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Media mogul bids for NY mayor
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BILLIONAIRE Michael Bloomberg, the founder of a sprawling financial information empire that bears his name, will announce his intention to run for New York mayor this week, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
Bloomberg, a 59-year-old Republican and political neophyte, will announce his candidacy in television commercials starting on Tuesday, the daily said.
So far, the CEO and founder of Bloomberg LP, who is listed in Forbes magazine as one of the 400 richest men in the United States, has not revealed details of his political platform.
Four Democrats and one other Republican are in the race so far to replace Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, whose term ends in December.
Local papers say Bloomberg, who switched his lifelong Democratic affiliation just last year, may have the splash and the cash that it takes to succeed the flamboyant Republican mayor.
A divorced father of two who reportedly loves to party, Bloomberg's fortune is estimated at US$4 billion, and he is said to be willing to spend it liberally on his mayoral campaign.
"I don't know if he's trying to buy the Republican Party, but he's certainly trying to buy the election," the other Republican mayoral candidate, City University of New York chairman Herman Badillo, told The New York Post on Saturday.
If both men declare their candidacies as expected this week they will face off in a Republican primary in September ahead of the November vote.(SD-Agencies)
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