Meretz's Nitzan Horowitz is expected to announce his entrance to the race, while Hadash MK Henin decides not to run.
By LAHAV HARKOVnitzan horowitz 311(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
MK Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz) is expected to officially launch his campaign for mayor of Tel Aviv on Monday.Horowitz plans to hold a press conference in which he will announce whether or not he has decided to run, but he already has a working campaign staff.On Sunday afternoon, Meretz unanimously approved Horowitz as the party’s candidate for mayor.A member of the campaign revealed that in March, Meretz put out a poll showing that if Horowitz ran for mayor at that time, he would get 33 percent of the vote. Half of Tel Aviv would vote for Ron Huldai, the incumbent, who has served in the position since 1998, and the rest were undecided.The poll also checked several other politicians’ chances in a Tel Aviv mayoral run – MK Dov Henin (Hadash), who ran in 2008, Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Communications Minister Gilad Erdan, both from the Likud – and found that Horowitz would receive the most votes.The campaign member expressed optimism about Horowitz’s chances, pointing out that Henin got 34.2% of the vote in 2008 and that the Meretz MK came close to those numbers before he even started campaigning.Last week, Henin decided that he would not run for mayor of Tel Aviv.In an open letter on Facebook to members of the City4All local Tel Aviv party, Henin commended them for five years of activism, during which they made changes in the city.“Leaders and leadership flourished in City4All – city council members, activists and community organizers.City4All, the [summer 2011] social protest and public activity; additional forces developed,” he wrote.
“I reached the conclusion that the right thing to do at the moment is to step aside, focus on the complex challenges in the parliamentary arena and let those new forces lead the municipal battle. Therefore, I decided not to submit my candidacy again for mayor of Tel Aviv-Jaffa,” he continued.Still, Henin added that Tel Aviv is important to him and he plans to continue to be involved in City4All’s campaign.
