Campaign development
Rudy Giuliani's name had been mentioned as a possible candidate for President since 2004. In November 2006 Giuliani announced the formation of an exploratory committee. In February 2007 he filed a "statement of candidacy" and confirmed on the television program Larry King Live that he was indeed running.
Opinion polling
Giuliani emerged as the front runner, ahead of first-tier candidates such as John McCain and Mitt Romney, and remained ahead of the Republican pack until December 2007, when he began to fall behind other candidates.
Debates
May 15 GOP South Carolina debate
At the May 15, 2007, GOP debate Giuliani challenged a statement made by Congressman Ron Paul that the United States' presence in the Middle East over the past decade invited the 9/11 attacks:
- Wendell, may I comment on that? That's really an extraordinary statement. That's an extraordinary statement, as someone who lived through the attack of September 11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don't think I've heard that before, and I've heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11th. (Applause, cheers.)
June 5 GOP New Hampshire debate
At the June 5, 2007, debate in Manchester, New Hampshire, Giuliani began to answer a question related to a comment that a Catholic bishop had made, comparing him to Pontius Pilate for his abortion views, when lightning struck and took out his microphone feed multiple times. Giuliani joked about the situation stating:
- Look, for someone who went to parochial schools all his life, this is a very frightening thing that’s happening right now. (Laughter.)
Fundraising
According to the Federal Elections Commission, Giuliani raised $18,029,974 in the first quarter, second to Mitt Romney among Republicans and fourth overall. Out of that money he has spent only $6,080,239. Of that money he raised the second-most from Wall Street of all presidential candidates, with $1.8 million raised.
Strategy
As a centrist Republican, Rudy Giuliani chose to avoid early state primaries and caucuses (Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina), except for the state of Florida, where he hoped to have a lot of supporters. His plan was to win in Florida and later in delegate-rich states such as California, New York and New Jersey. He failed to win in Florida and the day after his defeat he withdrew from the race.
Endorsements
Congressional
- Senator David Vitter of Louisiana
- Congresswoman Judy Biggert of Illinois
- Congresswoman Mary Bono of California
- Congressman Charles Boustany of Louisiana
- Congressman Charlie Dent of California
- Congressman Phil English of Pennsylvania
- Congressman Vito Fossella of New York
- Congressman Jim Gerlach of Pennsylvania
- Congressman Peter King of New York
- Congressman Jerry Lewis of California
- Congressman Frank LoBiondo of New York
- Congresswoman Candice Miller of Michigan
- Congressman Devin Nunes of California
- Congressman Jon Porter of Nevada
- Congressman George Radanovich of California
- Congressman Dave Reichert of Washington
- Congressman Ed Royce of California
- Congressman Pete Sessions of Texas
- Congressman Jim Walsh of New York
- Congressman Jerry Weller of Illinois
Governors
- Former Governor of Wisconsin Tommy Thompson
- Former Governor of California Pete Wilson
Hollywood
- Actor Adam Sandler
- Actor Kelsey Grammer
- Actor Kevin James, stand-up comedian who played Doug Heffernan on the King of Queens
Other Well-known Figures
- Pat Robertson, Televangelist
Criticisms
Relations with family
Giuliani's three marriages, and especially the public circumstances around the dissolution of his marriage with Donna Hanover, bring him criticism from social conservatives. In May 2000, the New York Daily News broke news of Giuliani's extramarital relationship with Judith Nathan, a sales manager for a pharmaceutical company. Giuliani then called a press conference to announce that he intended to separate from his wife Hanover. Previously, Giuliani had hinted at the relationship by referring to Nathan as his "very good friend." Giuliani now went on to praise Nathan as a "very, very fine woman", and said about his marriage with Hanover, that "over the course of some period of time in many ways, we've grown to live independent and separate lives." He went on to marry Judith Nathan in 2003. March 2007, Richard Land, head of public policy for the highly influential Southern Baptist Convention was quoted as saying that Giuliani's handling of the Hanover divorce only added to his problems with conservative voters:
- I mean, this is divorce on steroids. To publicly humiliate your wife in that way, and your children. That's rough. I think that's going to be an awfully hard sell, even if he weren't pro-choice and pro-gun control.
By March 2007, The New York Times and the New York Daily News reported that Rudy Giuliani had become estranged from both his son Andrew (now a golf team member at Duke University) and his daughter Caroline (graduated from Trinity School in 2007, attending Harvard University), missing major events in their lives, such as graduations, and sometimes going long stretches without talking to them, and that neither of them was taking part in his presidential campaign. Caroline apparently linked her personal Facebook page to the campaign of leftist Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama. However, the link has since been removed.
Views on Abortion
Giuliani expressed pro-choice positions during election years when he was running for mayor of New York City, 1989 and 1993, and when he was running for a New York State seat in the United States Senate in 2000.
- 1989: Giuliani said, “There must be public funding for abortion for poor women. We cannot deny any woman the right to make her own decision about abortion because she lacks resources."
- 1993: He addressed a letter to a pro-choice group, National Abortion Rights Action League, saying, New York City “has an obligation to protect the constitutional right of women to choose abortion.”
- 2000: During his competition with Hillary Clinton for a New York State seat in the United States Senate, he said that he supported then president Bill Clinton’s veto of a law that banned partial birth abortion: “I would vote to preserve the option for women.” Although now Giuliani says he supports some restrictions on late-term abortions.
- Giuliani and his second wife, Donna Hanover, gave money to Planned Parenthood at least six times during the 1990s.
Because of his stance on the abortion issue, he has faced criticisms from Christian conservative leaders. James Dobson, an influential Christian conservative leader, wrote that he could not fathom Giuliani's stance on the abortion issue and he would not vote for him if he were the Republican presidential nominee. According to a recent poll, twenty-seven percent of Republicans would vote for a pro-life third party candidate of Mayor Giuliani.