Former Olympics, baseball chief Ueberroth considers run
From Judy Woodruff
CNN
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Peter Ueberroth
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With the filing deadline only two days away, former U.S. Olympics President and former Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth has decided to take the first step in a potential bid to replace California Gov. Gray Davis in an October 7 recall election, sources close to the Republican businessman told CNN.
The sources said Ueberroth, 65, will pull the necessary paperwork for a candidacy Thursday and will make a final decision no later than Friday. The deadline for gubernatorial candidates to file is Saturday.
Sources close to the Republican businessman said Wednesday's announcement by actor Arnold Schwarzenegger will not deter him from continuing to give the race serious consideration.
The sources also said that if Ueberroth runs, he would do so as an Independent, pledging to have a bipartisan campaign staff and a bipartisan governor's office.
A potential Ueberroth campaign, the sources said, would focus almost exclusively on California's economic and fiscal crisis, pledging to bring discipline in the same way he "saved" the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.
His efforts in turning around the troubled L.A. Olympics committee earned him the honor of Time Magazine's Man of the Year in January 1985.
Ueberroth went from the Olympics to become Commissioner of Major League Baseball and later headed Rebuild L.A. -- a citywide campaign in the early 1990s to rejuvenate economically depressed sections of Los Angeles.
