Ray Kelly has given his first public indication that he might indeed be interested in running for mayor.
The police commissioner was approached by a reporter at a party last week in Washington and asked point blank if he was open to the idea of trying to succeed Mayor Bloomberg.
“I’m still contemplating that,” Kelly responded, according to New York magazine.
He had a few other things to say first, which raised the question whether he was really signaling he might make his first run for office.
When the magazine reporter caught up with Kelly at the New Yorker cocktail party last Friday night before that weekend’s annual White House Correspondents Dinner, he was in a light mood.
“I’m the police commissioner. I’m running for police commissioner,” he joshed. “I want to hold onto my job. I don’t know — I might be out the door.”
Paul Browne, Kelly’s longtime spokesman, said “Commissioner Kelly has joked about ‘running for police commissioner.’
“Beyond that he’s said only that he’s focused exclusively on his current post with no plans to run for any elective office.”
Asked about the “contemplating” remark, Browne said Kelly didn’t recall it.
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