Chicago

The Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago, one of the few projects in recent memory that the Trump Organization has undertaken without partners, was done with traditional Trump bravado. When the condo and condo-hotel project tops out at 92 stories, it will be the tallest new building in the United States.

But oh! The timing! The building is nearing completion during what is possibly the worst market conditions in a decade, and according to today's Wall Street Journal, Trump may soon run into trouble with his creditors:  read more »

We all know one—that friend or relative who split New York City recently for the common cascade of reasons: high home prices, high rents, high living costs, high noise, high stress, or too much getting high or all of the above.

And when these people exit our five boroughs, they really exit: City Comptroller Bill Thompson’s office analyzed the Census Bureau’s recent American Community Survey and found that about two-thirds of the 190,150 people age 25 to 64 who left in 2005 moved not to the green suburbs to get just a daily break from the city grind, but outside of the metro area altogether.

Nearly a quarter of them split for the South, with 14.9 percent settling in Florida and 5 percent in Georgia, especially Atlanta. (And, no, the Florida settlers weren’t all ancient—far from it: over 90 percent were under 65.) Another 4.4 percent went to California. Only about 36 percent settled in New Jersey or elsewhere in New York state.

About 40 percent left big-city life altogether, opting out of the metro region as well as out of those large cities that traditionally compete with New York. L.A.? It claimed 2.6 percent of our people; Boston, even less at 2 percent. Wheezing Philadelphia (motto: Please Let Us Be Your Sixth Borough! We Got Rid of the Rocky Statue!)—claimed 3 percent; San Francisco and Chicago less than 2 percent. Atlanta led all cities with 4.5 percent. The rest of the percentages were dotted all over American exurbia.

In the end, of course, who went where depends on why. New Yorkers with younger children were more likely than childless people to leave the city, according to the comptroller, and those that left and stayed in the metro region—most of them still work in the city, trading the costs of living here for longer commutes.  read more »

CHICAGO—The field-operations office for Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign is cramped  read more »

Tina Balazs and Michael Ferreter   Met: December 2000 Engaged: Aug. 15, 2006  read more »

Tina Balazs and Michael Ferreter   Met: December 2000 Engaged: Aug. 15, 2006  read more »

Tina Balazs and Michael Ferreter   Met: December 2000 Engaged: Aug. 15, 2006  read more »

Five years ago, Martin Amis published a peculiar little book about Stalin called Koba the Dread: Lau  read more »

I heard a report that Sen. Barack Obama's position on Israel/Palestine is no different from the Democratic mainstream, that in fact he abandoned a more progressive view—which you might expect given his multicultural/international backstory—to get there.

I asked someone who would know, Ali Abunimah (of electronic intifada), who lives in Chicago. Abunimah wrote me back:

I used to know Obama when he was my state senator. I met him several times in different contexts, and he was often very progressive about Israel-Palestine. He attended fundraisers in the Palestinian community, one in which the keynote speaker was Edward Said. That's what really made me believe in him at first. But then it all went out the window when he started his climb up the greasy pole. I wrote about this a bit in the book [One Country, an argument for a binational state in all of former Palestine], and how disappointed I was to see him basically adopting AIPAC positions. I went to see his legislative staffer in DC a couple of weeks ago and left a signed copy of the book. I got an email, ostensibly from Obama (I am sure people write these things for him), thanking me. Basically the guy has calculated that pissing off the lobby is not the way to the top, so I will eat my shoe (like Tucker Carlson) if he ever says anything remotely useful about Palestine. He is a master triangulator.

Poppa's got a brand new bag!

I knocked around on the Federal Election Commission database (fec.gov) to understand Obama's tergiversation, looking at his 2004 Senate warchest of $14 million. The impression I got was that Obama had a ton of Jewish givers—as all winning Democrats do—but that they weren't hack givers, they were idealists. They hadn't given to lots of candidates other than Obama; many of the ones I looked at had given only to Obama.

The other pattern I noticed was that Obama givers had sometimes given to Hillary and Chuck Schumer. I got the impression that Hillary and Chuck had really pulled out the stops for Obama in '04, as representing the best of American idealism (who's cryin' now?). None of this is inconsistent with Abunimah's analysis above. It shows (as I said yesterday) that the Israel lobby is not based in a control room, or even Chuck Schumer's office. Concern for Israel pervades the liberal American Jewish success story. That community functions, in politics, as a monolith. And a gateway. At fundraisers at fancy apartments in N.Y.C., a congressional candidate will be asked, Where do you stand on the settlements in the West Bank?

The questioner doesn't need a script, he's feelin' it. The candidate needs to get a script in a hurry. But I'm an optimist; I think the Jewish grassroots are beginning to change.

“She killed it!” excitedly exclaimed a male audience member, filing out of the Loews theater on  read more »

You wouldn’t wish it on your worst enemy.  read more »

• Is there anything more fascinating than mutinous discontent among the biggest (and smallest) power brokers in Manhattan? Probably not. There's a petition going around protesting the new REBNY portal--which The Observer reported on earlier this month. Back then, REBNY's Fred Peters joked: "We're trying to negotiate toward the point of equal unhappiness." Indeed. [Curbed]
• Tragically, a 4,000-square-foot condo at Richard Meier's 176 Perry Street building is having lots of trouble selling. After lux price slashing, the place is down to a (modest?) $7.65 million. [D.I./NY Mag]
• Our friend Paolo Zampolli is getting some serious attention. And he deserves it: the man is inventing model real esate. ("Model" as in "extremely attractive" girls "who dress accordingly.") [The Australian, via Gawker]
• The fifth annual EPA National Awards for Smart Growth Achievement have been handed out to lucky cities like Witchita, Chicago and Winooski, Vt. And why not New York City? Because we're too busy paying attention to model real estate agents and price-slashed star condos and juicy REBNY gossip. [Arch News Now]
- Max Abelson  read more »
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For years, the city's congressional delegation repeated like Buddhist mantra the fact that New York sends more money to Washington than it gets back in federal aid.

Now, New York's congressional delegation is in the majority, and presumably, a flood of money will be heading to New York to right this wrong. Not so says Steven Malanga of City Journal.

"The city, in particular, already gets a huge premium from this spending. Several years ago I broke down federal spending on a host of social programs and found that the city received nearly four times the national per capita average of welfare expenditures, three times the average in Medicaid, and twice the average in subsidized housing spending. The city even received far more per capita than other major cities like Los Angeles and Chicago. "Consequently, there is no major pot of gold waiting for New York, only perhaps a few more scraps of pork sent our way. At most, an old Lefty like Rangel may be able to use his chairmanship to block GOP legislation, but that isn't the same as promoting an agenda that actually benefits New York. But after waiting so long to get back into power, the Charlie Rangels of the world no doubt need to beat their chests a little for effect."

-- Azi Paybarah

National Journal bumps up Tom Reynold's re-election race from the 17th most competitive to the 11th. Which is to say it's not good news for him.

Mike Bloomberg is going to fly to Chicago for Joe Lieberman.

The GOP candidate for Senate in Connecticut is talking tough about Joe Lieberman, which makes Ned Lamont happy.

The Brennan Center's blog asks, "Are you represented by a Senate Democrat or Assembly Republican? If so, the portion of your taxes that goes to run the Legislature is going into some other district's pocket."

The Colbert Report becomes 'Must Not Do TV.'

Andrew Cuomo gets an endorsement.

Jerry Skurnik looks at the primary election results, election district by election district.  read more »

And pictured above is the scariest mailing of the year.

-- Azi Paybarah

At the start of every new season, I say a silent prayer. It goes like this:  read more »

The invasion of Asian mega-restaurants, with their Raiders of the Lost Ark décor and fusion c  read more »

The invasion of Asian mega-restaurants, with their Raiders of the Lost Ark décor and fusion cuisine  read more »

"He's got to be the angriest man on the planet earth," said Roger Green, talking this afternoon about Charles Barron. "He must wake up in the morning and just start taking swings at anybody."

According to Green -- who placed third, after Barron, in a primary against incumbent Congressman Ed Towns -- he was prepared to drop out of the race before he saw Barron make comments about him on The Politicker.

"Had he not made that statement, Charles would probably have been elected a Congressman," said Green.

"There had been a resolution and it blew up," he continued. "It was done as done could be done. All I had to do was communicate with people that made commitments to my campaign. I told him that."

Green travelled out to Chicago the weekend before Labor Day to attend a convention for the Nation of Islam and met Muhammad Ali.

"I went out to Chicago and spoke to Muhammad Ali to secure an endorsement in addition to other things I'm working on and one of Ali's associates asked me if I would really drop out. I said I probably hadn't raised enough money to stay in the race. He asked if the councilman was a hot-head and I said yes, but maybe we need some heat in Congress to stir the pot. And he said, 'Well, is it stirring the pot or will he blow the pot over?' And I thought about that."

Green said that the conversation did not dissuade him from endorsing Barron, but after he returned and saw what the councilman said, it confirmed his fears.

"To hold public office, you have to diplomatic, you have to be willing to talk, you have hold your fire, you can't shoot at everything. You can't shoot at everything! Folks said to me it was a sign.

"Charles stomped on his own foot."

-- John Koblin

One of the first times Christine Quinn was ever mentioned in a newspaper, it was for promising to ta  read more »

Ten years ago, many critics (and at least a few sane people, too) thought that rock had breathed its  read more »

We first saw them one February, scampering around the kitchen, venturing shyly into the living room,  read more »

It looks like " Bloomberg 101" summer school classes are in session. In an editorial in today's LA Times Bloomberg and Chicago's Richard M. Daley give a pep talk to their favorite pupil, LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Here is a sample straight out of the syllabus.

The superintendent would be recast as a CEO, with clear authority over the business operations of the district, and would be empowered to cut the bureaucracy and shift those savings to the classroom, where they are needed most. And because the mayor would have a central role in the selection of the superintendent, parents would be able to hold him responsible for the success of the public school system.

Bloomberg, who coasted to re-election based partly on the claim of gaining control of the school system, seems to have been in a particularly magnanimous frame of mind when writing the piece, crediting his predecessors for their role in effectuating the takeover.

"In New York, the passage of mayoral control in 2002 was the culmination of the efforts of four consecutive mayors, from both political parties, spanning two decades. In that time, New York's mayors won a number of important interim steps toward accountability that prepared the Legislature -- along with labor unions and interest groups -- to take the final step."

--Jason Horowitz

The 23rd Annual National Night Out will be celebrated by NYPD precints throughout the city.

Andrew Cuomo hosts a campaign party at his headquarters.

A town hall meeting will be held at 7pm at the Church of Lady of Refuge in the Bronx to discuss how Chicago's recent decision to have big box retailers pay a living wage impacts efforts to keep New York free of Wal-Mart.

—Nicole Brydson

Alejandro Agresti’s The Lake House, from a screenplay by David Auburn, is based on a Korean fi  read more »

Last night Rudy Giuliani campaigned for David McSweeney, a candidate for congress in the competitive 8th district race in Illinois, at Mike Ditka's restaurant in Chicago.

According to an extremely grateful-sounding McSweeney, Giuliani brought down the house with remarks about national security and brought in about $65,000 for the campaign -- the most money the candidate has raised at any single event thus far.

Not coincidentally, McSweeney said that the first call he made after winning his primary this year was to...

Tony Carbonetti.

-- Jason Horowitz

Apparently, if you want Andrew Cuomo to do something, all you have to do is grab 1,000 friends and go talk to him. At home. Here's a random story from his time as HUD Secretary, based on an interview someone did with a Chicago community leader who had a run-in with Cuomo.

A useful lesson, as we head into the convention, about the Democratic frontrunner for attorney general.

They must be very, very, very dirty pictures.  read more »

AP's Marc Humbert got Steve Minarik to raise the carpet-bagger issue again, in a conversation about Hillary's plans to deliver a speech about job creation tonight in Chicago.

"She's quite at home there," Minarik said. "Do I need to say anything else? You can fill in all the rest, about how perhaps she can help create jobs in her hometown as opposed to here in New York state where she hasn't done anything."

Wolfson points out to Humbert, less interestingly, that lots of New Yorkers are from elsewhere. (Really?) Including William Weld. (Ah, there you go, Howard.)

Wait a minute. Weld is from New York. So maybe he was a carpet-bagger when he became governor of Massachusetts?

- Tom McGeveran

The Chicago Sun-times has blogged the transcript of Hillary's conversation with Bloomberg's Al Hunt.

Highlights:

A bit vague on China.

HUNT: Would you - if China refuses to revalue its currency in that context, would you take retaliatory measures against Beijing?

CLINTON: I would much prefer that we work together on this. [snip] They're growing dramatically. I want them to grow. I want them to have a very positive economic future, but I don't want us to be played for a sucker. That's my concern about this.

And a bit vague on taxes, and her husband:

CLINTON: You know, Al, I think we have to look at the whole package. You know, I obviously am an adherent to the Clinton economic policies. I believe in fiscal responsibility and I know there are some who come on your shows and say, that's outdated. We don't need it. I think that's a very dangerous position to take.

We need to figure out what is it we're trying to achieve and then we have to look to see on both the spending side and the taxing side how we get there.

HUNT: But that would involve a higher capital gains tax.

CLINTON: I don't know. I mean, I'm not going to ...

HUNT: If you roll back the Clinton - excuse me, the Bush ...

CLINTON: Well, if we went back to the Clinton policies it would. I'm not sure that that's exactly what we should do, but I think the combination of fiscal responsibility and economic growth proves to be very positive for our country.

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat in Chicago, with Emporis, released a survey of the ten tallest newcomers of 2005. Only one is in the United States: Cesar Pelli and Associates' Bloomberg Tower in Manhattan.

Architectural image is important to the identity of the city. It defines its character and, for New York, attracts the city's tourists. Yet America's tradition of building taller and bigger has been trumped by the rest of the world. Building tall is controversial here.

Nevertheless the beauty of these foreign towers are not in their size, but architectural shape and design--and that, too, can be controversial in New York as noplace else. Take a look here.

- Riva Froymovich

It’s a cold 43 degrees for the first day of spring, and more importantly, for the unofficial return of the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park.

The countdown clock on www.shakeshacknyc.com reads a little over 20 hours till they’ll fully open for business, and while today is supposed to be only a training day for the hard-working (and ever-cheerful) staff, a small crew writing into the Foodie web log Eater has figured out that the Shack is back, and now a short line of people have arrived to stand and shiver for the sake of salty Shack Burgers and fries.

We, too, had to jet down to get a look. New to the menu, along with some new wines, is the Second City Bird-Wurst, which is a “smoked chicken and apple wurst in Chicago clothing, dragged through the garden with lettuce, tomato, sport peppers, green peppers, pickles, onion, neon relish, cucmber, celery salt and mustard,” priced at $4.85.

The end result is a satisfying smoked-meaty concoction with fresh green-tasting toppings, which falls somewhere between hot dog and sandwich.

The crew is still clearly working out a few kinks but no one waiting seemed to mind the delay in getting some food. A man in his early thirties blew on his hands, and stuffed ketchup in his pockets while he waited. “Today’s a good day,” he said.

More pictures after the jump.  read more »

LAURIE: Just got back from Costa Rica. I didn't find a wedding dress but I did find the kind of atmosphere I want to promote at our wedding: the kind that allows a person to wear a bikini or a pair of swim trunks to the dinner table. In certain regions of the world, wearing a bathing suit to a meal is called "white trash." When you're doing it in a Central American surf destination town with monkeys in the trees, it's called "relaxed." We don't surf, and so were left alone by our small hotel's other occupants. The exception was a somewhat callow Israeli youth who, after a few minutes of conversation, bragged of having shirked his army duty to surf in Central America and Hawaii. He wore a small pot pipe on a leather cord around his neck, Gucci sunglasses and voluminous blue cotton pants. He was traveling with an effusive, competitive American girl who'd just moved to Costa Rica, from Chicago. His motto, he told us, was "fuck everybody, I'll do whatever I want." My grifter-detector hasn't seen much action since the old Grateful Dead concert tour days,

but I felt certain that this guy was going to steal all of this girl's stuff, including her adorable boxer, who drank tons of water from the hotel swimming pool. It was one of those scenes that makes me happy to be loping toward matrimony.  read more »

The Wall Street Journal's June Fletcher's piece in Feb. 21 editions tracks the development of ersatz loft buildings in places like Reston, Va.

Coming to a subdivision near you: the McLoft. Amid ranch houses and McMansions, developers are putting up buildings that look like they're out of downtown Manhattan or Chicago. Unlike urban lofts, which started out as last-resort housing for arty types, these condos can be some of the priciest housing in suburbia. Instead of stepping out into sidewalks where vendors peddle gyro sandwiches and counterfeit handbags, residents are just minutes from mountain-bike trails or the mall. And while city lofts are known for creaky freight elevators and exposed ventilation ducts, their country cousins come with floating faucets, bidets and designer kitchens.

Meanwhile, closer to home, The Daily News charts how old-school businesses on Court Street are struggling to remain alive in the face of increasing national-chain interest.

- Tom McGeveran

By 1966, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.  read more »

By 1966, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.  read more »

As Bernard-Henri Lévy strolled along the edge of a field in Michigan abutting Highway 94, a p  read more »

If you live in ZIP code 10021, the odds are that you don’t have diabetes, that no one in your  read more »

• The Duke estate signed a contract yesterday to sell the Duke Semans mansion at 82nd Street and Fifth Avenue, to Tamir Sapir, the real-estate collector who started out as a cabby 30 years ago. At $40 million, it's a townhouse record breaker, but it's still not the highest price for a residence in New York.(The New York Times)
• Due to the loss of manufacturing space in the Garment District, some proceeds from Heidi Klum's reality show, Project Runway, will support the Garment Industry Development Corporation (GIDC). Furthermore, the mayor apportioned $244,000 towards educating workers on new production techniques. All this to prevent the possible conversion of the work spaces to residential buildings that would fetch much more on the real estate market, but affect over 1500 workers. (City Limits)
• Henry Kravis invested $50 million for a mansion in Palm Beach that isn't quite on the beach. (Page Six)
• Heavy pockets may find it easier to find their "humble" home--as long as they don't mind the smell. (The New York Times)
• Wylie Dufresne of WD-50 faced off against Mario Batali on Iron Chef America last Sunday. The judges, including Vogue's Jeffrey Steingarten and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’s Ted Allen, found that Dufresne's originality wasn’t enough to beat out Batali’s taste. (The Village Voice)
• Filmmaker Chris Chambers wants to document a neighborhood in transition. He's looking for Cobble Hill residents to interview for his documentary--right before they can sell their quaint homes for a 90 percent profit. (Brownstoner)
• Harlem has yet to see its Marriott, causing other community projects to stall. (Crain's)
• Let's be clear. Staten Islanders are concerned about the traffic a NASCAR racetrack might cause--not the racetrack itself. (Staten Island Advance)
• If only tourists were this trendy. (via Gothamist)
• You worked so hard to find that perfect lamp that sits on your mahogany table with those flying buttresses, beside the antique wine rack. Show it off and win some swag. (Apartment Therapy)
• Queens residents hope to protect Waldheim, "one of the oldest estate subdivisions in the city," with a rezoning plan before developers can replace the century-old Victorian houses with multi-family buildings. (The New York Times)
• Five railroad cars crammed with cocoa beans overturned at a Brooklyn pier. An environmental threat is unlikely, according to investigators, but, oh, what a waste of chocolate. (Newsday)
• Fire scorched the Louis Sullivan-designed Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago, reducing the landmark to nothing. (Architecture Magazine)
• The State Supreme Court ruled that the city could boot merchants at The Bronx Terminal Market and lease the site to a private developer, which is, yes, Related Companies. There was no competition. (City Limits)
• Red-padded bars, Al Capone and Fendi--oh my! (The Village Voice)
• Historic Richmond Town in Staten Island--a mere 12 minutes from The Mall--will acquire a new Greek Revival-style cottage to join the museum of buildings. (NewYorkology)

- Riva Froymovich  read more »

Sarah Barack and Christopher Berend   Met: Fall 1998 Engaged: August 2005  read more »

The Media Mob continues to track the daily battle of the front pages:

The Post goes local and the Daily News goes national--and the split extends to the back covers, where the Post features the game-ending heroics of the New York football Giants and the News features the game-ending heroics of the Chicago baseball White Sox.

But Rupert Murdoch's minions are so busy pushing their boring and unwinnable so-called poker contest and their Giants promotional merchandise, there's no room for any news visuals beyond an itty-bitty NYPD patch. The News, meanwhile, has a nice big frowny-Bush photo.

And what about the verbs? Post: BRUTALIZED, SCRATCH, WIN, GET. News: BRACES, STUN, FLEE, PLAY, WIN. Winner: Daily News.  read more »

Overall standings: Daily News 2, New York Post 0

David Axelrod, the Chicago-based media consultant who worked for John Edwards, Ferrer in 2001, and Eliot Spitzer, may not return as Spitzer's adman next year.

The Politicker is told that Spitzer's campaign is now shopping around for a new media consultant, though they're also still talking to Axelrod as well.

No word on the reason for considering a change, though the departure of Axelrod from Freddy's campaign -- whose key players at 895 Broadway (!)overlap with Spitzer's -- might have something to do with it.

Axelrod tells The Politicker that others may be pitching Eliot, but that we shouldn't make too much of the rumor:  read more »

"I was with Eliot two weeks ago and we had a very good discussion," he said. "I think Eliot is a smart consumer and he's going to want the best deal he can get for this work, but every indication I have is positive."

There are few things more humiliating than crying in Chicago.  read more »

There are few things more humiliating than crying in Chicago.  read more »

The nice thing about building green in Battery Park City is that the Governor comes to cut your ribbon.

Not that you'd need the publicity.

When Pataki stopped by Tribeca Green early yesterday, "New York's Most Environmental Rental" had already leased 80 percent of its 274 units (starting at $2,500 for a 600-square-foot "junior one-bedroom"), and half were already occupied, according to brokers for the developer, The Related Companies.

Whether the filtered air, photovoltaic panels (capable of generating 5 percent of the building's energy), cogeneration and recycled storm water is responsible for the quick selling remains to be seen. But all this green gobbledygook, which is supposed to reduce energy consumption by 30 percent and earn the Robert A.M. Stern-designed edifice a gold LEED rating, ultimately is figuring into the rent. Construction costs were 18 percent higher than they would be otherwise, according to Related President Jeff Blau.

That's much higher than the typical green premium of 1 to 5 percent, by the way, but it hasn't stopped Related from embarking on green buildings in Chicago and Boston, which, unlike the Battery Park City Authority, don't require environmentally friendly measures.  read more »

- Matthew Schuerman

Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers, from his own screenplay, received the Grand Prix (second prize  read more »

Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers, from his own screenplay, received the Grand Prix (second prize afte  read more »

While Domino goes artsy, Conde Nast is pumping life into the shopper's forbear, House and Garden. From January to June, H&G's ad pages were down 0.6 percent compared to the same period in 2004, according to the Magazine Publishers of America. But last month, in a bid to ramp up advertising, H&G's advertising department concluded a series of focus groups with H&G subscribers in metropolitan areas across the country. According to H&G publisher Joseph Lagani, his magazine gathered 150 women in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, and San Francisco and surveyed their home decorating views in focus groups commissioned by Conde Nast. "I can't say it was only because there's more competition that we have to do more research now," he said. "I just think my basic approach, being a publisher, is that I want our sellers to be able to talk about our audience as no one else can."

Despite whispers that have fluttered through 4 Times Square that Domino might crowd out its home decor cousin, Mr. Lagani said Conde Nast's home decorating books are joining forces, not throwing elbows. Mr. Lagani said Conde Nast has formed an alliance called the Powerhouse Group with Domino publisher Beth Brenner and Architectural Digest publisher Amy Churgin to lure advertisers into all three titles in a concerted effort, coordinating sales and strategizing on accounts."We have three magazines, who each has a clear position in the market," Mr. Lagani said. "When you put that together, we have the opportunity to dominate the upscale home market like nobody else can do."  read more »

--Gabriel Sherman

At first, the case against David Rosen was little short of unreal: He was the target of a civil suit  read more »

We were beginning to calculate what Freddy could do with the $50,000-a-month the departures of Axelrod and Clanton will save him (maintain a quarter-share of a Gulfstream V; pay Kirk Kerkorian's child-support) when we learned that the details of the Axelrod contract mean the campaign may not be saving that much after all.

Traditionally, ad men like the Chicago-based Axelrod take a percentage of the total "buy," the amount paid to television stations to show the ads. Increasingly, however, that's seen as giving those admen -- who often double as strategic advisors -- an incentive to push candidates to spend too much money on TV. (See: Dean, Howard.) So campaigns are shifting toward a monthly fee, like Axelrod's $35,000, in lieu of a percentage.

That was the arrangement Axelrod had with Freddy for the Democratic primary. In a sense, those retainers -- by our count, Axelrod got something between $105,000 and $140,000 -- were prepayments on ads that never got cut.

But now, Freddy will have to hire a new TV guru. And it may be harder to offer a monthly retainer for just a couple of months of work. So he may wind up paying a percentage of the buy and, in effect, paying twice for the same ads. The extra costs may be marginal, but in what is increasingly looking like a close race, small things may matter.  read more »

Alternately, the prospect of uncapped general election largesse may keep those primary costs down. But with spending limited in the primary (the cap is $5,728,000), this kind of stuff can matter in a close race.