Katz 'didn't have fire' for mayoral run

SAM KATZ made up his mind last week: He was going to run for mayor.

A campaign was going to whir to life - a big announcement, some red, white and blue "Katz for Mayor" posters, flurries of phone calls to deep-pocketed donors.

And then he changed his mind.

Katz, 65, said he flip-flopped over the weekend, deciding finally on Sunday night that he wouldn't launch a fourth attempt at becoming mayor, after all.

He made it official in an email to reporters and supporters last night.

"I lived with [the decision] for a day and a half," he said while standing in the Daily News' newsroom, shortly after the email made the rounds.

"But I still felt a twinge when I hit the 'send' button."

Katz, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 1991, 1999 and 2003, changed his party registration from Republican to independent in February.

Many political observers viewed the move as an indication that he planned to jump into the race after the dust settled from the May 19 primary election, possibly leaving behind a battle-scarred Democratic nominee.

For a while, it seemed inevitable. Katz launched a website, citizensam.net, where he posted lengthy policy papers on mayoral issues like education funding and systemic problems with the Department of Licenses and Inspections.

So what happened?

"I just didn't have the fire that I had in the past," Katz said last night. "Let's say I win [the election]. Is that a job I really want?"

Katz said he wasn't deterred by the prospect of trying to raise money - he swears he loves that sort of stuff - or worried about whether he'd have to face off against either of the presumed Democratic front-runners, former City Councilman Jim Kenney or state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams.

Instead, he said he simply has other things he wants to do with his life. In recent years, Katz has devoted much of his time to producing a critically acclaimed documentary series on the city's history called "Philadelphia: The Great Experiment."

His film production company has several other projects in the works.

"I'm 65. Let's say I work to 80," he said. "Do I really want to spend eight of those years [being mayor]?"

Although he won't make one final attempt at landing what had long been his dream job, Katz said he plans to use his website to weigh in on the crucial issues facing the city.