Spin Cycle

Republican Rick Lazio, the former four-term congressman from Suffolk running for governor, has suggested he and possible rivals for the job Rudy Giuliani and Gov. David A. Paterson meet to discuss reforming state government.

That’s unlikely to happen . .. Giuliani has begun re-upping his media exposure, including a well-argued call for a constitutional convention. . .

Also resurfacing this month: Former Giuliani partner, confidant and commissioner Bernard Kerik — who took time from his federal defense and other troubles to appear this month as a friend of one of the married couples on “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.”

(Remember the rumors that Kerik was considering a run for N.J. governor?) The video is below.

Gains in math test scores look good for re-election-minded New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, especially if you don’t ruin the effect with comparison to other places.

As recently announced, 82 percent of city students met standards, compared to 74 percent last year. But in Nassau County, the percentage of eighth-graders passing state math tests rose from 85.3 percent last year to 91.4 this year. Suffolk's percentage increased from 81.1 to 89 percent.

This is reminiscent of crime in the 1990’s, which plunged during Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s administration — as it did in American cities and suburbs that followed various policing strategies, making credit a little difficult to discern.

Sen. John Flanagan (R-East Northport) on Saturday addressed Columbia County Republicans; he's due in Niagara County in August, and at the late-summer state fair in Syracuse. Watch for him to land -- somewhere- - on a state GOP ticket next year.

Since he's looking to move up and out of the Senate minority conference, Flanagan could take any of the Republican spaces.

Depending who else is running on both sides of the aisle, he could end up the candidate for governor or senator, comptroller or attorney general. Senior Republicans like Pataki, Giuliani, and Rep. Peter King, whose political careers seem to be in a late stage -- if not on the brink of being over -- wouldn't be so flexible in terms of positioning or being willing to risk losing.

(Newsday Photo / J. Conrad Williams Jr.)

Below is a video interview with John McNulty, arrested after his confrontation with Rudy Giuliani on a street in Bridgehampton over the holiday weekend, now calling the former mayor and US attorney "quick to prosecute and persecute" and complaining that the complainant is bent on being treated along with his spouse like royalty. McNulty claims he's heard encouragement from strangers after the incident. "I didn't count on his wife's hysterics," McNulty says, claiming Giuliani (mulling a run for governor these days) offered to kick his butt. The 69-year-old McNulty, by the way, is accused to threatening to punch out Giuliani.

Disagreeing sides might agree on one point: that this has brought a taste of 1990's New York City out east, like a Hamptons presentation of an off-Broadway production. Remember the ferret guy who called the mayor on his radio show?

Summer has officially begun. A man described from all accounts as John McCluskey -- 69, well-groomed, and behaving oddly. He was charged with harassment, a violation, "after he repeatedly approached and threatened" on a street in Bridgehampton where he was walking with his wife Judith. He gives his side here, and here, a witness plays up the former mayor's macho behavior prior to their getting the ex-cop driver who travels with them. "Bring it on," the part-time Hamptonian allegedly said when allegedly told of a desire to punch him out. Another account his here.

As first mentioned Jan. 19 in this space, it has been guessed that as much as former Long Island Rep. Rick Lazio likes to be a good party man, he's not about to wait for the second time in nine years while former Mayor Rudy Giuliani decides whether to seek the GOP nomination for governor next year.

Today Liz Benjamin reports on Lazio's progress, moving ahead with fundraisers and planning the rollout soon of his committee.

Conservative Party chairman Mike Long, whose party was unwilling in the past to back Giuliani based on core philosophy, has been saying that the time to start for any prospect is right away.

Also of interest, as cited recently: Lazio, perhaps ticking off die-hard Republicans, helps honor Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) on June 3.

Meanwhile, Fred Dicker has Erie County Executive Chris Collins as 'backup' for Giuliani as GOP candidate for governor.

First Cindy Adams reported it in the Post. Then Politico picked it up. Now, word is out that Tony Carbonetti, longtime employee of Giuliani Partners, has left the firm to work for prominent Long Islander and mega-successful Home Depot founder Kenneth Langone, a financial supporter of the former mayor and other Republicans, who was the palpably vindicated nemesis of former Gov. Eliot Spitzer. Carbonetti, according to a subsequent Ben Smith blog post, remains in the Giuliani political circle, the message being you can't read into his private-sector shift. There is a strong circle of alliance and friendship around Langone. Remember that Langone friend an former stock-exchange chief Dick Grasso, another old Spitzer target and Rudy ally, was publicly thanked by former Giuliani partner Bernard Kerik for providing refuge and counsel when the latter found himself in some rough going. Langone is starting a consulting firm, Smith reports, with Chris Henick, also once of the GP firm, "that will provide strategic advice."

The founding of the firm itself sounds like an interesting strategic move. Who knows? Maybe Carbonetti will yet prove to be the next state Republican chairman. We can only stay tuned.

(Photo from Web site of stern.edu).

In his final Inner Circle satire skit as mayor in 2001, Rudy Giuliani presented “The Godfather: The Musical.”

Four of the cast members have since been criminally accused or convicted: ex-Liberal Party boss Ray Harding, Assemb. Anthony Seminerio, ex-police commissioner Bernard Kerik, and actor Lillo Brancato (convicted of first-degree attempted burglary).

Disclosure: Robbins had this when the number was three.

At least some of Giuliani's other mayoral performances that year look better with age, however — specifically, the matter of pension funds and then-City Comptroller Alan Hevesi, left.

Wisely and correctly, it seems, Giuliani denounced Hevesi’s push for investments in an equity fund run by one of the latter’s biggest contributors.

(Newsday Photo, 2006 / Julia Gaines)

Finally! Former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani got some love from the right of the nation's political spectrum this week by using the unpopular Gov. David Paterson's initiative to promote his own long-held stance against gay marriage, Politico reports here. Which may come in handier for a Republican nomination in 2012, if he chooses to give another shot at the presidency.

But then again, it also drew Giuliani some contributions from outside the state in 2000, when he ran for Senate and chose to make noise over a sophomoric art exhibit (ironically, promoted by a British conservative) seen as anti-Catholic. So the gay-marriage stance could be culturally useful next year as well should Giuliani -- who to his credit has never been a homophobe -- run for governor. He seems to be picking his instances of media exposure carefully, doing interviews in which he's assured of being fairly cosseted.

Newt Gingrich, the former G.O.P. House speaker touted by some as 2012 presidential material, told state Republicans at their dinner last week that if Rudy Giuliani ran for governor and George Pataki for Senate, it would mark a “large step” toward making 2010 comparable to 1994 for comeback Republican victories.

But as first pointed out on the Web in the Democratic-oriented "Peter King Watch," Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), not Pataki, has been the Republican expressing interest in the Senate seat — while Pataki, like Giuliani, says it’s too early to tell. King noted with evident amusement, “Getting Newt’s endorsement is not part of my strategy.”

In 1996 King demanded Gingrich step down as speaker, and later, King referred to the Georgian, who he says years ago had “gotten caught up in the whole anti-New York thing,” as “road kill on the highway of American politics” who had “an approval rating a few points shy of the Ebola virus.”

King said he will decide by the end of the summer if he’s in the race for the seat now held by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. Meantime he draws more attention on what he sees as the prospect of domestically-nurtured terrorism in the Muslim community. Below via the diligent Azi is Giuliani at the dinner, with whom King was due to appear tonight in Albany at a fundraiser....

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who over the years became a big contributor to Republicans, thus assuring he can purchase a spot on the ballot, was at the GOP dinner at the Sheraton only as a subject of discussion.

He dropped out of the party at an expedient time, in 2007, and plans to support Gov. Paterson's push for gay marriage, which Chairman Mondello and fellow party activists oppose. "That's between him and his God," Mondello said.

Giuliani at one point in his speech noted that while he was not the first Republican in 60 years to become mayor, he was the only one who remained one (John Lindsay, elected as a Republican, was re-elected as a Liberal and tried running for president as a Democrat).

As he left Wednesday night's GOP dinner, en route to being escorted with his wife through a side door, ex-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani replied to a few press questions.

On the criminal allegations against former close adviser Ray Harding: He doesn't know the basis for the allegations and let's pray for the family.

On being all-but-nominated by Gingrich for governor: Flattered but it's "premature."

On Paterson promoting same-sex marriage: Opposed, "marriage should be between a man and woman," and "it's a big mistake."

Sure, it struck some of us as a bit strange a few years ago when suddenly, Assemb. Michael Cohen, at right, representing Forest Hills, left the Legislature citing family reasons.

The borough of Queens being what it is, though, these kinds of mysteries sometimes get explained long afterward in court papers.

So it seems to be with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's felony complaint against former Liberal Party boss Ray Harding which is posted here.

With Hank Morris, close Hevesi aide, taking care of Harding, there was a move to "generate a vacancy in the Assembly" for purposes of putting Comptroller Alan Hevesi's son, Andrew, in the Assembly.

In a meeting, Cohen said "he was interested in obtaining a private sector job due to a family illness." He was looking for six figures and to keep his city pension. An aide to Gov. Pataki agreed to help the Hevesi camp, as AG investigator Gerard Matheson states.

The Assemblyman was to be introduced to a high level insurance executive. Harding was thanked. The Queens Democrats agreed to give Andrew Hevesi the nomination, tantamount to election in that district, in a special election arranged through the governor's office.

Another note: A factor in the alleged scheme as presented was Ray Harding's search for funds -- due to the legal bills of his son, Russell, stemming from embezzlement and other offenses during the Giuliani administration.

Speaking of history, the Cuomos have one of their own with the elder Harding, which is complex in its details. Infighting raged in the minor party in the 1980's, in which Andrew and Mario Cuomo were intensely involved.

At one time, Harding was perceived as a hostile force to Cuomo, and treated as such, but later, he retained control of the party and backed Gov. Cuomo's juggernaut-like re-election in 1986.

Harding struck it big with Rudy Giuliani's election as mayor, and his law and lobbying firm thrived. Later, in 2002, Harding -- a foe of the Harlem Democrats -- backed Andrew Cuomo for governor as against H. Carl McCall. Cuomo withdrew, however, and the line didn't get the 50,000 votes required to retain an automatic statewide ballot position.

(That's ex-Assemb. Michael Cohen in the photo with the Assemblyman's chief of staff Dolores Capace in a newsletter photo in which Hevesi thanked Cohen for his prior service.

Note: Neither they nor Andrew Hevesi are accused of any wrongdoing).

Talk about unlucky timing. Wednesday night, the state Republicans gather at the Sheraton in midtown Manhattan and one of the featured guests on the program is former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, once again touted as a possible solution to Republican doldrums with brewing speculation of a gubernatorial run next year.

And what is the New York political news of the day? His close longtime adviser Ray Harding, who headed the now-defunct state Liberal Party, is charged in conjunction with the pay-to-play mess surrounding investment actions taken while Alan Hevesi was state comptroller.

UPDATE: The AP reports reports that it involves more than $800,000 in illegal fees linked to state pension fund investments, purportedly as a reward for helping Hevesi's son Andrew get a seat in the state Assembly.....Read full story.

Even though Giuliani fell out with Hevesi toward the end of their eight years of simultaneous incumbency, Harding remained an ally of the one-time Queens Democratic figure.

Harding's son Russell, of course, served time due to crimes committed as head of Giuliani's housing corporation. Hank Morris, charged in the investment probe by AG Andrew Cuomo and the Securities Exchange Commission, was politically allied with Ray Harding. Former LP executive director Fran Reiter served as a Rudy deputy mayor -- as did Harding's repected son Robert.

Along with Bernard Kerik, this adds one more Giuliani pal facing prosecution, potentially during the rollout of his next campaign. Of course, it may not necessarily matter. Does anyone talk about Tony Resko any more?

The time-honored pre-emptive move to get word out before the authorities is here.

Tom Robbins' cutting-edge story on Hank Morris and Harding is here.

Rudy Giuliani, left, with Raymond Harding, ex-chief of the now defunct Liberal Party, take in a Yankees-Rangers game on opening day April 12, 2000. (AP Photo)

The steep decline of Giuliani Partners, which is widely known in the once-mayor's circle, is reported by The Post and in the same report officially and less-than-persuasively denied by Giuliani Partners, which says the business is being "repositioned" to the current economy. Not to worry, its folks made a fortune at the height of its post-9/11 gilded period, before the name principal's presidential fiasco, so hopefully everybody there saved plenty for rainy days. Silver lining, for a gubernatorial strategist: Maybe everyone will forget who the clients and one or two of the partners were before the Bush-regulated economy crashed. Meantime, Gawker's riff on the story is just very, very, very sad and really kind of a shame.

(Photo from cbs.com)

The GOP's Joe Mondello and company will supposedly learn by the fall whether Rudy Giuliani will run for governor (unless, of course, the cosseted 'candidate' deems this inconvenient.)

Mondello also is allegedly balking at former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato's efforts on behalf of Michael Bloomberg getting the GOP line -- after the mayor quit the party. (Would LI issues even matter -- such as the mayor's drive for a commuter tax and a Manhattan toll?)

Scrambling for cash, Suffolk County Exec Steve Levy and company are looking to sell naming rights wherever they can. (We can see it now -- the Empire Escorts Memorial Golf Links.)

Rick Brand reports out of Suffolk that DA Tom Spota has landed in a place he does not wish to be -- the midst of the Brookhaven supervisor race.

Bloomberg aides, wearing their fiscal-warrior faces, tell Seifman the MTA is "tanking" union talks.

For AG Andrew Cuomo -- on the cusp of a run for governor if Paterson drops out -- what better enemy to have than NAMBLA, even if it's (optimistically speaking) just an empty crank threat?

(Albany Times-Union Photo)

State Conservative chairman Michael Long warns that unless his party and Republicans “can get something going” this year to build a 2010 statewide ticket, he’d move toward fielding a separate Conservative slate of candidates.

For decades, Republicans have won statewide only when they had the Conservative endorsement. Long on Friday noted the strong run Conservative Herbert London made in 1990 for governor against Republican Pierre Rinfret and Democrat Mario Cuomo — and Conservative James Buckley’s 1970 U.S. Senate victory without the GOP.

“I have said to a number of people, including Republicans, that unless we can get something going here, I am not going to fall behind a lost journey,” he said Friday. Recalling Gov. George Pataki’s first win, Long said, “there were seven or eight candidates out the year before . . . I don’t know any candidate who’s clearly in the pond now. You can’t put a toe in the water and think you’re going to get elected. You need to get your whole body submerged.”

So far the toe-dippers include ex-mayor and failed presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani from the upper East Side, and ex-Congressman and failed Senate candidate Rick Lazio of Manhattan and Suffolk.

In Giuliani's abortive run for senator nine years ago, there was a complicated dance over whether the candidate was making an effort to win Conservative backing -- having taken key support from the (now defunct) Liberal line in his mayoral bids. Possible 2010 gubernatorial hopeful Rick Lazio had Conservative support when he fell short against Hillary Clinton later that year.

From a little over a year ago, this is Long on NBC expressing the belief that none of the GOP presidential candidates other than Fred Thompson was consistently conservative:

David Saltonstall in the Daily News does a pretty tart profile on Rush Hudson Limbaugh III, "a thrice-divorced, formerly drug-addicted college dropout who casts himself as a working-class hero. . ." Didn't, however, include the local angle of ex-mayor and fellow cigar fan Rudy Giuliani's earnestly mentioning last week on CNN that Rushbo is his friend but of course isn't running the GOP. (Historic note: One of them professionally represented the makers of Oxycontin, the other was a loyal consumer -- but there is no evident nexus).

Quickly, the question has become whether Gov. David A. Paterson takes a shot at election next year — or even has a shot to take.

Yes, we have a long way to November 2010. True, Paterson has been making staff changes to help him succeed. Surely, amazing comebacks have occurred in politics. Granted, polls fluctuate over time.

But still.

The Marist poll puts at 26 percent the share of New Yorkers who rate Paterson’s performance as good or excellent — “the lowest approval rating a New York State governor has received” since Marist began tracking statewide contests in 1982.

In the suburbs, too, the number was 26; it was 24 upstate, and 30 in New York City.

Eliot Spitzer’s lowest number was 30 — after his dalliances with hookers became public, Marist reported.

George Pataki hit 30 percent, but as a lame duck in his 12th year. Cuomo dropped to 32 percent in 1994, in the season that Pataki unseated him.

Among African-Americans, Paterson’s approval was 39 percent — a little better than the overall but not strong, said Lee Miringoff, the poll’s longtime director.

“The erosion of support is not just at the edges,” he said. “You can’t get to 26 percent and have your core of support intact.”

New York finds itself at a weird electoral juncture. Of five statewide office-holders...

Continue reading "Plunge in poll puts Paterson in the danger zone" »

Despite Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s reported pitch to GOP bosses that predecessor Rudy Giuliani would make a fine governor, tensions between the two camps have been rife. When Bloomberg had his name floated for president, the ex-mayor’s aides talked war. And Bloomberg’s fixing the law for a third term irritated Rudy loyalists, who said Giuliani better deserved an exception to the two-term limit.

The head of a huge public city housing corporation -- appointed by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani -- arranged for health benefits for a board member who shouldn't have been entitled to them "as a favor," according to an audit report released Thursday from Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

The president of the Housing Development Corp. at the time was Russell Harding, at left, who was later imprisoned for embezzlement. When he appointed him, Giuliani dismissed criticism that Harding, the son of his close political confidant Ray Harding, had no formal qualifications for the job. (By contrast Harding's brother Robert Harding, who'd been deputy mayor under Giuliani, is a widely respected attorney).

After serving time, Russell Harding made waves a few months ago when he created a Web site that tells tales out of school about the possible GOP candidate for governor next year and other members of his inner circle.

"The audit, which covered a two-year period, found that the corporation
improperly paid $56,646 in premiums for a current board member from
September 2001 to March 2007. By law, board members are not entitled to
receive a salary or any type of compensation," DiNapoli said in a release accompanying the report.

This is, in a sense, an old mess in an updated context. Russell Harding's time at HDC has gotten broad exposure, leading to felony convictions for at least one other Giuliani aide, but what makes it more current is the health-benefit giveaway, at a time when statewide crackdowns on similar practices have been carried out, prodded on Long Island by stories in Newsday.

The board member is Michael W. Kelly, an appointee to the board of former Gov. George Pataki. He's identified in public notices as president and chief executive of Central Park Credit Bank.

The former Judith Stish of Hazelton Pa., and her former presidential-candidate husband Rudy Giuliani -- said to be mulling another jointly-run candidacy for public office, the governorship -- have sold properties in her home town, according to this local news report.

Not a big deal on the face of it, but personal publicity of any kind is a sensitive matter for the 1990's Republican mayor, after what his inner circle regarded as rough press treatment on the trail. (Said treatment was rather conventional when you compare it to that of others who have passed through the same spotlight).

Ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani was in Dubai recently on business, friends say. Like many other consulting ventures, his Giuliani Partners is reported to be slower than it once was.

Insider guesses vary on whether he and his wife have the desire for him to make a statewide run in 2010.

Photo is from "Leaders in Dubai" Web site. The caption, from a business forum from 2004, says: "Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar Properties and Director General of Dubai's Department of Economic Development, debated leadership principles on stage with former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani."

Remembering Bernie Kerik, the AP reports on a fundraiser. Far removed from the high-rolling days when he was Rudy's consigliere in The Big Apple:

"PATERSON, N.J. (AP) — Nearly 300 people attended a fundraiser in Paterson for former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik.

"Tickets for Monday’s Bernard Kerik Legal Defense Fund Trust sold for a minimum of $75.

"Kerik greeted the attendees, most of whom had ties to Kerik’s law enforcement career.

"Kerik was indicted on charges that he accepted free renovations to his Bronx apartment from a company seeking to do business with the city. He also faces charges of lying to the White House and fixing false income tax returns.

"He has pleaded not guilty."

Realignments are under way in New York politics -- made all the more urgent by a global financial crisis that sets the interest groups on edge, especially in Albany.

Nowhere are new alliances more unusual than in the ad hoc movement against the Great Power Grab carried out recently when Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City Council changed local law to allow themselves to seek three consecutive terms instead of two.

For one thing, the federal complaint filed Monday aimed at voiding this term extension is signed by two well-known lawyers: Randy Mastro, former deputy mayor and Rudy Giuliani loyalist (at right in photo at left), and Norman Siegel (at right in photo at right) who with the New York Civil Liberties Union in the 1990’s fought what he saw as numerous Giuliani administration impingements on the U.S. Constitution.

The plaintiffs represent an even more unlikely alliance: the groups US Term Limits and NYPIRG, very Republican Staten Islander Guy Molinari and very Brooklyn Democratic City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr., Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long and pro-gay-rights Council candidate Ken Diamonstone, not to mention a multi-ethnic array of Council candidates.

The complaint states in part that the Great Power Grab “permanently chills political speech by sending the unavoidable message that the democratic exercise of initiatives and referenda (two prior citywide votes for a two-term limit) can be disregarded by public officials” contrary to the First Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment.

If this lawsuit falls short and Bloomberg -- who ran twice as a Republican -- does get another shot, this could be a starting point for how an opponent might fight the incumbent in next year’s campaign – through an unusual coalition that cuts across party lines.

Predictably, perhaps, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani is doing negative robo-calls for the McCain campaign, accusing candidate Barack Obama of not wanting to do the right thing on sex offenders. Greg Sargent at TPM posts it here and critiques the distortion in this script:

"Hi, this is Rudy Giuliani, and I'm calling for John McCain and the Republican National Committee because you need to know that Barack Obama opposes mandatory prison sentences for sex offenders, drug dealers, and murderers."

"It's true, I read Obama's words myself. And recently, Congressional liberals introduced a bill to eliminate mandatory prison sentences for violent criminals -- trying to give liberal judges the power to decide whether criminals are sent to jail or set free. With priorities like these, we just can't trust the inexperience and judgment of Barack Obama and his liberal allies. This call was paid for by the Republican National Committee and McCain-Palin 2008 at 866 558 5591."

For nostalgia's sake, here's one of Rudy's much more famous phone conversations:

On Aug. 4, 2007, Russell Harding, the convicted former Housing Development Corp. president, wrote a letter to top Rudy Giuliani aide Anthony Carbonetti, saying he was to be sent back to New York later in the year, despite his requests otherwise -- released into the jurisdiction where he was first taken into custody. In the letter to his one-time friend, obtained from sources close to Giuliani, he seems to suggest that there was, to put it flatly, a mutual interest in making him happy.

It states in part: "I think my silence during the last four years has been evidence of my good intentions," and mentions the many press interview requests and even a book proposal on past Giuliani campaigns that he'd received, and indicates there is interest in several people he identifies only by their initials, which happen to be the same as those of the former mayor, former deputy mayor Peter Powers, former press secretary Cristyne Lategano, and Judith Giuliani."

"I have no reason to believe these requests will not continue," he writes. "And quite possibly (will) increase as I get closer to December, my release date." That happened to be when presidential candidates were gearing up for the first-in-the-nation primary, in Iowa.

"Do you or any of my old friends have any plans to help me close the yawning financial gap created over the last four years?" he asks. "...I just wanted to kow if you had any ideas."

"If I don't hear from you in the next two weeks, I'll know you had no ideas that could be helpful and I'll generate my own...."

Contacted for comment, Sunny Mindel, spokeswoman for Giuliani Partners in Manhattan, gave this statement: "The allegations in this blog are false and untrue. Sadly, the letter makes all too clear Russell’s motivations."

In his blog rant about counflicts, housing, Giuliani and his wife-to-be, Russell Harding is evidently off the mark on a time frame. He writes:

"As a businessman these were small costs that helped him in the long run with City Hall, I realized. Rudy would deny Related nothing now. They were bidding on lots of projects all over the city, including the massive Columbus Circle site. Most of those projects required mayoral approval directly or through a City agency."

Later he writes: "Judith Nathan lived in that Related 80/20, 200 E. 94th St., until she and Mayor Giuliani moved into their Madison Avenue apartment. She paid the reduced rent and it never increased during her tenancy."

"Rudy Giuliani and the MTA went on to select Related as the developer for the billion dollar redevelopment of Columbus Circle and the Time Warner project.

However, the Giuliani adminstration picked Related for the Columbus Circle project in 1998, before he knew his future wife, as indicated in this archived press release from that July.

A development of potentially seismic proportion in Rudy Giuliani's world: Russell Harding, son of the former mayor's political guru Ray Harding, who headed the Liberal Party, has finished his jail term on embezzlement and other charges -- carried out while heading Giuliani's housing corporation, one of the bigger stains on the Republican's City Hall legacy.

And Russell (not to be confused with his brother Robert Harding, the former Giuliani deputy mayor who remains reputable and widely respected) is now telling inside accounts on a pretty well-written blog of his own linked here, and some of them, presuming they're accurate, are doozies.

A prime allegation: That as Giuliani's head of the Housing Development Corp., Russell Harding was asked by right-hand Giuliani man Tony Carbonetti to find housing for then-mayoral girlfriend Judith Nathan at specified prices - and very likely in a special deal. Harding says he hooked her up with Related Corp., names the individual executive as Jeff Blau, and describes in detail why this was a potential conflict of interest.

For key portions of this one statement, click on the "continued" bar, or go to the site called Rudy Veritas and click on the "Judith" category on the right. More as it develops.

Dan Janison

Continue reading "Disgraced Rudy aide claims insider apt deal for Judith" »

On his “NYPD Confidential” Web site, our ex-colleague Len Levitt suggested that if McCain wins and makes Rudy Giuliani attorney general, Bernie Kerik could win an inside track to a pardon on federal corruption charges. But since McCain whacked Giuliani over Kerik, isn’t it more likely President George W. Bush would be the one pardon Kerik, perhaps, on his way out the door? Bush, after all, commuted the sentence of spy-name-leaker Lewis “Scooter” Libby — who wasn’t even a purported 9/11 “hero”. Caution: Some wonder if Bush has forgiven Kerik’s embarrassing 2004 implosion as his security-secretary nominee.

A few premature questions have popped up in New York circles regarding former mayor Rudy Giuliani's keynote speech at the GOP convention:

Will Giuliani be answering any cell-phone calls from his wife during the address as he did repeatedly during speeches in his own star-crossed campaign for the nomination?

Will discussion of a criminal pardon for troubled ex-mayoral aide Bernie Kerik -- who spoke at the 2004 parley as a prelude to Bush's star-crossed nomination of him to head Homeland Security -- come up in the waning weeks of the Bush administration?

Will the mayor's performance regarding "reform" a week from Tuesday boost McCain anywhere in the Northeast, where the chat was at one time about a 50-state strategy?

Will Giuliani's friends be able to restrain themselves from mentioning anew McCain's role in the S&L scandals of the 1980's as occurred during the primary campaign?

Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor whose Republican presidential bid failed earlier this year, will be the keynote speaker at the GOP Convention in St. Paul, the GOP confirmed today.

Giuliani likely will highlight what he will describe as the success of Republican principles in turning around New York during his two terms when he speaks in prime-time on the evening of Tuesday, Sept. 2.

And as in 2004, the Republican convention this year will feature a disgruntled Democrat as a main speaker, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who lost his Democratic primary bid but was re-elected as an independent. Lieberman will speak on Monday night.

The theme of the evening Giuliani will speak, as announced by the Republican National Convention Committee today, is “Reform,” an issue Giuliani repeatedly highlighted in his campaign for the nomination.

“He’s very honored,” said Giuliani spokeswoman Sunny Mindel.

The keynote speech is a much coveted speaking slot, often a launching pad for future political careers, though Giuliani has recently said he’s happy to be back in the private sector.

But the prominent role Giuliani will be playing in the Republicans’ four day convention highlights the close relationship he has with the party’s presumptive nominee, John McCain.

After his bid failed, Giuliani flew out to California to endorse McCain and has appeared on Sunday talk shows to attack Democrat Barack Obama and to praise McCain’s experience in national security matters.

President George W. Bush, his wife Laura and Vice President Dick Cheney are scheduled to speak on Monday, Sept. 1, the first night of the convention whose theme is “Service.”

Also speaking that night will be California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Democrat Lieberman. In 2004, former Georgia Democrat Zell Miller delivered a blistering speech attacking his party.

The next night, when Giuliani appears, is packed with speakers, including two other unsuccessful presidential hopefuls, Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee, as well as former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele.

On Wednesday night, the headliner will be the still-unannounced vice presidential pick (to be made public a week from Friday). Other speakers will include McCain’s wife Cindy; Mitt Romney, whose presidential run fell short; Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman; Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. Also speaking will be Carly Fiorina, former Hewlett-Package CEO, and Meg Whitman, former eBay chairman and CEO.

McCain will make his acceptance speech on Thursday, Sept. 4.

Tom Brune

In the no-fault world of political consulting, losing big just paves the way to the next gig.

New Jerseyan Mike Duhaime now is deputy to top John McCain campaign honcho Steve Schmidt. Duhaime last ran the Titanic-like Rudolph Giuliani effort.

In reaction to Craig Gordon's piece on McCain in New York in this space last week, one insider even joked that DuHaime's role may be the reason the GOP candidate's New York operation is run out of the Garden State. But it's more likely the McCain crew just figures he has a better shot of taking Jersey than New York.

For the moment, the biggest Long Island names in statewide politics belong to Thomas DiNapoli, the Democratic state comptroller, and Dean Skelos, the Senate’s GOP majority leader. Fast-forward to the 2010 governor’s race, and at least five regional names pop out of the rumor mill, on the Republican side.

Speculation surrounds former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. But despite a weekend burst of publicity, here and here, about his fundraising and new real-estate dealings, even close allies doubt he’ll run following his high-debt presidential implosion. “Go to Albany and have to deal with (Assembly Speaker) Sheldon Silver?,” a longtime ally puzzled at a GOP event. “Why does he want to do that?”

Mayor Michael Bloomberg gets his name floated, but says when asked that he won’t run.

The Capitol newspaper in Albany notes that until four years ago, Barack Obama was just a state senator from Chicago — and set out to rate future prospects in New York’s upper house. Two names drew the highest marks from a team of political consultants: Eric Schneiderman (D-Manhattan) and John Flanagan (R-East Northport). “Possible governor material for 2014,” they say of Flanagan. The full evaluation is here.

Flanagan recently gained influence with appointment to the Legislature’s key review board for Metropolitan Transportation Authority projects. Some staffers, for better or worse, have been calling the six-foot-four Flanagan “mini-Dean.” No comment on the future from the Flanagan camp — where as in the rest of the Senate the instant concern is the GOP drive to retain control.

U.S. Rep. Peter King, who last year lost clout when Democrats took the House majority, has already suggested he could be in the mix for 2010. King owns creds as a loyal Republican: Last week, for example, he drew some conventional fire from longshot Democratic challenger Graham Long for backing President George W. Bush on offshore oil drilling.

Then there’s the talk that Suffolk Executive Steve Levy, with his flush campaign account, tight fiscal posture, and conservative props, could ditch the Democrats and run statewide as a Republican. Here is a fuller analysis by Rick Brand of Levy's political position..

Dan Janison

Let's face it, professional baseball is an important civic and political issue in New York, and must be treated with the awe and energy it deserves.

The two new major-league stadiums rising alongside old ones in the Bronx and Queens have added a special attraction for Met and Yankee fans -- a rare sense of urgency to watch a game in the old ballpark. Last chance! Buy tickets now! Preserve the memories! There's excitement even if the teams manage to finish at the bottom of their divisions.

Better yet, both projects created many construction jobs. They've given both organizations a "new product" to hype.

Given this win-win-win-win, why not keep things in a permanent state of construction for the rest of our days?

That's right. As soon as the new stadium opens, the Mets and Yankees could start rebuilding immediately on the previous ballpark's site. If one year like this is good, you'd think that doing it every year is better. Market this right and you could bring the All-Star game to the city every year.

Under this new, out-of-the-box perpetual-stadium program, the syrupy narratives of the 'Yes' station could go on indefinitely -- you know, about the "cathedral" of baseball, a site more meaningful than Gettysburg. Yes, a cathedral so sacred and beloved to its owners and its fans that it must be wrecked -- to make way for the Steinbrenners' desired luxury boxes.

Each year, the new "cathedral" could be ripped down and rebuilt, perhaps steadily phasing out the cheaper seats so that by the end of the 2010's, the last version of the ballpark becomes a TV studio and a field, but with a small, high-priced restuarant offering reservations 8 years in advance.

That, of course, would be the ultimate in New York cachet.

He's traveled a long way from those days in the mid-1990's when he reopened a firehouse in Richmond Hill to make good on a campaign promise.

In Maidenhead in the United Kingdom, which is west of London, the name of Rudy Giuliani has cropped up in a fight to keep a fire station open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Contacted through his New York - based business, Giuliani Partners, the former mayor has, according to this local press report in Berkshire, signed on to support the fire company's cause.

From the Maidenhead Advertiser: "Mick Rowley, Fire Brigades Union (FBU) Representative at Windsor Fire Station, said: “The Windsor Firefighters warmly welcome the support of a man who knows and understands the importance of firefighters and their role following terrorist attacks."

Giuliani surfaced last week as a surrogate for John McCain knocking Barack Obama as having the wrong approach to fighting Islamic terrorism.

Dan Janison

News items in recent days about a purported effort to unseat Joseph Mondello as state Republican leader seem shrouded, at best, by a political version of “Rashomon effect” in which recollections of the same matter differ by what a person is pre-disposed to believe.

Late last week, published reports -- all attributed to unidentified sources – had it that Tony Carbonetti, the right-hand man of former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, would make a move to become state chairman, and that current NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg met with departing upstate Congressman Tom Reynolds in a move to make him new party leader.

Parts of the puzzle were that Giuliani is in debt from his failed presidential effort, Bloomberg’s team was trying to keep him politically relevant and maybe prod him to run for governor, and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno recently hired a Giuliani man, Matthew Mahoney, to direct GOP state Senate campaigns.

But Giuliani and Carbonetti have assured Mondello that no such intrigue is afoot – and this denial actually sounds very plausible. Though Mondello and Giuliani weren’t exactly buds in the past, they did work closely last year when Mondello lined up the state organization to endorse Giuliani for president, a fact not lost on the ex-mayor. Giuliani had high praise for Mondello at the recent state GOP dinner.

For various reasons it also seems less than 50-50 that either former-Republican Bloomberg or more-than-ever-Republican Giuliani will run for governor in 2010 -- though of course you can never prove a negative, especially when someone's ambitions might change. Meanwhile, some Mondello-ites believe this is all mischief inspired by those around the chairman's old nemesis, the disappeared ex-Gov. George Pataki.

After the GOP dinner on May 29, Bruno was asked about the prospects of Rep. Peter King running for governor. Bruno, who has been a consistent backer of Mondello, said: ““We’ve got some great candidates in Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Rudy Giuliani, Peter King, you name it.”

The season of strange speculation begins. Stories so far were published here , here, here and here.

Dan Janison

At around the same time tonight, just a few blocks apart, the state's Republican and Conservative parties will be holding separate dinners - a pretty glaring conflict given their overlapping sources of support.

Organizers say the simultaneous scheduling was accidental. But things sometimes play out that way for the Republicans and the spinoff Conservatives, who for 46 years have positioned themselves as the rightward conscience of the New York GOP.

Vice President Dick Cheney will address the Republicans, convened by state and Nassau Chairman Joseph Mondello, at the New York Sheraton in Manhattan. So will former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno - Republicans who have had their own famous collisions with the Conservatives.

For Conservatives, the headliner at the New York Athletic Club is Rep. Mike Pence (R-Indiana), the former chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative House Republicans. Pence has called himself "a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order." The event is a tribute to the late William F. Buckley Jr., the national conservative icon.

Political intimacy creates a certain type of tension. For local endorsements, the strains - and intense negotiation - have been evident.

For starters, take a look here at Rick Brand's story on how Suffolk Republicans seem to have responded to prodding from Suffolk Conservatives and done an about-face on their judicial nominations.

And, in Nassau, as reported earlier, a frantic series of back-channel, multiway talks has lasted for several days between county Conservative leaders - who were balking at endorsing Republican Senate nominee Barbara Donno - and the Senate's Deputy Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre). Nassau Conservative Chairman Roger Bogsted said he expects to decide on a candidate today.

Mike Long, the state Conservative chairman, was asked yesterday if his organization was committed to keeping the GOP majority in the Senate. "Yes, we are," he said, "but we are saying the candidates have to be acceptable. And I have had some private conversations....

Dan Janison

Continue reading "Republicans and Conservatives: A line is drawn" »

Could it really have been a year ago that state GOP Chairman Joe Mondello put together a first-in-a-long-time state Republican fundraising dinner, which featured hometown Republican rock-star Rudy Giuliani, who was showing strong in national polls, and who was seen as lifting the November ticket in New York -- with a more muted appearance later in the program by John McCain, who seemed in retrospect almost like an aperitif?

Well, Giuliani is due to return for a second such event May 29 at the New York Sheraton, as a "special guest" -- along with Vice President Dick Cheney, as described here on the LoHud blog. You can bet that the former mayor's appearance, a sharp partisan speech from him, and a warm response in the room that evening will feed speculation that Giuliani -- who faces campaign debts from his failed presidentail run --would run for governor in 2010. Or maybe he's taking seriously that vice-president thing floated by his aides in February. Here is a recent jab in the Post at Giuliani's fundraising efforts on behalf of nominee-to-be McCain. Here, the Capitol Confidential site shows part of McCain's speech last year. Notice how the room wasn't exactly hushed, you know, as if they'd all be going out to work for him a year later.

Dan Janison

Just when you thought the whole story couldn't get any worse for Bernard Kerik, the disgraced former NYC police commissioner and would-have been U.S. homeland security secretary:

Former Iraq correspondent Stephanie Gaskell breaks a story in the Daily News quoting retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top military leader in Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004, saying Kerik's effort to train Iraqi police five years ago "a waste of time and effort." There was talk of police raids to liberate prostitutes, oddities with supplies, and a lack of understanding of the tasks at hand on behalf of the ex-commish, according to Sanchez, who has a book coming out.

Part of Kerik's response, as quoted, is that he didn't have much regard for Sanchez's approach, which he charges was too distant from what Iraqis needed. Kerik still faces federal corruption charges stemming from his dealings as a city commissioner, in a case complicated by the dismissal of his lawyer to avoid a potential conflict of interest.

This one was snapped by Newsday's Ken Sawchuk in August 1997 at City Hall, where then Mayor Rudy Giuliani declared a ceremonial Indian-American Day in the five boroughs. In other words, we did NOT get this from a rival Republican before Giuliani withdrew from the presidential race last month...

Another in a seemingly endless stream of epilogues has been written to the story of Bernard Kerik’s role in the Giuliani administration.

On Friday was announced the conviction in Manhattan Criminal Court of Alan J. Risi and Joanne Ruscillo in connection with a bid-rigging scheme. As charged by investigators, they colluded in efforts to buy back surplus security doors from the city – which a Risi-connected company, Georal, had initially sold the city in purchases arranged through Kerik’s assistant John Picciano, first when the two were in power at the Correction Department and later at the Police Department.

The questionable purchases became a widely-publicized million-dollar boondoggle during Giuliani's tenure. Risi has already pleaded guilty to grand larceny and paid a $50,000 fine for submitting fake invoices to the city while performing maintenance on entrance doors to city office and court buildings.

Kerik is still facing separate, federal criminal charges.

Click on the continued bar below for the city Department of Investigation statement.

Dan Janison

Continue reading "The Kerik saga: still active, Rudy campaign or none" »

The biggest New York primary contest of its kind in decades has sent party operatives scouring results district by district for hints at what’s to come in next fall’s general election.

Numbers remain rough and unofficial, but it appears that more than 1.7 million Democrats voted in New York State’s presidential primary last week. Republican voters totalled just over 600,000, or 35 percent of Democratic turnout.

The major parties are already at war this year for control of the state Senate, where Majority Leader Joseph Bruno’s Republican conference holds a slim margin. In two weeks, there’s a special election for a vacant upstate seat, and the spin from both camps is well under way.

“The contrast between the two parties heading into November couldn't be more stark,” declared state Democratic committee spokesman Jonathan Rosen. “There is palpable excitement at the grassroots level among Democrats all over the state...The Republican party is depressed, divided and on the defensive.” State and Nassau GOP Chairman Joseph Mondello, in photo at right, who earlier pinned hopes on a Rudy Giuliani nomination, said: “With Senator McCain at the head of our ticket, Republicans in New York and across the nation can look forward to a bright future.”

By Friday, the Democratic vote was 998,749 for Hillary Clinton and 694,493 for Barack Obama. Adding in the totals for dropouts still on the ballot, turnout hit 1,715,006 or 32 percent of the official number of registered Democrats. John McCain won New York on Tuesday with more than half of the reported 607,011 GOP votes, marking an official 20 percent Republican turnout. (Turnout percentages are a bit blurry; for one thing, so-called motor-voter programs in the 1990’s signed up some who failed to vote).

Dan Janison

Fans of the former mayor are kicking around the prospect of their man becoming attorney general in a McCain administration or Department of Homeland Security secretary, the job that underling Bernie Kerik was up for in 2004 before the crash-and-burn came. It's the chatter of the moment, which may allow the defeated Giuliani a bit of vestigial prestige after winning a paltry 15 percent in "firewall" Florida.

If you can identify the gentleman above, you're real good.

UPDATE: Kudos to the very impressive Mr. Stanley Jackson, who nailed the ID within minutes. For the correct answer, see his comment below.

FURTHER UPDATE: And credit to Jim Kelly for his valid predictions about the fate of the campaign.

Dan Janison

His career is not quite toast just yet.

Rudolph William Louis Giuliani, 63, a well-off and well-known citizen with residences in Manhattan and the Hamptons, faces a resumption of private-sector life - as lawyer, businessman, consultant, and social celebrity.

Throughout his yearlong presidential adventure, undoubtedly aware this day could come, the former New York City mayor stayed linked to his partnership and law firm, taking hits on some of the clientele and leaving a key business in the trusted hands of his longtime friend Peter Powers.

And as a self-styled brand name, Giuliani has preserved useful bridges. Sure he spent months playing Twister with his record as mayor, put out ads that missed, and drew the kind of harsh scrutiny that the more sensitive candidates complain about.

But His Honor is expected to retain a player's stake in a certain GOP White House. For the most part, Giuliani kept it friendly with Sen. John McCain, whom he endorses today - some consoling themselves last night with hope of a vice presidential slot for the New Yorker. Some cynics even suggest that Giuliani Partners could become the next, oh, Halliburton.

You can count on Giuliani, at some point, to take as much credit as possible...

Dan Janison

Continue reading "Rudy: the months and years after" »