Former Mayor Ed Koch, who knows a thing or two about running for office in New York, didn’t hesitate to raise his voice while campaigning for Republican attorney general hopeful Dan Donovan at Grand Central Terminal on Tuesday morning.

“Come on over! Say hello! Como on over,” Koch bellowed, his voice ricocheting off the walls of the terminal’s cavernous main concourse as commuters whisked by shortly after 8 a.m.

“Hello everybody! Come on over,” he repeated over and over. “Say hello to Dan Donovan.”

Sure enough, commuters stopped to take pictures, shake hands, meet the candidate, or exchange pleasantries with Koch and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was also there to support Donovan.

One voter told Koch, who turns 86 next month, that it was good to see him in “good health.” The former mayor replied, “I am.”

As Koch continued to shout in his quintessentially New York manner, Bloomberg looked increasingly amused. “Ed has been doing this for a long time, as you can tell,” he said at one point.

Bloomberg, Koch and Donovan took a few questions from the media. The mayor opened with an explanation of why he’s supporting the Republican candidate attorney general.

“We need somebody that is totally independent and not somebody that’s been part of the problem (in) Albany that everybody complains about,” Bloomberg said. “You’ll never get anybody in Albany to clean it up if they’re part of the problem.”

Donovan’s Democratic opponent, State Sen. Eric Schneiderman, has served in the state legislature for more than a decade.

Koch said he’s supporting Donovan because “the state is going to be overwhelming led by Democrats and I think you have to have someone from another party looking over their shoulders.”

“It’s called checks and balances,” Koch said. “I am supporting him because I want somebody there who is not part of the operation.”

Donovan’s battle with Schneiderman has been especially intense. On Tuesday, Donovan denied that he’s been engaged in throwing mud. “I’ve pointed out the differences between myself and my opponent. I think we’ve given the voters a clear choice,” he said.

But then things took a negative turn, as Donovan described his opponent as “somebody who has been for part of that system for the last 12 years whose law enforcement experience consists of being a deputy sheriff for two years in the Berkshires.”

Schneiderman’s Democratic supporters have focused on Donovan’s stance on abortion rights — he considers himself pro-life. The Journal asked Donovan on Tuesday to respond to pro-choice critics on that issue.

“I’m standing next to two men who are very pro-choice,” Donovan said, referring to Bloomberg and Koch. “Both of these gentleman understand that a woman’s right to choose her reproductive health care is not an issue in the attorney general’s race. It’s been the established law in our country for nearly 40 years. It’s been the established law in our state even before that.”

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(Source: WSJ)