NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker May Run For Office In New York

Last February, Jeff Zucker, the president and CEO of NBC Universal was on Joe Scarborough’s radio show and made an offhand comment about running for office one day. Although much speculation was made in the press about it at the time, it wasn’t until this week that Washington Post columnist Howard Kurtz decided to quiz him about it. Zucker confirmed the earlier suggestions; he may run for office in New York one day.

The original comments were made when Zucker and Scarborough were discussing businessmen in political positions. Zucker had the following to say:

Jeff: “I do think that there would be a benefit to having people who have run businesses in office — who have a sense of how to how to get something across the finish line, make hard decisions that actually everybody can get behind … I think we just have to get the cynicism behind us and we have to get some things accomplished and I think people who can do that would be very helpful and beneficial.’ ”
Joe: “Would you ever do it?”
Jeff: “Well, it’s something that I would certainly look at.”

When Kurtz asked him if he’d “looked at it”, Zucker was even more positive in his response.

That’s true, Zucker said: “It’s funny how much attention that’s gotten. It’s no different than what I’ve said all along.” He said he would run in New York and that, if he were to take the plunge, “it’s all about the timing.”

Whether the choice to switch to politics will work out well for Zucker is just something we’ll have to wait to find out. We have to give him credit for one thing though. In “politician” he’s found the one job that will make him more controversial than his role as “the guy who took Conan off the air”. However, until the day his campaign starts running, it seems he’ll continue to do pretty well for himself over at NBC.

(h/t Huffington Post)