AP blogs on New York politics

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - With the political season heating up, reporters around New York are writing periodic blogs about the many national political figures they encounter on a regular basis — Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rudy Giuliani and George Pataki to name a few.

With the political season heating up, reporters around New York are writing periodic blogs about the many national political figures they encounter on a regular basis — Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rudy Giuliani and George Pataki to name a few.
___

TUESDAY, Sept. 19

NEW YORK — If you're a celebrity politician with eyes on a possible 2008 presidential bid, why not turn your birthday party into a fundraising opportunity?

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's 59th birthday is October 26, less than two weeks before she comes up for a second term. She and former President Clinton are inviting supporters to celebrate at a major fundraising dinner at Central Park's famed Tavern on the Green. Tickets are $1,000, or $2,100 for "preferred" seating.

Members of "Hillary's Birthday Committee" — supporters raising $10,000-$50,000 for the occasion — will get extra-special privileges, including premiere seating and a private host reception with the Clintons.

• Beth Fouhy

___

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 30

PENN YAN, N.Y. — Yeah, but would they have to chew tobacco and spit?

Making a campaign stop in New York's Finger Lakes region, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said there's no reason the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls couldn't be as big an attraction as the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Clinton, who is seeking a second term amid speculation she'll run for president in 2008, has been making a pitch for funds to expand the womens' hall.

The only first lady elected to the Senate, Clinton was enshrined in 2005 in the hall that sits in the upstate New York village where the first known women's rights convention was held in 1848. The hall, which opened in 1969, acclaims women who have made valuable contributions to society and to the progress and freedom of women.

"We could make that one of the biggest tourist attractions in the country," Clinton told a crowd of mostly women gathered at a gazebo here, about 30 miles south of the Women's Hall of Fame. "I love baseball — but there are more women than baseball players."

It's not the first time Clinton and baseball made an appearance together on the campaign trail. In 2000, critics accused her of switch-hitting, questioning how a Chicago native could ever be a Yankee fan.

• Marc Humbert

___

FRIDAY, Aug. 25

NEW YORK — Perhaps the most noteworthy outcome of this morning's meeting between Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Connecticut Democrat Ned Lamont was the disclosure that Clinton strategist Howard Wolfson would be joining the Lamont team as an adviser.

Wolfson's move demonstrates the confidence Clinton's team has in her own re-election. Chances are she wouldn't lend her senior strategist to another campaign if she were in any jeopardy.

More importantly, the move is a vivid public demonstration of Clinton's support for Lamont.

Wolfson is a seasoned Democratic operative and a partner in the Glover Park Group, a fast-growing consulting firm that handles numerous political clients. But he is best known in political circles for his connection to Clinton, beginning in 2000 when he served as communications director on her first Senate race.

Clinton, who is personally close to the man Lamont vanquished, Sen. Joe Lieberman, could easily have offered Lamont little more than a perfunctory endorsement after he won the Democratic primary. But for Clinton to lend her highest-profile strategist to the Lamont effort signals a much deeper commitment to Lamont's candidacy than many observers might have expected.

It also suggests the Clinton team is not worried about her chances against anti-war activist Jonathan Tasini in the Sept. 12 Democratic primary, and against her potential GOP challengers — former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer and Reagan-era Pentagon official "KT" McFarland — in the general election.

_Beth Fouhy

___

MONDAY, Aug. 21

NEW YORK (AP) — No, no, of course Mayor Bloomberg isn't seriously thinking about running for the White House, but he may still be fantasizing about making history as a third-party president.

When asked Monday what his trip this week to Ireland has to do with possible presidential ambitions, he dismissed any connection but then pointed out two notable presidents of Irish decent: John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.

"Both served admirably — one was a Democrat, one was a Republican," he said.

"To the best of my knowledge, we've never had an independent candidate who was Irish ... or, for that matter, not Irish," he added.

(For the record, Bloomberg is neither Irish nor a member of a third party. He is Republican and Jewish, of Eastern European descent).

As reporters' ears perked up, he abruptly abandoned the presidential history lesson and tried to get back on track about the real reason he's going to Ireland, to dedicate a memorial to the "Irish" division of the "Fighting 69th," the New York National Guard's 69th Infantry Regiment.

But a follow-up question reeled him back in — what about becoming the first Jewish president?

The mayor ducked.

"Somebody once said when Barry Goldwater was running: 'That figures, the first Jewish president would be an Episcopalian' — a very clever remark," he said. "I think I'm going to finish out my term as mayor and run a foundation, and hopefully — I guess the thing I'm looking forward to, it'd be nice to take one week off after eight years."

• By Sara Kugler

___

THURSDAY, Aug. 10

NEW YORK — Day 2 of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's first campaign tour in many months was overshadowed by the day's major story: the thwarted terrorist plot targeting U.S.-bound jetliners traveling from England.

At a breakfast on Staten Island Thursday morning, Clinton called the apparent plot "diabolical" and said it proved that Americans needed to remain vigilant in the war on terror.

Things remained a bit zany on the Republican side of the Senate race. The two candidate vying to challenge Clinton — former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer and former Reagan-era Pentagon official Kathleen Troia "K.T." McFarland — continued the bitter war of words that defined their only campaign debate Wednesday night.

The debate was remarkable mainly for its focus on Spencer's private life as mayor of Yonkers, when he fathered two children with his chief of staff while still married to another woman. McFarland said the unconventional arrangement proved he was professionally unethical, while Spencer accused McFarland of smearing his family and lying by unfairly characterizing the situation.

At a campaign stop in Rochester Thursday, Spencer was apparently still quite steamed. According to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Spencer said he would not debate McFarland again and said her performance Thursday night indicated she was "of questionable mental stability."

"I think she should go get some help," he added.

McFarland spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus-Dodds called Spencer's comments "gross and disgusting."

-Beth Fouhy

___

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 9

NEW YORK — With Sen. Joe Lieberman's defeat at the hands of an anti-war challenger clearly weighing on her mind, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton embarked on a busy day of public campaign appearances Wednesday after months of doing virtually none.

Clinton faces her own anti- Iraq war primary opponent, Jonathan Tasini.

Her first event, in a room full of 6-year-olds attending a Harlem YMCA summer program, seemed an incongruous place to look for votes but did provide a colorful background for the television cameras. The children serenaded the senator with "The Alligator Song" and she helped them color and paste noodles onto construction paper.

She was heading later to senior centers in Brooklyn and Queens.

Coincidentally, her two little-known prospective GOP challengers, KT McFarland and John Spencer, face off tonight in their only debate before the Sept. 12 primary.

Clinton spokeswoman Jennifer Hanley said the former first lady likely wouldn't be watching, since she'll be at Rep. Charlie Rangel's 76th birthday bash when the debate airs.

But, Hanley said, "We'll probably TiVo it."

-Beth Fouhy

___

FRIDAY, Aug. 4

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Strange doesn't begin to describe these political bedfellows.

On Friday, politically savvy visitors to Saratoga's famed race course had to be doing double takes when they looked in the clubhouse box used by the Republican State Committee.

Was that really Howard Wolfson, a top adviser to Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, sitting with Ryan Moses, the state GOP's executive director and key political ally to Gov. George Pataki? And, that couldn't have been state Democratic Party spokesman Blake Zeff with them, could it?

Wolfson, you might recall, consistently mocks Pataki's presidential ambitions. Moses once said Clinton "has failed miserably" as a senator. And Zeff, after Congressman John Sweeney showed up at an after-hours frat party, promised to send the Republican a copy of the film "Old School," in which a number of bored grown men form their own fraternity.

Not exactly the Three Amigos.

"I reached out to Blake and Howard to have a Tip O'Neill-Ronald Reagan day where you do business and then have some fun," Moses told The Associated Press as the unlikely trio headed for an afternoon in Saratoga Springs.

The late House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill Jr., a Boston Democrat, and Republican Reagan were famous for battling during the day and then getting together later for cocktails and the pleasure of each other's company.

"You can argue about politics and then you can go off and have a good time," Wolfson told the AP. "You can make friendships on the other side of the aisle. I think that's something that has gotten lost in Washington. Thankfully, it's still the case in New York."

"I'm just excited to get to go to the track," said Zeff.

• Marc Humbert