Spin Cycle

Nassau's own Bruce Blakeman, the defeated GOP candidate for state comptroller in 1998, is setting his sights on another possible run a decade later, with even higher stakes: mayor of New York City, according to the publication City Hall, which also posted the photo above.

Blakeman these days is a commissioner at the bi-state Port Authority and a lawyer. “I have left the door open to the possibility of going back into a public life and [mayor] is a very interesting position where you could do a lot of good for people,” he told interviewer Andrew J. Hawkins.

As you'll see, he gets some supportive chatter from former Staten Island borough president Guy Molinari and current Manhattan GOP chairwoman Jennifer Saul Yaffa.

Before his comptroller run, and his appointment to the P.A. by former Gov. George Pataki, Blakeman was on the Hempstead Town Board and a Nassau legislator, where he served as presiding officer and majority leader in the late 1990's.

The floating of Blakeman's name for next year's race, when Mayor Michael Bloomberg departs due to term limits, was apparently too much for Democratic Nassau blogger John Rennhack to resist. He posts this on his Nassau GOP Watch site: "He did such a good job in Nassau that he was sent packing during the 1999 elections, moved to Manhattan and wants to re-enter politics a decade later."

Other possible GOP contenders in the Democratic-dominated city include supermarket tycoon John Catsimitidis and, some say, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

Dan Janison