Draft Bloomberg Movement Launched

[TIME]

Draft Bloomberg Movement Launched

Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008 By RANI MOLLA/WASHINGTON

Two veteran political consultants from different political parties have joined forces and formed an independent committee to nudge New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg into running for president in 2008.

The two consultants, Douglas Bailey and Gerald Rafshoon, told reporters Tuesday that Bloomberg's name recognition, independent political affiliation and personal fortune make him unusually well positioned to break the partisan gridlock in Washington. "Michael Bloomberg, if he runs," said Bailey, "will be elected president of the United States."

Bailey, a Republican who worked for Gerald Ford, and Rafshoon, a Democrat who helped elect Jimmy Carter in 1976, recently resigned from a months-long project called UNITY 08 designed to encourage people to pick and elect a mixed ticket with a Republican and a Democrat for President and Vice President. They are placing their bets now on a Bloomberg bid.

Bloomberg had no immediate reaction to the formation of the draft committee. Once a Republican (and before that a Democrat) who has recently become an independent, Bloomberg last week attended a forum in Oklahoma that centered in part on the need for a bipartisan-minded candidate. At that forum, as he has before, he told participants that he was "not a candidate."
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http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1703765,00.html