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Top state and city Republicans, backed by some of Manhattan’s wealthiest financiers, began last week preparing the legal paperwork, strategy documents and a fund-raising network that will enable Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to run for mayor, The Post has learned.
Former state GOP Chairman William Powers, a key figure in the election of Rudy Giuliani as mayor in 1993, is leading the effort, with the backing of “10 to 15 finance people and others who care about the city’s future,’’ said a source close to the preparations.
“The activities are taking place on two fronts: Create the inevitability that he’s going to run, and then make it easy for him so that the day he retires and announces he’s running, everything will be in place: the campaign apparatus and the money,’’ the source continued.
The source said a prominent election lawyer was hired last week to “get the paperwork ready’’ for Kelly to run for mayor next year.
And while the source said Kelly had not been directly involved in the efforts, he added, “Ray knows what’s going on.
“We still have months to put it all in place, but you’ve got to get the drum beat going — and we have — and begin lining up people for the effort, which we’re doing.”
Kelly’s backers were described as “encouraged’’ after the popular police commissioner repeatedly refused to rule out running for mayor when pressed virtually every day last week — in the wake of The Post’s report last Monday that Powers was organizing an effort to “draft’’ him to enter the race.
Kelly was “flattered” by the enormously positive response he has received toward his possible candidacy in the wake of The Post’s report, said a source close to the commissioner.
The source said Kelly’s repeated insistence that he was focused only on doing his current job and not on running for mayor had clearly left the door open for a possible run.
“He didn’t rule it out, and there’s significance to that,’’ said the source.
“And I think, at some point, he has to kind of sit down and focus on this and make a final determination, if only to be fair to the people who are so enthusiastic about his candidacy. But there’s time,’’ the source continued.
Indeed, asked again about a mayoral run at St. Patrick’s Cathedral yesterday, Kelly responded, “As I’ve said, I have no plans to run for elective office.”
Kelly is slated to be honored tonight at the 91st annual awards dinner of the Women’s National Republican Club, and he is sure to be pressed with additional questions on his possible candidacy.
Former New York Stock Exchange Chairman Dick Grasso, Gristedes billionaire John Catsimatidis and financiers Ken Langone and Hank Greenberg are among those involved with Powers, sources said.
State GOP Chairman Ed Cox, former Mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat, and former Staten Island Borough President and influential Republican Guy Molinari all encouraged a Kelly candidacy last week.
Mayor Bloomberg picked Kelly, now 70, as police commissioner in 2002, returning the native New Yorker and Vietnam-combat veteran to the job he first held under Mayor David Dinkins in 1992.
Several prominent Democrats have begun lining up to enter the race to succeed Bloomberg, including City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, former city Comptroller William Thompson and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.
Additional reporting by Rebecca Rosenberg