Bloomberg says he will not make endorsement in mayoral race

New York— Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Friday that he had decided not to make an endorsement in the general election for mayor, a surprise announcement in a campaign that has become something of a referendum on his legacy.

The mayor said he would focus instead on governing during his final months in office and promised to assist whoever prevails after the November election.

The announcement, made on his weekly radio show, ended weeks of speculation that, faced with the prospect of Bill de Blasio, the public advocate and a fierce critic of the mayor’s policies, becoming the Democratic nominee, Bloomberg might seek to put a finger on the scale by endorsing the Republican candidate, Joseph J. Lhota.

Asked by the show’s host, John Gambling, if he would stay out of the race or get more involved, Bloomberg began a long- winded responsethatatfirstseemedas if it would avoid answering the question, talking about how his two goals for the next 109 days were to continue providing the services that New Yorkers expect and to “make sure that we have a world-class transition.”

“Helping the nextmayorget prepared for the job so he can hit the ground running is really one of the most important things I can do for New Yorkers after November,” he said, adding, “I don’t want to do anything that complicates it for the next mayor, and that’s one of the reasons I’ve decided I’m just not going to make an endorsement in the race.”

He added: “Whoever the voters elect, I want to make sure that person is ready to succeed, to take what we’ve done and build on that.”

A deputy mayor, Howard Wolfson, confirmed on Twitter that Bloombergwas speaking both about the primary election — in which it is not yet clear if de Blasio will have the 40 percent to clinch the nomination, with thousands of paper ballots still uncounted— and the general election.

Bloomberg did not discuss de Blasio or Lhota in the radio interview. But he has made little secret of his dislike for de Blasio, whose campaign’s message has doubled as an emphatic critique of the mayor’s record.