MAYOR RUDOLPH W. GIULIANI

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On November 3, 1993, Rudolph William Giuliani was elected New York City's 107th mayor, winning on his vision for a redefined City government. Although Giuliani is a Republican, he ran as the nominee of the Republican, Liberal and Independent fusion parties.

In a City of over seven and a half million people with the most diverse ethnic background of any city in the nation, and where Democrats outnumber Republicans five to one, Mayor Giuliani garnered support from a diverse coalition of New York City's electorate.

Since taking office, Mayor Giuliani's reinvention of government and his focus on quality-of-life issues have resulted in tangible achievements for New York City, the "Capital of the World."

Under Mayor Giuliani's leadership, New York City has experienced an unprecedented 44% reduction in overall crime and a 48% reduction in murder since 1993 -- the largest drop in more than twenty-eight years.

Mayor Giuliani's crime-fighting success is the result of an ambitious program of strategies aimed at specific areas of criminal activity: Illegal guns, drugs, youth crime, domestic violence, car theft, police corruption, and quality-of-life initiatives. By treating illegal vending, graffiti, vandalism and squeegee operators as serious problems that adversely affect living standards in New York City, Mayor Giuliani has improved the quality of life for all New Yorkers.

This strategy is the implementation of the "Broken Windows" Theory, which holds that one neglected broken window in a building will soon lead to many other broken windows. By analogy, the arrest for petty offenses such as subway fare evasion and overly aggressive panhandlers often leads to the capture of suspects wanted for more serious crimes.

In addition, the Mayor and the NYPD are using the latest computer mapping technology to track crime statistics, pinpoint any unusual activity, and deploy officers accordingly. Also known as "COMPSTAT", this strategy is an innovative and highly effective tool that has been studied by police departments throughout the United States in hopes of copying the success of the NYPD.

The Mayor's commitment to keeping New Yorkers safe and secure is perhaps best exemplified by the dramatic drop in subway crime. New York City subways are the safest they have been since 1965. Mayor Giuliani has also shown his staunch commitment to the safety and security of New Yorkers through his continuing support for legislation to ban assault weapons, and his efforts to end parole for violent offenders. All of these strategies have made New York City the safest large city in America, according to the most recent F.B.I. Crime Report.

Within his two years in office, the Mayor achieved an historic merger of the City's Transit and Housing Police Departments with the NYPD, a feat past New York mayors have tried but were unable to accomplish. The merger enhanced the enforcement capabilities of the transit system and the City's public housing developments, while eliminating redundant administrative functions.

Before Mayor Giuliani took office, many economists and business leaders complained that New York City was no longer competitive in attracting businesses due to high taxes and administrative regulations. Mayor Giuliani moved aggressively to reverse this attitude by creating a more favorable climate for economic growth.

Mayor Giuliani has reduced taxes and onerous regulations, and has worked with the business community to promote job growth and business retention. The Mayor's initiatives are now attracting new businesses instead of losing them, sparking a massive infusion of private sector capital investment throughout the City.

For example, reductions in the City's hotel occupancy tax has fueled a boom in our tourism industry, with hotel occupancy rates at record levels. The result of all this new economic activity is more jobs for New Yorkers who need them: The City retained more jobs in the first year of this administration than in the four previous years combined. In fact, the City added more than 170,000 new private sector jobs since Mayor Giuliani took office.

Recognizing that the size of New York City's government was out of balance with its economy, Mayor Giuliani has moved to reorder the balance between our public and private sectors by downsizing City government, while promoting private sector growth. The Mayor was able to shed over 23,000 jobs without layoffs, but by working with the City's labor unions, instituting an innovative severance program that is now being studied by other municipalities. Instead of working as adversaries, the City's unions have cooperated with the Mayor to achieve historic money-saving agreements including new contracts with school bus drivers, school custodians, sanitation workers, and school teachers.

Mayor Giuliani has also launched the largest and most successful workfare program in the City's history. He has returned the principle of reciprocity to this system, ensuring that eligible, able-bodied welfare recipients work in exchange for their benefits. Through the Work Experience Program (WEP), thousands of people have moved off the welfare rolls and into full-time jobs. The Administration has also rooted out fraud in our welfare system by initiating finger-imaging and full verification background checks. By eliminating fraud and moving people from welfare to work, the Giuliani Administration has reduced our city's welfare roles by an unprecedented 220,000.

Recognizing that our children are our future and that their education is the best way to ensure a promising future, Mayor Giuliani has advocated a clear agenda of reform for New York City's public schools. Mayor Giuliani has focused his efforts on directing budget dollars to the classroom instead of spending them on the school administration. His strategy is based on improving accountability, increasing financial responsibility, reducing bureaucracy, imposing school-based budgeting, and returning authority to educators and parents. The Mayor is also committed to improving the safety of our schools by advocating a supervisory role for the NYPD in school security.

Perhaps Mayor Giuliani's most significant achievement is inspiring a new, positive "can do" attitude in New York City. No longer seen as the "Rotten Apple" and "unmanageable," New York City is now emulated by other cities. Its success in reducing crime, improving the quality of life, sparking the economy, all the while maintaining the social safety net, has become the example world cities are following. Mayor Giuliani is committed to maintaining New York City's position as the "Capital of the World" and as America's premier financial engine. New York City's importance to the national economy is exemplified by this little known fact: the City sends $8 billion more in tax revenue to Washington than it receives in federal aid.

* * * In 1944, Rudolph W. Giuliani was born to a working class family in Brooklyn, New York. As the grandson of Italian immigrants, Mayor Giuliani learned a strong work ethic and a deep respect for America's ideal of equal opportunity. He attended Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School (Class of '61) in Brooklyn, Manhattan College (Class of '65) in the Bronx and New York University Law School in Manhattan, graduating magna cum laude in 1968.

Upon graduation, Rudy Giuliani clerked for Judge Lloyd MacMahon, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York. In 1970, Giuliani joined the office of the U.S. Attorney. At age 29, he was named Chief of the Narcotics Unit and rose to serve as Executive U.S. Attorney. In 1975, Giuliani was recruited to Washington D.C. where he was named Associate Deputy Attorney General and chief of staff to the Deputy Attorney General. From 1977 to 1981, Giuliani returned to the private sector and practiced law at the New York firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb and Tyler.

In 1981, Giuliani was named Associate Attorney General, the third highest position in the Department of Justice, placing him in command of nearly 30,000 Federal employees and a $1 billion budget. As Associate Attorney General, Giuliani supervised all of the U.S. Attorney Offices' Federal law enforcement agencies, the Bureau of Corrections, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the U.S. Marshals.

In 1983, Giuliani was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he spearheaded the effort to jail drug dealers, fight organized crime, break the web of corruption in government, and prosecute white-collar criminals. He tirelessly championed the rights of the disabled and refused to use Department of Justice hiring questionnaires that discriminated against gays and lesbians. Few U.S. Attorneys in history can match his superb record of 4,152 convictions with only 25 reversals.

In 1989, after leaving the Justice Department and returning to private practice, Giuliani entered the race for mayor of New York City, losing to David Dinkins by the closest margin in New York City history. Following the 1989 election, Giuliani continued to practice law privately while remaining very active in community service.

He is married to Donna Hanover, veteran broadcast journalist and correspondent for Fox 5-TV's morning show, "Good Day New York," and anchor of "Food, News and Views," on cable's Television Food Network. They reside at Gracie Mansion with their two children, Andrew and Caroline.
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