Gov. Ed Rendell says he has had "hypothetical" conversations with former City Councilman Bob O'Connor about running for mayor again, but that O'Connor has not asked for his endorsement in the 2005 race.

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Rendell co-hosted a fund-raiser last night with O'Connor -- his southwestern Pennsylvania representative -- on the Gateway Clipper in Station Square. The governor said the event was held to help pay off debts left over from O'Connor's unsuccessful run against Tom Murphy in the 2001 Democratic primary.

O'Connor's most recent campaign finance reports, from 2002, showed that he owed $80,000 to his campaign treasurer, Ira Morgan, of Squirrel Hill. Morgan lent the money to O'Connor in May 2001.

Rendell said members of his administration were required to resign if they officially became political candidates.

"Obviously I feel highly of Bob O'Connor or else he wouldn't be my representative. He hasn't asked me [to endorse him], and I'm not about to make an endorsement for a race that no one's filed petitions for yet," Rendell said yesterday.

"If Bob were to become a candidate -- had a press conference and said he would become a candidate -- I would expect him to clean up whatever projects he had in a few short days and resign. We've had that discussion in a hypothetical sense. I don't know if Bob has crossed the Rubicon on his decision, but he understands that."

O'Connor would not say yesterday if he planned to run. O'Connor also ran against Murphy in 1997.

Murphy said last month that he had not made up his mind about running again.

Other possible candidates include county Prothonotary Michael Lamb, City Council members Gene Ricciardi and Sala Udin, City Controller Tom Flaherty, and state Reps. Dan Frankel and Don Walko.