by Fred Seely
Editorial Director
Mayor John Delaney says he’ll decide on his immediate future within 90 days.
“I don’t know yet what I’ll do,” he said Wednesday. “I’ve talked to a couple of law firms, a couple of businesses, a couple of investment firms.
“I’ve decided to make a 90-day window and sort it all out.”
Delaney’s second mayoral term ends this summer and he’ll face speculation on his political future. But, he told a commercial real estate meeting Wednesday morning, don’t count on him running for office again.
“Politics is all luck and timing,” he said, “so I don’t know what the future will bring. I’ve talked with both Bush administrations [national and state] about the future. They’ve encouraged me. But what? I don’t know.”
A continuing speculation has the state’s senior U.S. senator, Bob Graham, choosing not to run for reelection in 2004, either accepting the vice presidential slot on the Democratic Party’s national ticket or simply following wife Adele’s wishes and returning home. Graham would be an attractive running mate as Florida could well turn out to be a swing state, as it famously was in 2000.
“I have two kids in college and two at home,” said Delaney. “Right now, they’re 13 and 6. I’m not sure I want to raise them in D.C.”
“Governor? Maybe,” he said when asked about a run when Gov. Jeb Bush hits term limits in 2006.
He also fears one of his biggest local triumphs will come back to bite him.
“We all see the great affects of the Better Jacksonville Plan,” he said, “but in a statewide election, that can be viewed as a tax increase and I’ll hear about that. You don’t see the results from a distance; it can be viewed as raising taxes.”
When he moves into the private sector on July 1, he won’t jump right back into politics.
“I look forward to getting away from it for a while,” he said. “I won’t have to worry what [T-U columnist] Ron Littlepage writes after July.”