Indy mayor declines governor bid

INDIANAPOLIS -- Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson on Tuesday took himself out of the running for governor, citing family reasons and a desire to remain the leader of the state's largest city.\n"I will not be a candidate for governor in 2004," the Democratic mayor said during a news conference. "I love Indianapolis and I love this job and I can't imagine at this time in my life that there's anything else I'd rather be doing."\nPeterson's announcement quashed talk that he would seek the Democratic nomination for governor in 2004 after Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan's surprising announcement Monday that he would not seek the office.\nKernan, a former South Bend mayor who has held the state's second-highest office since 1997, said he and his wife decided it was time for him to step aside after what will have been 17 years in elected office.\nBesides Peterson, others considered possible candidates mentioned by prominent Democrats include: U.S. Reps. Tim Roemer and Baron Hill, former Indiana House Speaker John Gregg, former state and national Democratic chairman Joe Andrew and state Sen. Vi Simpson of Bloomington.\nU.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, a former two-term governor, has also been mentioned as a possible candidate. Although Bayh has said it's unlikely he would run, he did not entirely rule out the possibility.\nPeterson said he talked to Bayh Tuesday while returning from a trip to Rochester, N.Y., though he said the two did not discuss Bayh's possible candidacy for governor.\nPeterson, who an aide to Bayh in the governor's office, said when he was elected mayor in 1999, he promised himself that while his daughter Meg was still living at home, he would not seek statewide office.\nHis daughter is 14 and in eighth grade.\n"I don't want to miss her growing up," he said, adding that campaigning for statewide office would often take him outside central Indiana.\nDespite the current lack of a candidate, Peterson said he was confident the Democrats will have a strong leader ready to run, though he declined to name anyone specific.\nPeterson is expected to run for re-election next year. He said he planned to make a formal announcement in the spring.