2005-07-21 - 5:37 p.m.

July 21 (Bloomberg) -- New York police will begin randomly searching bags and backpacks of passengers on the city's buses, subways and commuter trains to guard against terrorists following today's attempted London transit bombings, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

Searches also will be conducted by Metropolitan Transportation Authority police on suburban commuter trains, Governor George Pataki said. The mayor and governor announced the measures during a news conference on Staten Island.

``I want to emphasize that there is still no threats to this city that have been explicitly made or to our subway or bus system,'' Bloomberg said. ``People should go ahead and feel comfortable in using'' mass transit, he said.

...The 43-year-old lawyer, former Milford city councilman and Marine Reserve major is hoping his battlefield experience will help him become the first Democrat to get elected in Ohio's conservative 2nd District in three decades.

He is facing a well-known, experienced Republican — former state Rep. Jean Schmidt — in the seven counties stretching eastward from the Cincinnati suburbs through largely rural areas.

...Although Hackett initially opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq as a pre-emptive war that "set a bad precedent," he now says: "We're there now. My Marines are over there fighting. We can't cut and run .... I want to see what we're doing in Iraq work out."

...For her part, Schmidt has said that she supported the war from the beginning and that Iraqi troops need to be trained to defend their country before the U.S. pulls out.

Schmidt and Hackett both espouse fiscal conservatism and limited government, although she goes into more detail with proposals such as eliminating estate and capital gains taxes and instituting a flat tax. Another difference: He supports abortion rights, while she heads the Cincinnati area Right to Life.

A Hackett TV commercial that began airing this week opens with a clip of President Bush saying: "There is no higher calling than service in our armed forces." Hackett also recounts his decision to volunteer last year to serve seven months in Iraq.

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