Former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión (pictured) is planning to enter the 2013 mayoral race — but as a Republican, not a Democrat, according to political sources.
Carrión, 51, who served briefly in the Obama administration, has quietly changed his voter registration from Democrat to independent and hopes to run on both the Republican and Independence Party lines for City Hall.
The city’s five GOP county leaders have been desperately searching for a viable mayoral contender, and plan to meet with Carrión tomorrow.
The sources said he is counting on a bruising Democratic primary campaign that would leave that party’s nominee wounded.
Unlike the five Democrats now angling for the nomination, Carrión would not seek public matching funds and instead try to tap into a GOP base eager to showcase a Hispanic candidate, the sources said.
But he faces an uphill battle in this overwhelmingly Democratic city.
Carrión has been out of the spotlight since 2009, when he left New York to become the urban-affairs czar in the White House.
He’ll need to raise about $10 million to mount a credible campaign — assuming he wins the GOP primary.