New York City has reason to be proud of its mayor. Rudolph W. Giuliani has been a most stirring and impressive leader in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the city’s World Trade Center. Both political leaders and private citizens have expressed great admiration for the mayor’s conduct in the weeks since the attack, and last week this page expressed its regret that the mayor will not be able to run for a third term in the upcoming election.

Although we still emphatically disagree with the principle of term limits that prevent voters from choosing their leaders freely, we cannot bring ourselves to endorse Giuliani’s recent demand that New York State extend his present term in office by three months. By changing the process of succession in the middle of an election, such a move would significantly damage the city’s electoral process.

To be sure, our nation and New York have never before suffered a similar attack. Even so, terrorism will not dismantle our freedoms and liberties, and this attack will not undermine the foundations of the republic. America has seen British troops burn the capital in the War of 1812, and it has seen a country torn in two during the Civil War. The Sept. 11 attack has not created a crisis of such grave proportions that it would justify the suspension of democracy in New York. Indeed, that would be the worst response to the attack on democracy that occurred three weeks ago.

New York state laws have left Giuliani with but one reasonable option for the future: to accept the sub-mayoral administrative post that mayoral candidates such as Fernando Ferrer have offered him. In this role, Giuliani could continue to provide moral and symbolic support to New Yorkers and to continue overseeing the relief effort without undermining the democratic process.

We hope that the elected representatives of the the New York state legislature—who must themselves face the voters to answer for their decisions—will recognize that no matter how much good he has done in the past few weeks, Giuliani should not attempt to hang onto power that is not rightfully his.