Trump's Next Building: NYS Governor's Mansion?He could win governor of New York.
Greg Levine, 12.30.05, 2:03 PM ET
NEW YORK - Trump Tower, Trump Taj Mahal... Trump Governor's mansion?
According to a report, the master deal maker may want to tack his name onto New York State's highest office: The New York Daily News said Friday that Donald Trump is eyeing a run for governor on the Republican ticket.
That would place the billionaire businessman square against that bête noire of big--and sometimes corrupt--business, Eliot Spitzer. The NYS attorney general will throw his leather-tough hat into the ring as a Democrat.
Social conservatives have very little influence with the electorate, altho they do seem to wield unusual power in the legislature.
With his money, excuse me, access to bank loans, I should say, he'd build a formidable campaign war chest.
He did make a half-hearted attempt to put together a presidential run, but that was shortly after his image revitalization attempt after his first bankruptcy. No one took him seriously.
He also made noise in 2001 about running for New York City mayor, but Bloomberg obviously twisted his arm (plus, after 9-11, I think he figured the job would be more work than it was worth)
Would he run for governor? Not likely, but he could and could seriously contend for the GOP nomination, as Joe Bruno is apparently behind this push.
Trump despises Eliot Spitzer, I should point out, which would bring another interesting dynamic to this race: Donald Trump AND Eliot Spitzer are both on good terms with Don Imus, the popular radio talk show host.
The last time Imus got involved in a statewide New York race, it was the Senate contest between Al D'Amato and Robert Abrams, when he hosted a debate and actually managed to get Abrams to call D'Amato a "fascist", which raised the spectre of D'Amato's ethnic heritage (nevermind that Abrams was correct, D'Amato played the "race card" as an Italian-American).
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