The Spitzer Legacy: Questions Swirl Over Which Firms Stand on Solid Ground

Paterson expected to make few changes in consultants, but hire full-time fundraiser

John Celock

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:38:00

The wild ride state politics has been on since March 10th shows no signs of stopping, as speculation runs rampant in the political world about which consultants will be in and which will not.

Eliot Spitzer’s circle of advisors, many from outside Albany and personally loyal to him, is almost entirely gone, being replaced in many cases by veterans of legislative battles dating back to Gov. Mario Cuomo’s (D) occupation of the Executive Mansion.
“It’s better for Democratic establishment types,” one party insider said.

Gov. David Paterson (D) is known to have remained close to many of those who worked with him in Albany in the 1980s, when he first arrived in the State Senate, leading one consultant to predict that the new Albany regime will be similar to the deal-making days of Cuomo.
But firms with close ties to Spitzer may not be out of luck entirely.

The Global Strategy Group had long been close to Spitzer, and had hired his former campaign manager, Ryan Toohey, as a principal. In the private sector, Toohey was a prime architect of much of Spitzer’s political strategy and his efforts to win the State Senate.

Toohey’s fate remains unclear, but one insider said Toohey has developed a new sense of humility as Spitzer plummeted. Toohey declined to discuss his relationship with the new guard in Albany.

Day 1-Day 442: The Spitzer Legacy

Full coverage on NYCapitolNews.com...

• Spitzer's Wake
• Now Who Would Get the Senate Seat?
• Silda Wall Spitzer’s Effects and Michelle Paige Paterson’s Prospects
• Questions Swirl Over Which Firms Stand on Solid Ground
• In Alabama, a Lieutenant Governor who Became Governor, then Lieutenant Governor Again
• The Next Step for the Career Cut Short
• Once Governor, Always Governor
• Signs of Change
• Bond Issues

Nonetheless, speculation that they will be banished under Paterson seems to have been premature.

“There was a lot of hubbub that Global Strategy was out,” one Democratic consultant said. “But David has a lot of relationships with them.”

Many believe their prospects are increasingly good now that Paterson has hired Risa Heller, a Global Strategy senior vice president and former aide to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D), as his new communications director.

But change is definitely coming to the governor’s fundraising operation. Alison Giard, who was heading fundraising for the Spitzer 2010 committee, is still in place in her office at the state Democratic Party’s Manhattan headquarters. She is working to dismantle Spitzer’s campaign operation and providing advice to Paterson’s team.

Giard, who was close with Spitzer and his team, is currently looking for a new position, outside of politics.

“Despite the upheaval of the last few weeks, I enjoyed working with Eliot Spitzer,” Giard said, noting she had a good relationship with Paterson. “I am ready for a move to the private sector and plan to remain in politics as an outside interest.”

Giard does not expect to announce her next move for a few weeks and could leave before Spitzer’s campaign operation is completely dismantled, which could take several months.

While Lisa Hernandez Gioia had been handling Paterson’s fundraising in the lieutenant governor’s office, her firm, the Esler Group, will apparently not serve as Paterson’s chief fundraisers. She said she had not heard who will be Paterson’s new fundraising director, but that while she will continue advising Paterson on fundraising, she has recommended that he hire a full-time finance director for his campaign.

Spitzer’s longtime finance director, Cindy Darrison, who left for the private sector after his election as governor in 2006, will return to work as a consultant. She most recently worked at North Fork Bank, the holder of the accounts with the transactions which ensnared Spitzer in the investigation into the Emperors Club VIP. Darrison had brought Spitzer into the bank as a client. Michael Giacco, Giard's deputy, will serve as Paterson's finance director.

Bill Lynch’s visibility in the opening days of Paterson’s administration is continued to be talked about by many consultants, who believe the former deputy mayor and his firm have been hurt by their willingness to promote themselves as being Paterson’s inner circle. One insider cited the new governor’s two rebukes of Lynch in the press, and refusal to hire his former campaign manager Luther Smith for a Chamber job, as proof of Lynch’s current standing in Paterson’s office.

But another insider insisted Lynch still had an in with Paterson, with a close relationship formed in generations of Harlem politics that will continue to give Lynch clout in Albany.

What has become clear is that nothing is yet clear about the power arrangements--and in the absence of firm decisions, many are boasting of their own relationships with Paterson, but attempting to undercut the relationships others have, as in a rumor that top lobbyist Patricia Lynch is worried about her standing with the new regime. Former Spitzer communications director Darren Dopp, who has since offered testimony implicating Spitzer in the Troopergate scandal, is at the firm.

She dismissed talk of any concerns she is said to have.

“The governor is an old friend,” said Lynch, referring to when she first got to know Paterson as a Senate staffer in the 1980s, at the outset of her Albany career. “I would say that’s a rumor spread by a competitor.”