Kollek to Run for Seventh Term

Teddy Kollek, 82, who has served as mayor of this city for the last 27 years, has formally announced he will seek re-election for a seventh, record-breaking term.

Kollek, a Labor Party member, announced Wednesday he will once again run for mayor because he is better qualified than other prospective candidates and because he was being pressured to run by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Although there have been reports that Kollek had already reversed an earlier decision to retire from politics, Kollek called a news conference to make his candidacy official and also produced a certificate from his doctor declaring him to be in good health.

Kollek presumably felt compelled to give assurances about his health after being hospitalized for a number of days two weeks ago.

Despite chest pains and his admission to a cardiac unit, doctors said he had not suffered a heart attack and only experienced fatigue. He is reportedly now on heart medication, however.

The Likud party has scheduled runoff primaries for next week to produce a challenger to Kollek. Likud Knesset member Ehud Olmert is a leading candidate.

Meanwhile, recent telephone polls of Jerusalem residents reportedly showed that Kollek may not be in such a strong position to be re-elected.

Kollek said he would be putting Nachman Shai, a former army spokesman made popular during the Persian Gulf War as the voice of calm, into the No. 2 position on his party’s list in the municipal elections.

Shai is currently director of Israel’s staterun Channel 2.

Kollek, although endorsed by the Labor Party, has traditionally run at the head of his own formally independent party, One Jerusalem.

It is presumed by many that Kollek, if victorious, would step down and hand over the mayorship to the second person on his list.

For years, Kollek had groomed Amos Mar-Haim as his successor, but the lackluster Mar-Haim has apparently been dropped in favor of the more popular and charismatic Shai.