Krueger Challenger Boosted By Giuliani Circle
Closest and most controversial
supporters form core of Brown campaign
August 11th, 2008
In 2002, Liz Krueger arrived in Albany a Republican titan slayer. In the special election to replace longtime State Sen. Roy Goodman (R-Manhattan), she defeated a well-funded, well-connected associate of Rudy Giuliani and wrested the 26th State Senate district, which stretches from Gramercy Park to the Upper East Side, from Republican hands for the first time in 30 years.Her arrival in the Capitol sparked a range of reactions, positive and negative. But perhaps the greatest compliment came from then-Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.
“I spent seven million dollars against you,” she recalls him saying, “but you still got in.”
Six years and four elections later, Krueger is facing another aggressive, well-connected opponent, who has excited hopes among Republicans of recapturing what was once a reliably Republican district. He is also another candidate looking to benefit in the race from his Giuliani connections.
Tim Brown is a former firefighter who walked out of the North Tower of the World Trade Center just five minutes before it collapsed on Sept. 11. He is running as a “new-breed Republican” in what has become a strongly Democratic district, and hopes his eclectic biography—he has also tried his hand as an actor, in a recurring role on the HBO prison drama Oz —will reinvigorate a Republican brand that has grown stale in Manhattan.
He has fashioned himself a hawkish, socially moderate Republican in the Giuliani mold. But whatever strength Brown demonstrates in November may have less to do with being in the Giuliani mold than being flush with Giuliani advisers, supporters and campaign cash.
Brown’s campaign is being run almost entirely by former high-level aides to the former mayor, with whom he has had a close personal friendship since his days as a firefighter. Brown worked on Giuliani’s presidential campaign, and has built his own operation around a battery of key Giuliani associates, including senior policy advisor Bill Simon, and chief strategist Tony Carbonetti.
Carbonetti, Giuliani’s former chief of staff and one of his closest advisers, has provided Brown with strategic advice as well as access to the former mayor’s closely held network of donors and campaign advisers, according to sources close to the campaign. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because fundraising and strategy meetings were private, and they were not authorized to speak for the Brown campaign.
Carbonetti has arranged meetings between Brown and major donors to Republican and conservative causes, such as insurance mogul Hank Greenberg and venture capitalist Kenneth Langone. Greenberg and Langone were both major fund-raisers for Giuliani’s presidential campaign and have indicated plans to raise money for Brown as well.
The former mayor has apparently not been directly involved himself, nor had he given any money to Brown as of the July campaign finance disclosure.
But according to that disclosure, Brown’s biggest donor is wealthy investor Paul Singer, founding partner of Elliot Associates, one of the oldest and most successful hedge funds in New York. Singer has been a major backer of Republican and conservative causes over the years, providing hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican senators and presidential candidates, including President Bush.
Most recently, Singer was a major fund-raiser for Giuliani’s presidential campaign, contributing tens of thousands of dollars of his own fortune and bringing in major dollars from other donors as well.
Singer has come under fire in recent years for running what critics call a “vulture fund,” buying up discounted debt from Third World countries and pressing for full repayment. Many have accused Giuliani of using foreign aid marked for debt relief, routed to him through Singer, to fund his presidential campaign.
Brown has also received money from several partners at the former mayor’s consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, who worked for Giuliani when he was mayor or backed his presidential bid. One of those donors is the controversial priest and lifelong Giuliani friend Alan Placa, who gave just under $100 to Brown’s campaign.
In 2003, Placa was accused by a Suffolk County Grand Jury of repeatedly molesting young boys at his parish and systematically concealing allegations against colleagues. The statute of limitations had expired by the time of the report’s release, and Placa was never charged with a crime. He has been vigorously defended in the media by Giuliani.
Brown’s connections to prominent members of the Giuliani inner circle extend beyond New York, and include former California gubernatorial candidate and senior Giuliani policy adviser Bill Simon. Simon, who helped try to coordinate the fractious ideological threads running through Giuliani’s campaign, contributed $1,000 to Brown’s candidacy and has also been providing occasional strategic advice. Simon has cultivated a close working relationship with Giuliani since Sept. 11, when a breakfast with the then-mayor was interrupted by the attacks on the World Trade Center.
The core of Brown’s campaign operation is a small nucleus of paid campaign staffers—all three of whom have worked for Giuliani’s presidential campaign or mayoral administration—assisted by leaders of the State Senate Republican Campaign Committee (SRCC), three of whom were former Giuliani aides and have worked on Brown’s campaign.
This may explain why Brown, a political novice running in a district Republicans have been unable to make competitive since Krueger won her first race, received $50,000 from the SRCC, one of the highest amounts given to any Republican running for Senate.
Matt Mahoney, who was leading the SRCC, brought with him a philosophy that differed from the state party’s conventional strategy, according to party officials. He and two of his former SRCC colleagues, political director Matt Coleman and director of operations Phil Frattaroli, all came from the Giuliani presidential campaign. At the SRCC, they operated on the principle of supporting fledgling candidates, such as Brown, rather than cede their districts to Democrats.
That may change now that Coleman and Frattaroli have quit amid a shake-up that has reduced Mahoney’s role to fundraising. Officials in the New York City Republican Party have been told by representatives of the SRCC that past commitments made to State Senate candidates in the city, such as Brown, are currently under review and may change depending on decisions by the committee’s new leadership.
Whatever decision comes from the SRCC leadership about Brown, however, he already has the foundation to continue calling on some of the most influential advisers and fund-raisers in the often opaque Giuliani circle.
sgentile@cityhallnews.com
