Tampa

Spin Cycle looks at the upside to running for president for three New York long-shots. In short, it's better to be a long-shot presidential hopeful, than a local has-been.

Instead of a closer look at their records, the presidential trail is a place to run away from one's record. Thus, the narrative in their final days in office is about the presidential road ahead of them, not the local office behind them.

It is counter-intuitive, but it's an argument I heard from someone earlier.

Without the presidential run, a less flattering narrative would prevail, like, "What year did he really leave office and why did spending go up so much on his watch," says Spin Cycle.

Or, in the case of Rudy Giuliani, there is a fate worse than lameduckness.

"How long could he go on as America's Mayor before they'd be booking him at security-device trade shows in Tampa," the site's administrator asks.

As for Mike Bloomberg, the 2008 buzz is "proving that no pol can live by trans-fat alone."

-- Azi Paybarah

In John Spencer's letter to potential Republican allies, descrbed in the Times today and obtained by The Politicker (read it here), his fundraiser, Patrick Donohue, makes an astonishing claim:

"Mayor Spencer already has over 35,000 donors to his campaign from around the country without doing one fund-raising event outside New York!"

And that letter, a campaign source says, is a bit out of date: The number is now 50,000.

Assuming that's true, Spencer is the only one of the many, many people attempting to raise money off Hillary's name who's had any success at all. The Times reports that he has only about $1 million in the bank, but with that many donors, you have to assume a big up-front investment in fundraising, which would in theory pay off over the next few months as the campaign returns to small donors who have given once.  read more »

His national 30-state national fundraising tour -- assuming it happens, and the schedule lacks ... dates -- is also a bit dizzying. The full schedule is after the jump.

New York City has emerged as the front-runner in the race to host the Republican National Convention  read more »

TAMPA, Fla.-There is talk now that if the taxpayers of NewYork are willing to part with a billion do  read more »

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