Thompson Plans Political Comeback In 2013

By: Michael Scotto

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He may have lost a tight race to Mayor Michael Bloomberg just two months ago, but during an interview Tuesday on NY1's "Inside City Hall," former city comptroller Bill Thompson said he is throwing his hat into the ring for the mayor's race in 2013.

The decision to declare so early may be unprecedented and leads to questions about how and when Thompson will begin to campaign in earnest, as well as what he plans to do in the meantime.

"I don't think anyone is going to underestimate me again is one thing and I think that people overestimated the impact of campaign spending," Thompson said. "I was working at a disadvantage and an uphill battle. So I think from the beginning both the political pundits and the reporters as well as pollsters overlooked some things and missed some things, missed the desire of people all across the city for change and I don't think that will happen again."

Thompson was considering a Democratic primary challenge against Kirsten Gillibrand for her US Senate seat, but Thompson says that his experience running against Mayor Bloomberg has put him in a unique position to once again run for City Hall.

"It takes a lot of the expectations game off the table. No one is going to be writing news stories about whether he is going to run. We now know he is going to run," said David Birdsell of Baruch College.

The early announcement could enable Thompson to begin fundraising and perhaps scare off some of the politicians thinking about running for City Hall. But one of the problems Thompson faces is that he does not have a bully pulpit. His potential challengers -- newly installed city comptroller John Liu, new public advocate Bill de Blasio, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Congressman Anthony Weiner -- all of which are elected officials.

"I don't know what vehicle it's going to be," Thompson said. "Clearly I'm not going to be in elective office. But I don't think you have to be in elective office."

Thompson said he plans to continue speaking out on the issues he raised during his campaign.

For much of last year, pundits had predicted that Thompson would lose big to Mayor Bloomberg, who ended up spending more than $100 million on his re-election. But on election night, Thompson lost by less than five percentage points, an outcome that has appeared to embolden the former city comptroller.