Geraldine Ferraro

Tim Kaine’s stock as a potential running-mate for Barack Obama has dropped markedly in the last day, with the news that Mark Warner, Kaine’s predecessor as Virginia’s governor, will be the keynote speaker at the convention in Denver.

The thinking, widely repeated in the media yesterday and this morning, is that Warner’s selection effectively excludes Kaine from the V.P. hunt since the Obama campaign wouldn’t want two Virginians occupying the featured speaking roles on two consecutive convention nights. As Keith Olbermann put it on his MSNBC show last night:

Warner's rising star might actually dim the VP chances for Virginia's current governor, Tim Kaine on this simple theory.

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Leonore Blitz, a bundler for Barack Obama and an advocate for women in politics, called to say she is picking up on what she considers a disturbing vibe among Democratic women in the New York business community: supporters of Hillary Clinton are considering voting for John McCain over Obama.

"I've been sensing an undercurrent in New York and then the Ferraro thing just set it off for me," said Blitz, referring to remarks Geraldine Ferraro made in Monday's New York Times.  read more »

Geraldine Ferraro, who severed her formal ties with the Hillary Clinton campaign after saying Barack Obama wouldn’t be where he is if he wasn’t black, is still a sought-after political draw in some circles.

Ferraro will be a featured guest at Carolyn Maloney’s May 12 fund-raiser at the Princeton Club.

Names on the host committee include John Catsimatidis, a likely Republican mayoral candidate, and Chung Seto, a former executive director of the state Democratic Party (who, famously, raised money for Hillary Clinton.)

The invite, passed on to me by a reader, is here:  read more »

Addressing incendiary remarks by his former pastor, Barack Obama gave a major address on race in America today in which he refused to disown the reverend, and instead used him as a springboard to make one of the most nuanced speeches about race in any American election.

The speech addressed a matter that may have represented the most grave threat yet to his appeal, but it was also a tacit rebuke of Hillary Clinton's criticism that he represented "just talk." Honest talk, in terms of race, Obama seemed to suggest, was just what was necessary to move the country forward.

In the speech, given at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Obama rejected the divisive comments of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, but also acknowledged and challenged the black community's notion of an immutable institutional racism in America. But somewhat counterintuitively, Obama embraced Wright as an example of the America tinged by years of racial division, but which he argued could be healed. Referring to his own unusual biography – the son of a white Kansas woman and black African man – he called on white Americans to recognize the plight of black Americans as a step towards the goal of working toward a national racial unity.  read more »

In the wake of comments she made about Barack Obama that have drawn criticism from both his campaign and the press (and then  read more »

When Walter Mondale plucked Geraldine Ferraro from her Queens Congressional district and placed her on the Democratic ticket in 1984, it was hailed as a fundamentally transformative occasion: From that moment on, women seeking national office would be the norm.

It hasn’t quite work out that way.

In the 24 years since, all of the presidential and vice-presidential nominee from the two major parties have been men, and it wasn’t until 2000—16 years after Ferraro’s selection—that a woman, Republican Elizabeth Dole, sought the nomination of a major party. Another woman, Carol Moseley-Braun, campaigned for the 2004 Democratic nomination, but built no discernible organization, raised little money and generated scant interest.  read more »

A wide-ranging list of political figures met today with Eliot Spitzer at a closed-door luncheon on Lexington Avenue, organized by the Brennan Center, to discuss his efforts to overhaul the state’s campaign finance laws.

It‘s something Spitzer has been advocating since he unilaterally disarmed by agreeing to a self-imposed contribution limit of $10,000, far below the current legal limit which is more than $50,000.

Spitzer said he and his supporters were “building a universe of citizens who care about ensuring the integrity of our process.” The state’s current campaign contribution limits are “extraordinarily high and bread an air of disrespect for substantive decisions that are made in Albany.”

Engaging the public is a key part of reform plan. “Very often what you hear from those who oppose campaign finance reform is, ‘well, the public doesn’t care,’” Spitzer said. “I think they are wrong. We will prove the public does care.”

Attendees at the event include:

Larry Rockefeller, a Republican,
Geraldine Ferraro, Larry Mone, Frederick Schwarz and Hendrik Hertzberg. Also:  read more »

Hillary Clinton's supporters have said that her fund-raising strategy in the second quarter, by contrast with the glitzy big-name events that followed the campaign’ launch, will feature a greater number of smaller-dollar and smaller-crowd events.

Yesterday in Los Angeles, she held a rare single-constituency fund-raiser – it was exclusively for women -- at the Bel Air home of Bren Simon, the wife of shopping center mogul Mel Simon.

According to Yashar Hedayat, a key West Coast fund-raiser for Clinton, about 200 women showed up on Sunday for an event that took in what he called a "mid-six-figures" haul.  Elected officials at the $1,000 minimum event – menu: mini-cheeseburgers -- included Wendy Greuel, the President Pro Tempore of the Los Angeles City Council and Judy Chu, an elected representative on the Board of Equalization, a tax collecting body. The audience also included Ilene Chaiken, the creator and producer or Showtime's Lesbian drama "the L Word," Wolfgang Puck's ex-wife and business partner Barbara Lazaroff and Cheryl Saban, the wife of major Clinton donor Haim Saban.

In her speech, Clinton emphasized her health care plan, and fondly remembered bringing her daughter Chelsea to political events for Geraldine Ferraro, according to Hedayat, who said he was one of the few men in attendance. Clinton then referred to this election as the most historically significant since Ferraro ran for Vice President in 1984. 

Clinton will be doing another low-cost event in Los Angeles on May 30 for young professionals. Cost of admission: $250.    

Geraldine Ferraro doesn't want you to believe the hype that Hillary Clinton doesn't need your money. In an email to Hillary supporters, Ferraro included this post script:

P.S. Don't believe it when you read that Hillary doesn't need your contribution -- trust me, she does. This is going to be a hard race fought on all sides, and every dollar matters. With so many big states moving their primaries up, we need to show now that Hillary can go all the way to the White House.

Letter is after the jump.  read more »

-- Azi Paybarah

Geraldine Ferraro doesn't want you to believe the hype that Hillary Clinton doesn't need your money. In an email to Hillary supporters, Ferraro included this post script:

P.S. Don't believe it when you read that Hillary doesn't need your contribution -- trust me, she does. This is going to be a hard race fought on all sides, and every dollar matters. With so many big states moving their primaries up, we need to show now that Hillary can go all the way to the White House.

-- Azi Paybarah

I caught up this morning with former Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, who was breakfasting at the Regency Hotel this morning with City Council Melinda Katz, and who briefly dropped in on John Edwards' fund-raising event in another room.

Ferraro, who said she has received the same kind of treatment Elizabeth Edwards is now going to have, told the former Senator that he had reason to be optimistic.

"The research has been phenomenal in the last four years. And so, I got the benefit of it. She's going to get the benefit of it," Ferraro told me and another reporter in the lobby of the Regency before meeting Edwards.

Of the medication, Ferraro said, "It is totally, it's almost like benign. You have no side effects of it."

Edwards himself is still keeping a low profile. As far as I know -- the Daily News and a CNN crew were the only ones still hanging around the hotel when I left - he isn't talking to the press.

-- Azi Paybarah

For those who are interested, Geraldine Ferraro was kind enough to fill us in this morning's "Women for Andrew Cuomo" breakfast at the Sheraton.

She said it was "amazing to see the number of women who were there," and said that Christine Quinn gave a "dynamite, impassioned" speech on abortion rights.

She also said she was willing to get up early this morning because of the special connection she has to the Cuomo family.

"I've known his family and him since he was a little boy. Matilda Cuomo and I used to sit in a dancing school on Parsons Boulevard watching our daughters."

Fine.

Asked about Mr. Cuomo's actual qualifications for the job he's seeking, she cited his "managerial experience," from HUD, and said that it was no big deal that Mr. Cuomo hasn't practiced law for some time now. Oh, and she took at a shot at her old friend Mark Green.

"I became a lawyer in 1960 and got married two years after and didn't practice until 1974. The law is not something you are going to forget," she said noting that within two years of entering the DA's office she was made bureau chief. In two years I was a bureau chief. Remember at HUD he supervised 350 lawyers. Mark Green hasn't practiced law at all."

—Jason Horowitz UPDATE The Green campaign writes in with a response.

"We think Geraldine Ferraro is far too classy to be used as a campaign attack surrogate, but we'll be glad to march Mark's experience running a consumer law enforcement agency suing hundreds of businesses for fraud, with Andrew's housing efforts. One has a history that fits an Attorney General, the other a history that fits a housing czar. And speaking of the law, why won't Gerry's candidate disclose his clients, taxes and investments, as Richard Brodsky and then Mark Green did?"

Over at the Daily News, Ben Smith reports that Eliot Spitzer believes he has made peace with Wall Street; and Andrew Cuomo gets the nod from Geraldine Ferraro.

The Times reports on the Mayor's budget.

Newsday reports that MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow may have spent more time custom building a Ferrari then on contract negotiations with the TWU.

And the Sun reports on Rudy Giuliani's boost from Bush.

—Nicole Brydson

When erstwhile Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferrarodecided to build a swimming pool on the  read more »

"I'm going to ask you to close your eyes," says Kim Gandy, executive vice president of the National  read more »

A collector of both political and New York trivia, I used to bore my wife by pointing out, whenever  read more »

Geraldine Ferraro, fresh off a puddle-jumper just in from Albany, looked around the lobby of Prior A  read more »

"You can't cold-cock Geraldine Ferraro," mused a Democratic insider with a touch of the pragmatist,  read more »