Report: Bloomberg asked Hillary Clinton to run for New York mayor

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) earlier this year called on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to run for mayor of the Big Apple, according to a report Monday in The New York Times.

The report says Bloomberg spoke to Clinton in a phone conversation and encouraged her to consider running for New York’s top office after she left the Obama administration. 

{mosads}Clinton, though, apparently made clear that she was not interested in seeking the mayor’s office.

The secretary of State has said she will step down as the nation’s top diplomat in January. 

Clinton is widely seen as a possible 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, but has repeatedly denied that she plans to run for higher office.

In an interview in October, she said that she hoped to find time to herself after leaving the Washington spotlight. 

“I have been on this high wire of national and international politics and leadership for 20 years,” she said in an interview with Marie Claire magazine. “It has been an absolutely extraordinary personal honor and experience. But I really want to just have my own time back. I want to just be my own person. I’m looking forward to that.”

Polls, though, show Clinton would be the front-runner, with her leading Vice President Biden and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a PPP poll of early primary state New Hampshire.

Bloomberg himself was the focus of presidential speculation in 2012, with the New York mayor finally endorsing President Obama.