WASHINGTON (AP) -- New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday that, truth be told, he'd rather revisit his Boy Scout days than become the state's next governor.
The mayor responded to recent stories floated by his aides suggesting he might try to get the New York City term limits changed to allow him to seek a third term in City Hall.
``I'm very flattered that anybody would want me to do so. I guess I haven't been doing that bad a job,'' the mayor told reporters as he launched a gathering in the nation's capital of his group Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
``But the truth of the matter is, I've said a number of times, I favor term limits and I'm looking forward to being mayor through midnight Dec. 31 '09 and then doing something else,'' he said.
Pressed to put it into even plainer English, the mayor said: ``I'm not seeking a third term.''
Speculation has continued to swirl about the billionaire mayor's future since he decided earlier this year not to launch a self-funded, independent campaign for president.
He said that come 2010, he will ``probably wind up in philanthropy.''
Asked if he was considering running for governor, Bloomberg reached back deep into his past.
``One of the things I would love to do is spend some time traveling the state,'' he said. ``There are some wonderful places all through the state. I used to be a Boy Scout. I used to really spend a lot of time outdoors. I'd love to do that again, but not as a candidate, and not as governor. I'd like to do it as a tourist.''
Though he laughed off the questions about his political future, the mayor bristled at the suggestion that the recent defeats of his congestion pricing toll plan in Manhattan and higher tenure standards for teachers were personal losses for him.
``I didn't have a setback. The city's economy had a very serious setback with the lack of will in Albany to institute congestion pricing, and our children had a very serious setback ... Those are the two groups that lost.''
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