• Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, meets with the Times Union editorial board on Monday, Feb. 8, 2016, at the Times Union in Colonie, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union) Photo: Will Waldron / 10035091A
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Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, meets with the Times Union editorial board on Monday, Feb. 8, 2016, at the Times Union in Colonie, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, meets with the Times Union editorial board on Monday, Feb. 8, 2016, at the Times Union in Colonie, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
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Guardian Angels Curtis Sliwa enjoys the racing today Aug. 1, 2015 at the Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)
Guardian Angels Curtis Sliwa enjoys the racing today Aug. 1, 2015 at the Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)
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ALBANY — Reform Party Chairman and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa said he was unable to track down former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara to secure his signature as the third party's nominee for attorney general by the May 23 deadline.

"I looked all over for Preet," Sliwa wrote in a email to the Times Union Friday afternoon. "He never said no ... but he didn't sign up as Yes on the required date. So we have to move on."

Party leaders last week announced that the Reform Party had endorsed Bharara, even though the former prosecutor had not indicated that he would seek the seat of embattled former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

Bharara, whose pursuit of corruption in state government led to the convictions of two legislative leaders before he was fired by President Donald Trump in 2016, said on his radio show earlier this month that he was "flattered" by the many calls for him to step into the role, but that politics was not his "cup of tea."

Instead, voters will select from three candidates for the Reform Party line in the Sept. 13 primary: Democrat Michael Diederich, Reform Party's Nancy Regula, and Chris Garvey, who is registered with the Green Party but is running for attorney general on the Libertarian line.

In an unusual move, the Reform Party enabled independent voters to participate in its primary for the first time in 2017, and Sliwa said the party would again invite independents to help select its attorney general candidate on Sept. 13.

The Reform Party, unaffiliated with the National Reform Party, was founded as the "Stop Common Core Party" in 2014 by the campaign of Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino with singular focus on education. After the party earned the requisite 50,000 votes to remain on the ballot, the name was changed and its interests expanded. Sliwa was installed as its chair in 2016.