to supporters with results of the latest Quinnipiac College poll, which showed Giuliani locked in a virtual dead heat with Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“This is a reaffirmation of the strength of the mayor’s candidacy,” Miley wrote.
The campaign also sent e-mails to supporters, urging them to attend tonight’s rally outside the 92nd Street Y, where Giuliani is conducting his town hall session.
But campaign manager Bruce Teitelbaum said no one should read anything into the campaign’s actions.
“It simply means that I have to keep the campaign moving … so when the mayor makes a decision, we’ll be able to go either way,” said Teitelbaum.