George Arzt

 

Here's a clip from this morning's panel at the New School about Eliot Spitzer's political prospects for the rest of his first term.

In the clip, consultant George Arzt shares a not-so-public moment from a V.I.P. reception at a fund-raiser for Denny Farrell.

This morning, the New School hosted a panel discussion on whether Eliot Spitzer can regain his political capital. (The answer is already looking quite different in light of yesterday's special election.)

Some highlights:

Panelist Wayne Barrett of the Village Voice said "hallelujah!" about yesterday's results and said Democrats should be given a chance to control the entirety of state government.  read more »

Last night at David Weprin’s fund-raiser for his city comptroller campaign, I learned that the City Councilman’s long-time chief of staff, Jack Rubin Friedman, is leaving in January to become the head of the Queens Chamber of Commerce. One attendee told me that Rubin might run for Weprin’s seat in 2009. (Rubin was standing nearby and interjected that it’s only a possibility at this point.)

The event at the Woolworth Kitchen and Towers drew a number of notable attendees: Dan Gardonick, Eric Gioia, Dave Pollak, Hank Sheinkopf, Domenic Recchia, Diane Savino and George Arzt.

Press-shy top aides to Christine Quinn, Ramone Martinez and Chuck Meara, were also there, and probably weren’t thrilled when Weprin announced their presence over the microphone.

Tonight's "Party in the Garden" at the home of Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney might be about more than raising money for Democrats and for her congressional reelection. According to one close Maloney supporter I spoke to, tonight also serves to build her election war-chest for a 2010 Senate run if Hillary Clinton wins the presidential election.

Asked directly about the possibility that funds raised tonight are at all connected with the prospect of a Senate campaign, Maloney's office was dismissive.

"New Yorkers already have two great U.S. senators who, working with the rest of our congressional delegation, are providing strong and effective representation for the Empire State on Capitol Hill," Maloney said in a statement read to me by consultant George Arzt.

"The funds that I am now raising will be devoted to preserving and enhancing the Democratic majority in the house as well as my own reelection to Congress."

But Conrad Foa, a supporter who said he will be attending the party, seemed open to the idea that the money could be used for another possibility.

"That door is there for her to knock on," he said. "Maybe she stands first in line or very close to first in line to that door, but I feel that she has an unerring political sense to do what's best for her constituency. The question is what does she perceive her constituency will be, and I think she'll at least have the funds to do what's best."

Either way, tonight's event -- which will be held at her 92nd street home -- will only be the latest event to invite chatter about Maloney eyeing the Senate seat, according to one Democratic operative.

"There has apparently been fund-raising events the congresswoman has held so far where she has been introduced as 'the next U.S. senator from the state of New York'," the operative said, adding that whether or not the funds will be set aside for her own run, "what she would be able to do is use that money to raise her profile nationally."

Assemblyman Jonathan Bing, who will be attending the party tonight, told me he did not know how the funds would be spent. But he did say that he'd like to see Maloney in the upper Capitol chamber.

 read more »

After years in which one architect--Costas Kondylis--has dominated the 13-block-long Riverside South development, the new kid in town, Gary Barnett (Extell Development), has commissioned the Pritzker Prize-winning French architect Christian de Portzamparc to design the next three buildings, according to George Arzt, a spokesman for the developer.

Monsieur de Portzamparc's Web site says the program consists of three buildings with 3.2 million square feet of office, hotel and residential space between 59th Street and 61st Street. Well, that's the proposal. Mr. Arzt says a rezoning proposal will go to the Department of City Planning in a few weeks--and it doesn't sound like it will be the easiest rezoning.

According to figures from the Coalition for a Livable West Side, that amount would represent about 35 percent more built space than that envisioned under the original Riverside South master plan.

- Matthew Schuerman

Predictions this morning from George Arzt, former Post-man, current friend of Spitzer:

"I think Hevesi wins. I think that Spitzer wins overwhelmingly, giving the Working Family Party the 50,000 they need to stay on the ballot. I dunno if they move up from the "F" line*. Kirsten Gillibrand will upset Sweeney. I think Reynolds will eke out a win in Buffalo. Sue Kelly will win. Fossella will win. Walsh will lose."

The Senate for Democrats, he said, "is a real toss-up."

* The Working Families Party is currently on Row E.

-- Choire Sicha

Citizens Union's Dick Dadey emailed over revenue numbers for the top New York political consulting and lobbying firms for the past five years that give a strong sense of how political consultants' main product line is increasingly...lobbying. It's not a new trend, but it's a worrying one for good-government groups, as the question of whether influence is being peddled depends largely on the consultants' personal integrity. In the worst case, the political work is basically a loss leader for the core lobbying business.

Revenue for lobbying has increased more rapidly then revenue for campaign consulting since 2001. Although there is fluctuation in some years--the number and intensity of contracts clearly affects this--the general revenue trend for lobbying is up.

In the top five earners, as revenue for each firm increases, the share derived from campaign consulting has become smaller. Overall, only three of the top ten firms make more than 30% of their revenue from campaign consulting. While those three are in the top five in overall revenue, numbers show a trend towards lobbying. In first and second place for overall revenue, respectively, are the two firms who increased lobbying revenue the most over five years, the Parkside Group by 98%, and Kasirer Consulting by 93%.

Since 2001, the top ten consulting/lobbying shops in total revenue (with the share of revenue from lobbying in parentheses):

1. The Parkside Group: $7,585,897 (70%) 2. Kasirer Consulting: $6,541,569 (89%) 3. Mirram Global: $5,275,157 (30%) 4. Hank Sheinkopf: $4,725,904 (11%) 5. The Advance Group: $2,773,644 (10%) 6. Constantinople Consulting: $2,343,968 (95%) 7. George Arzt: $1,784,163 (94%) 8. Wiscovitch Associates: $680,860 (79%) 9. Pryor, Cashman, Sherman & Flynn: $391,476 (79%) 10. Schnur Associates: $209,950 (70%)

—Nicole Brydson UPDATE: As a bunch of readers noted, we could have been clearer about the sources and limits of this data. This is a list of consultants who work on city races and lobby city officials. The sources, Dadey emails, are the New York City Campaign Finance Board and the City Clerk's lobbying search database. So other sources of revenue, and other lobbying contracts, aren't included.

Fernando Ferrer sought to turn the contest for New York City Mayor into a brawl last weekend.  read more »

With a who’s who in New York politics endorsing her and what’s left of the city’s  read more »

With a who’s who in New York politics endorsing her and what’s left of the city’s Democratic m  read more »

There should be some prize for political consultant ubiquity.

And if there were, one reader notes, PR man and former Koch spokesman George Arzt would have picked it up on Saturday, when he was quote twice on the same page of the Metro Section.  read more »

He gets extra credit, of course, for putting two opposing spins on the same topic, political money, in his two quotes:

On the Mayor's race: "The Democrats obviously need money to at least be competitive with Bloomberg - this is not a terribly good showing," said George Arzt, a Democratic political consultant. "They'll need to pick up very soon. It's very difficult to raise money against a mayor who many think is going to win.'" On the Manhattan District Attorney's race: "Does it matter that she has raised more money?" asked George Arzt, a spokesman for Mr. Morgenthau's campaign. "Not really. It doesn't matter because Bob Morgenthau is so well known and his record is well known. And, the truth of the matter is that a lot of her money comes from her law firm."

A year ago, Alan Hevesi's career was over.  read more »