PHILADELPHIA — Millionaire businessman Tom Knox, who finished second in Philadelphia's five-way Democratic mayoral primary in May, is mulling a run for governor in 2010.

"Just because I lost, I'm not going to go away," Knox said, adding that he believes his outsider status and message of change will appeal to voters statewide.

Knox, who lost the primary to mayor-elect Michael Nutter, built name recognition during the race, in which he spent some $12 million of his own money on a blitz of TV ads that portrayed him as an outsider who would take the 'For Sale' sign off City Hall.

"Everybody saw those commercials," Knox told The Philadelphia Inquirer for a story published Friday. "We did a little polling after the race. My positives are extremely high, and my negatives are in the single digits. Not everybody voted for me, or could, but they liked me."

Gov. Ed Rendell's second term expires in 2010 and he is not eligible to run for re-election.

Knox said he also was thinking about running for U.S. Senate against Republican Sen. Arlen Specter in 2010, but added that he was leaning toward the governor's race because the position fits his executive experience.

By The Associated Press