About 15 years ago several residents “didn’t like the candidates who were running for mayor of Talkeetna, so as a joke, they encouraged enough people to elect Stubbs the cat as a write-in candidate, and he actually won,” KTUU-TV reports.

Gawker: “The position is mostly honorary, allowing the 15-year-old Manx mix to
spend most of his time greeting tourists at Nagley’s General Store.”

After an article suggested he’s gearing up for a political comeback, former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) declined to comment when asked directly about his immediate political ambitions, the New York Times reports.

“He wants to return to politics, according to friends and former staff members… His refusal to address his political future only stirred further speculation.”

Former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) — who is sitting on a $4.5 million campaign war chest — “is mulling a bid for citywide office next year and ‘seriously considering’ a mayoral run,” the New York Post reports.

“Weiner, 47, has even spoken to former staffers about going back to work for him… And he wants to run soon because the public match on his campaign funds are due to expire after the 2013 election.”

“The buzz in political circles is that the sext-happy Weiner has a better shot at public advocate — a $165,000-a-year job viewed as a ‘cleansing’ post where he could put his character issues further behind him as he prepped for a 2017 mayoral run.”

London Mayor Boris Johnson tells New York magazine that cities are all about prestige, which is the central thesis of his new book.

Said Johnson: “We seek cities because there are a greater range of girls at the bar, of
reproductive choice. Number one. Number two is there are better
outcomes for health and wealth. And now we care more about the
environment, and cities are better for the environment. But above all, talented people seek cities for fame. They can’t get famous in the fucking village.”

Jack Bohrer: “Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s star has been rising for what seems like an eternity. His fame rests largely upon a number of almost absurdly heroic acts, which have varied from harrowing to Hollywood-esque: saving a resident from a burning building, cradling a twelve-year-old dying from gunshot wounds, hunger-striking for better police protection in the projects, sleeping in a trailer for five months to halt open-air drug markets. Along with Booker’s media-friendly persona, these superhero moves have ensured a steady stream of adulation.”

“His first spate of national press came in the spring of 2000 — the same year that another attractive young political figure flew from Chicago to Los Angeles for the Democratic National Convention, had his credit card declined at the rental car station, and went home without even getting inside the arena. Yet this summer, Barack Obama will attend the second convention in his honor and compete for another term as arguably the most legislatively successful Democratic president in a half-century — while Booker is little further along than where he started.

“…Booker and Obama made their names by rejecting the business-as-usual
politics of Newark and Washington, respectively. But Booker is still
defined more by his promise than by his accomplishments.”

A new We Ask America poll in Chicago finds Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s job approval rating at 64%.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s (D) communication director confirmed to the Newark Star Ledger that she is resigning in the wake of Booker’s disastrous appearance on Meet The Press last week.

Said Anne Torres: “I just decided it is best if I pursued other opportunities. We have very different views on how communications should be run.”

Dan O’Leary, the city manager for Keller, Texas, “decided that someone from the top management ranks at City Hall had to go. So the person he laid off was himself,” the Fort Worth Star Telegram reports.

New Mexico mayoral candidate Gerardo Hernandez “says he has no intention of ending his bid for office despite an El Paso television station’s broadcast Wednesday evening of a video clip showing him getting a lap dance from a topless, unidentified woman,” the Albuquerque Journal reports.

Said Hernandez: “I’m still in the race, and I’m going to be here until the 6th of March. Sunland Park needs a change, and I’m going to give them a change.”

“Indulging in a tale of make-believe” is rare for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but the New York Times notes he actually recommended two spy mysteries this week by John LeCarre: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Honourable Schoolboy.

Of the latter, he said, “It’s 600 pages, it’s mostly description, there is almost nothing that happens. But it’s fascinating!”

“Virtually the only other work of fiction publicly endorsed by the mayor has been Johnny Tremain, the 1943 patriotic children’s story that Mr. Bloomberg frequently cites as a favorite. His personal library now has several first editions, gifts from friends.”

When East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo (R) was asked by WPIX-TV what he would do for the Latino community in the aftermath of four police officers being charged with violating the civil rights of Latino residents he said that he might go home and eat tacos.

[Read more…]

“No, not, not interested… Done… What part of it am I not getting across?”

— Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D), in an interview on NBC’s Rock Center, repeatedly denying any interest in running for higher office.

Former Mike Bloomberg aide Kevin Sheekey hints to Newsweek that big things are planned for the New York mayor once he leaves office.

Said Sheekey: “City Hall holds him back. He stands to become something much larger after he leaves office. Mike Bloomberg has the ability to be the best parts of Bill Clinton, Rupert Murdoch, and Bill Gates all rolled up into one.”

Sheekey, of course, was behind the effort to quietly explore a Bloomberg independent bid for president in 2008.

West Valley City, UT Mayor Mike Winder (R) admitted writing articles about his own city for several media outlets under a pen name, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

“Winder said that four articles he submitted earlier this year under the name Richard Burwash were published in either the Deseret News or on KSL.com. The mayor said he was frustrated that the newspaper had drastically reduced its city government coverage after layoffs last year but not its crime coverage and wanted to ‘try to restore balance.'”

The Deseret News reports Winder “even pretended to be the fictional Burwash when he spoke with editors over the phone and in emails.”

Jefferson County, Alabama, filed the largest U.S. municipal bankruptcy after an agreement among elected officials and investors to refinance $3.1 billion in sewer bonds fell apart, Bloomberg reports.

Matt Taibbi, from earlier this year: “The genesis of the whole affair was a sewer project that crooked local
pols turned into a $3 billion money pit; when they turned to Wall Street
to help finance their way out of the cost overruns, the banks leaned on
the County to take on a series of swap deals that essentially pushed
the debt into the future, but at geometrically increasing cost. Among
other things, the banks worked through middlemen who bribed the local
commissioners into taking the toxic deals. As a result of all of this,
Jefferson County not only ended up saddled with an astronomical debt
service on its sewer project, it also saw a downgrade in its overall
credit rating, which left it paralyzed in its attempts to borrow money
to pay for general expenditures.”

The Birmingham News notes that since 1981, 35 cities, towns, villages and counties nationwide have filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, including five in Alabama.