Kelly for Mayor Movement Grows

Sidewalks with Tom Deignan

Kelly for Mayor Movement Grows

October 26, 2007

THE political landscape in New York City is unpredictable, to say the least. This past week, people were actually debating the merits of a Joe Torre candidacy for mayor. The former Yankees manager is a fine fellow and an exemplary sports leader, but it really does make you wonder if some reporters and analysts have a little too much time on their hands.

Maybe what it also means is that they simply cannot analyze, from any other angle, the merits of a Ray Kelly run for mayor.

This month, the drumbeat over a potential Kelly candidacy has grown louder and louder. Kelly would be New York’s first Irish mayor since Mayo-born William O’Dwyer in the 1940s.

In fact, people are beginning to ponder the secondary impact of Kelly’s run for mayor, as in who might he select to fill his own shoes as police commissioner.

Will famed Irish immigrant cop turned Miami commissioner John Timoney return to New York City? Will Bostonian William Bratton return? Will one time commissioner candidate Joseph Dunne cap a stellar career with a stint as commissioner?

Or will mainstream Democratic Irish mayoral candidate Christine Quinn gather such momentum that Kelly either does not run for mayor –- or run as a Republican?

Anyway you look at it, Irish New Yorkers will play a key role in the coming months.

Kelly himself continues to vociferously deny he is interested in City Hall.

A few months back he told veteran political reporter Gabe Pressman, “I’m going to be police commissioner, hopefully, until the end of the term, Mayor Bloomberg’s term here.”

Since NYPD brass cannot serve and run for office, it would seem Kelly has ruled out gunning for City Hall.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne (himself the son of Irish immigrants) has spent a good chunk of his time in recent weeks repeating the mantra — the top cop does not want to be mayor.

And yet, two weeks ago, the Sunday papers were filled with long analyses of why Kelly would make a great mayoral candidate.

The New York Times weighed in, saying each Kelly denial “seems to prompt a new round of speculation on Mr. Kelly’s political future. In some circles, it has become a parlor game — will he or won’t he? And in some cases, behind the scenes, he has fueled the interest himself.”

The Times was referring to a chat Kelly had with a Republican consultant over the summer. No one can say which party Kelly would run for, as rumors have tied him to Republicans and Democrats.

“He has had more publicity than any other person in New York, other than the mayor,” Howard J. Rubenstein, the noted public relations executive, told the Times.

State Senator Martin J. Golden, himself a former NYPD cop (as well as the son of Irish immigrants…are you sensing a pattern here?) told the Times, “You’ve got a Ray Kelly and that would be a real dynamic in this race as a Republican, and winnable. I would imagine that if he is not seriously thinking about it, it would be a mistake for him and for the city.”

Prominent pollster Mickey Carroll wrote a piece in the Daily News about the virtues of a Kelly run.

“Ray Kelly for mayor? Why not? He’s the star of the Bloomberg team every time the Quinnipiac University poll, where I work, asks New Yorkers to rate their officials. Cops are popular in New York. And Kelly’s name crops up whenever political junkies, like most of my friends, decide to look beyond the incessant micro-measurements of the 2008 presidential race,” Carroll wrote.

Whether or not Kelly runs, there is the secondary question of who will be the next police commissioner of New York.

“Whoever it is, the next commissioner is going to have a tough act to follow,” former first deputy commissioner, Joseph Dunne told The New York Sun recently. “You need all the qualifications of Ray Kelly.”

The Irish American Dunne was a commissioner candidate under Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and might still be considered for the job under the next mayor.

Bratton recently was reappointed commissioner of the Los Angeles Police Department, so observers have said he is not likely to return to New York.

What about Irishman Timoney?

“I think Timoney would definitely consider returning to New York. He was disappointed not to get the job last time around,” Heather MacDonald told the Sun.

MacDonald is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor at the City Journal who has written extensively about policing in New York.

And so it goes. Either way, New York’s leadership might very well have a heavy Irish flavor come 2009.

(Contact Tom at tomdeignan@verizon.net.)

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