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He is one of the premier political consultants of the modern age, but Hank Sheinkopf says that if he had it to do over again, he would just as soon have become a newspaper reporter.
“This is never what I had in mind,” he said, “under no circumstances. This is not what I wanted to do. I didn’t know what I wanted to do.”
He came to politics through a series of accidents, starting with his first paid job, for $30 a week, with Herman Badillo’s 1969 Democratic primary campaign for mayor. This left him with a taste for underdogs that has stuck, even as he has become a famous consultant with a client list that includes former President Bill Clinton.
In 2001, he helped Mark Green’s unsuccessful mayoral campaign, and was on the winning side of races for comptroller (William Thompson, Jr.) and public advocate (Betsy Gotbaum).
In 2009, he hopes to score what he calls the “trifecta,” helping to elect a mayor, public advocate and comptroller. But he is sometimes sanguine about his career.
“If I had to pick this life again, I probably would not have done it,” Sheinkopf said. “It is too hard today. It’s a very different business.”
On a sizzling hot spring afternoon, Sheinkopf sat down in his Madison Avenue office to talk about his past, present and future in American politics. He described how politics has changed — there is more money to be made, the political figures have become blander and the consultants have become subjects of gossip.
But some things are not new, Sheinkopf said, mentioning negative campaigning as Exhibit A. In 1860, for example, opponents portrayed Abe Lincoln as an ape.
When it comes to political consulting, he said, “it’s an art. There’s some science, but it’s largely an art.”
He has international commercial clients, and has run races in countries around the globe. But no matter where the game is being played, he says it is about making an emotional connection between the candidate and the voters.
“People are pretty smart. They make good choices,” he said.
Though this born-and-bred New Yorker retains a passion for city politics, where he retains an office with four people on the payroll, he has worked on 600 campaigns in 46 states in his 37-year career.
He has seen enough to even give kind words to old adversaries.
While he worked on Green’s mayoral bid and now is helping with Green’s attorney general campaign, Sheinkopf had praise for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who beat Green in the 2001 mayor’s race.
“Sometimes when you lose, you win. New York got the best of it,” Sheinkopf said. “He’s done a very good job.”
He can even allow a little praise for current opponents. Mentioning Green’s current rival for the Democratic nomination in the attorney general’s race, Andrew Cuomo, Sheinkopf said, “I have total respect for his political skills, but this ain’t over yet.”
He is also proud of having good relationships with reporters — hardly anyone does a better job of returning phone calls — but, he says, it is not because he has jockeyed for that position.
“I never sought out an interview in my life,” he said.
Still, he is occasionally cagey about answering a tough question. For instance, has he ever voted against a client?
“I’d never say that in public,” he responded.
Politics, he said, is about combat, and his job, as he described it, sounds something like being a hired gun.
He also thinks of himself as a friend to the outsider, someone whose progressive politics and blue-collar background underscore his relationships with minorities of all stripes. At least one reporter, Maggie Haberman, chides him for consistently showing up for press conferences featuring women, gay activists or African-Americans.
“I’m pretty consistent about it. I’ve never been an insider,” he said.
He may not be an insider, but he has met his share.
“A guy like me, sitting with kings and chancellors and presidents and City Council speakers and comptrollers and public advocates and mayors. It’s been a great run,” he said.
He and his wife live on the Upper East Side with their two children, who are his “obsession,” he says, 12-year-old Isaac and 9-year-old Sarah.
When he retires from consulting, which, he suggests, is possible after winning his so-called trifecta, he wants to finish his doctorate in political science, keep teaching and do some writing.
In the meantime, he has candidates to consult. “I like to think that every once in a while,” he said, “you get to help good people, who are going to do good things.”