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Three weeks after Merryl Tisch’s name first surfaced as a potential mayoral candiate, the New York Times is reporting something we’ve known all along: she’s not interested.

From our Oct. 21 story:

“I am aware that people are talking about it,” Tisch said. “I am not an idiot.”

“Have people mentioned it to me? Yes. Have I considered it? I am so busy with my work right now, it’s ridiculous.” …

In 2004, Tisch mulled a run at an open City Council seat, but ultimately decided not to, she said, because she enjoyed her work too much on the Board. Over the years, however, she’s remained active politically, donating more than $50,000 to a variety of candidates, mostly Democratic candidates, according to campaign finance filings.

This time around, Tisch said she isn’t even pondering the prospect of a political run. “I am absolutely, positively not going to run,” she said.

This morning, a short item in The New York Post’s Page 6 column reignited these rumors, mentioning that business and real estate leaders are pressing” Tisch to run. In its follow-up story, the Times reports that Tisch once again denied any interest in running for mayor, despite the fact that she and her husband, James Tisch, have been paying a consultancy firm for at least a year:

She and her husband, James S. Tisch, the chief executive of Loews Corporation, have for some years now hired the public affairs firm of BerlinRosen for advice; one of its principals, Jonathan Rosen, said in an interview that the services had been rendered on a “personal, strictly nonpolitical basis.” Mr. Rosen also said the firm was not involved in planning a political campaign for 2013 for Dr. Tisch or for anyone from her family.