NEW YORK -- Looking for a new leader to shepherd the city through a massive rebuilding, New Yorkers nominated the top mayoral candidates Tuesday in primaries dominated by speculation that Rudolph Giuliani may try to stay on.
Lorraine Fittipaldi said she planned to vote for Republican Michael Bloomberg, but wrote in Giuliani's name Tuesday because of the mayor's widely praised handling of the World Trade Center disaster.
"Even if they keep him for a year, I think he's been wonderful," she said.
Elizabeth Dreier, an elementary school principal who voted for Democrat Mark Green, said she would have voted to for the mayor again and supported keeping him in office.
Giuliani has "personality flaws, but he's been a good mayor," she said. "He's shown leadership, poise and conviction through the crisis, and it's not over."
Turnout was light, Board of Elections spokeswoman Naomi Bernstein said. It was also raining on and off.
The Republican mayor is barred by city law from running for a third term this fall. But his popularity has soared due to his handling of the attack, and some said Giuliani ought to stay past the Dec. 31 conclusion of his term to guide the city through the crisis.
Giuliani said Monday that he wanted time to think about his political future and urged voters to choose from the six candidates on the ballot. However, aides who spoke on condition of anonymity said ideas being discussed include extending his term or rescinding term limits.
Some voters said they felt the law should remain in place.
"Though Giuliani is a great mayor and I think he's done a wonderful job, I don't think that the rules should change," said Daniel Damon, a Republican, voting at a temporary polling place near City Hall.
The primaries began the morning of Sept. 11 but were called off hours later when two hijacked jetliners brought down the trade center. Nearly 6,400 people are missing in the ruins.
All six candidates four Democrats and two Republicans suspended campaigning after the attacks. They didn't resume until last weekend and have since tried to convince voters they could provide Giuliani-like leadership come Jan. 1.
If no Democratic candidate gets at least 40 percent of Tuesday's vote, the top two vote-getters will face each other in a runoff Oct. 11.
At the time of the attacks, Green and Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer were considered the favorites among the Democrats and media billionaire Bloomberg was expected to win the Republican nod.
But the attacks threw the campaigns into turmoil and the candidates largely vanished from public view. Giuliani scrambled the picture Monday by raising the possibility he had a political future to think about.
For the mayor to stay on, the Legislature and Republican Gov. George Pataki would have to enact emergency legislation to extend his term, or the City Council and voters would have to amend the city charter to lift term limits.
Neither scenario is likely. Mayoral candidate and City Council Speaker Peter Vallone as well as top legislative leaders have said they do not want to override city voters, who enacted the term limits in 1993.
Still, state Assembly Minority Leader John Faso, a Republican, said Monday that he would introduce legislation allowing Giuliani to take office for a third term if he were to win as a write-in candidate in the Nov. 6 general election.
"Many people want to keep Mayor Giuliani on the job," Faso said. "This bill would let the voters decide."
During an appearance Monday night on David Letterman's Late Show, Giuliani was asked if a term extension or a third term were legislatively possible.
"It can be done," Giuliani said. "It's really a question of whether it should be. I have to really think about that."
The candidates, who had praised the mayor's performance lavishly since Sept. 11, allowed criticism to creep into their comments after Giuliani's noncommittal announcement Monday.
Green, the city's public advocate and one of the leading Democratic candidates, said the mayor has urged residents to get back to normal, and "normalcy should include democracy and the resumption of constitutional regularity."
Ferrer warned of lawsuits should the term-limits law be rescinded.
"People who try to overturn the will of the electorate do so at their own peril," Ferrer said. The Rev. Al Sharpton, a Ferrer supporter, added: "We run a democracy, not a personality cult."
On the GOP side, Bloomberg said he didn't think an eleventh-hour Giuliani candidacy is "very likely," but that it's up to the Legislature to decide. His opponent, Herman Badillo, promised that if he wins the primary and term limits are rescinded, he will give Giuliani his place on the ballot Nov. 6.
The fourth Democratic contender, Comptroller Alan Hevesi, has suggested he would be willing to delay his inauguration if he were elected.
