On/Off the Record Breakfast: Kevin Sheekey
Bloomberg's Political Strategist Steps Forward
October 15th, 2007
As the chief strategist behind Michael Bloomberg’s two campaigns for mayor and, before that, as the chief of staff for Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Deputy mayor Kevin Sheekey has become well-versed in working behind the scenes in politics. But as the featured speaker at the fourth City Hall On/Off the Record Breakfast, held Sept. 20 at the Commerce Bank flagship location on 42nd Street and Madison Avenue, Sheekey stepped forward for an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with City Hall editor Edward-Isaac Dovere.
An invite-only crowd heard Sheekey discuss how government in Albany and New York compares to government in Washington, how term limits have helped Bloomberg govern and, of course, his thoughts on the potential for a Bloomberg presidential run. These and several other topics came up during the off-the-record portion, available only to those in the room.
Some excerpts from the on the record portion of Sheekey’s interview:
Q: So though a lot of people know who you are and are familiar with the work you have done on the mayor’s campaigns, they may not know exactly what your responsibilities as deputy mayor of governmental affairs are. So what is it, day to day that you have to get done, to make sure that your job is being fulfilled?
A: We have an office here in New York City that deals with the City Council, we have an office in Washington that deals with the federal government. ... And New York City is interesting in that way, it’s really important. We have a $60-billion dollar budget but about $40 billion of that is what we call ‘non-controllable.’ … Those rules are set in Albany, or in Washington. And so it’s our job to make sure that we can lobby those people involved so we can make sure that services are delivered in the way that we want them to do in the context of what we can afford.
Q: Your experience in government before coming to New York to work for Michael Bloomberg was in Washington. How have you found that Washington compares to the city and state government?
A: I don’t actually believe that we have Democratic government, on the Council and in Albany. And that works for a lot of people. It works for City Hall in a lot of cases, so there’s a reason for it. But things as simple as they did in the Watergate reforms in the ’70s, where you have direct election of chairmen. I mean you actually had members who had real power who were elected through the body or were elected through seniority. You know in the Council we went through this whole big debate about whether the Council should get a pay raise or not, which in a sense is totally bull---- because the truth is the Council does lulus. And the Council could do a lulu, they could put aside $20,000 lulus for everyone. Why not? Listen, it’s nice when you have a speaker whom I respect and I look at as a partner like Christine Quinn, who’s doing good government and trying to move things forward. But if you step back and actually look at the structure, you know you have a speaker who really dominates the body, and that is not good for the democratic institution underneath it.
Q: Do you agree with Mayor Bloomberg that term limits are good for government?
A: I think the mayor certainly thinks it’s a good idea, that it’s important to bring fresh blood in. I think the best thing about Mike Bloomberg is not necessarily that he succeeded in business, it’s not necessarily that he had ideas that made better sense than anyone else for government. It’s not necessarily that he was smarter than the other candidates, though I would believe that all three of those things were true. The best thing about Mike Bloomberg is that he came in and fundamentally could work with everyone.
No one else could have gotten control of the schools. I guarantee if Mark Green came into office he would not have gotten control of the schools. Because someone of the three or four or five principle players who decide how that would be set up would say ‘you know what I don’t like Mark. And I’m not gonna give him control.’ Right? Everyone knew that the schools were f----d up and that it wasn’t working. They wanted to give control to anyone else. And when a fresh face comes in, it allows them to do that.
Q: How do the mayor’s private comments to you compare to the public comments he has made about running for president?
A: Listen, it’s not my job to show up at Commerce Bank on 42nd street and talk about my private comments with the mayor. I will say, I think you know, you get back to the idea of bringing in someone new. There is no question, it doesn’t have to be Mike Bloomberg, there is no question we are at a crossroads in an America where they need to bring in someone new to get the political parties working together.
Q: The idea of Mike Bloomberg running for president is one you floated first, right after he won re-election.
A: Well, I’ll take it one step further, I do think that he’s the only person that is out there that can do it. I mean the truth is, I think he is the ideal, if not the only, choice for a credible third party candidate.
Q: Potential candidates are always very careful not to say flatly “no, I’m not running,” just in case they decide to enter the race. If something happens and the mayor changes his mind, are you worried that all of these denials that he’s made might be a problem?
A: Hey listen, I talked about that the other day. Barack Obama wasn’t running for president. “I’m not running,” he said over and over, right? Then Barack Obama went on Meet the Press. Tim Russert said “Are you running for President?” Barack Obama said “I’m running for President.” Tim said “What changed?” he said, “I changed my mind. Okay. Now let’s talk about health care.”
The thing about running for president is it makes sense if it makes sense. If there’s a reason for you to run, and there’s a constituency that’s calling for you, and you have real ideas, then people will support you. And if not, they won’t. I have not heard anyone in six months run around talking about Barack Obama saying, “He swore he wasn’t going to run.” ’Cause no one cares. They care about what he’s going to do for the country.
Q: So let’s say there were a Bloomberg White House. You always talk about how you want to get out of government. If there were a Bloomberg White House, what position would you ask for?
A: I figure Ambassador to Ireland would be pretty good.
Q: Would you ever think of running for office yourself?
A: Yeah, but for what? I’m gonna run for Gale Brewer’s job?
Q: Well, the mayor once said maybe you should run for president.
A: I like that. Do you think I could run for office? Do you have any idea what they pay Councilmen? I mean, no way. Hell, no.
An invite-only crowd heard Sheekey discuss how government in Albany and New York compares to government in Washington, how term limits have helped Bloomberg govern and, of course, his thoughts on the potential for a Bloomberg presidential run. These and several other topics came up during the off-the-record portion, available only to those in the room.
Some excerpts from the on the record portion of Sheekey’s interview:
Q: So though a lot of people know who you are and are familiar with the work you have done on the mayor’s campaigns, they may not know exactly what your responsibilities as deputy mayor of governmental affairs are. So what is it, day to day that you have to get done, to make sure that your job is being fulfilled?
A: We have an office here in New York City that deals with the City Council, we have an office in Washington that deals with the federal government. ... And New York City is interesting in that way, it’s really important. We have a $60-billion dollar budget but about $40 billion of that is what we call ‘non-controllable.’ … Those rules are set in Albany, or in Washington. And so it’s our job to make sure that we can lobby those people involved so we can make sure that services are delivered in the way that we want them to do in the context of what we can afford.
Q: Your experience in government before coming to New York to work for Michael Bloomberg was in Washington. How have you found that Washington compares to the city and state government?
A: I don’t actually believe that we have Democratic government, on the Council and in Albany. And that works for a lot of people. It works for City Hall in a lot of cases, so there’s a reason for it. But things as simple as they did in the Watergate reforms in the ’70s, where you have direct election of chairmen. I mean you actually had members who had real power who were elected through the body or were elected through seniority. You know in the Council we went through this whole big debate about whether the Council should get a pay raise or not, which in a sense is totally bull---- because the truth is the Council does lulus. And the Council could do a lulu, they could put aside $20,000 lulus for everyone. Why not? Listen, it’s nice when you have a speaker whom I respect and I look at as a partner like Christine Quinn, who’s doing good government and trying to move things forward. But if you step back and actually look at the structure, you know you have a speaker who really dominates the body, and that is not good for the democratic institution underneath it.
Q: Do you agree with Mayor Bloomberg that term limits are good for government?
A: I think the mayor certainly thinks it’s a good idea, that it’s important to bring fresh blood in. I think the best thing about Mike Bloomberg is not necessarily that he succeeded in business, it’s not necessarily that he had ideas that made better sense than anyone else for government. It’s not necessarily that he was smarter than the other candidates, though I would believe that all three of those things were true. The best thing about Mike Bloomberg is that he came in and fundamentally could work with everyone.
No one else could have gotten control of the schools. I guarantee if Mark Green came into office he would not have gotten control of the schools. Because someone of the three or four or five principle players who decide how that would be set up would say ‘you know what I don’t like Mark. And I’m not gonna give him control.’ Right? Everyone knew that the schools were f----d up and that it wasn’t working. They wanted to give control to anyone else. And when a fresh face comes in, it allows them to do that.
Q: How do the mayor’s private comments to you compare to the public comments he has made about running for president?
A: Listen, it’s not my job to show up at Commerce Bank on 42nd street and talk about my private comments with the mayor. I will say, I think you know, you get back to the idea of bringing in someone new. There is no question, it doesn’t have to be Mike Bloomberg, there is no question we are at a crossroads in an America where they need to bring in someone new to get the political parties working together.
Q: The idea of Mike Bloomberg running for president is one you floated first, right after he won re-election.
A: Well, I’ll take it one step further, I do think that he’s the only person that is out there that can do it. I mean the truth is, I think he is the ideal, if not the only, choice for a credible third party candidate.
Q: Potential candidates are always very careful not to say flatly “no, I’m not running,” just in case they decide to enter the race. If something happens and the mayor changes his mind, are you worried that all of these denials that he’s made might be a problem?
A: Hey listen, I talked about that the other day. Barack Obama wasn’t running for president. “I’m not running,” he said over and over, right? Then Barack Obama went on Meet the Press. Tim Russert said “Are you running for President?” Barack Obama said “I’m running for President.” Tim said “What changed?” he said, “I changed my mind. Okay. Now let’s talk about health care.”
The thing about running for president is it makes sense if it makes sense. If there’s a reason for you to run, and there’s a constituency that’s calling for you, and you have real ideas, then people will support you. And if not, they won’t. I have not heard anyone in six months run around talking about Barack Obama saying, “He swore he wasn’t going to run.” ’Cause no one cares. They care about what he’s going to do for the country.
Q: So let’s say there were a Bloomberg White House. You always talk about how you want to get out of government. If there were a Bloomberg White House, what position would you ask for?
A: I figure Ambassador to Ireland would be pretty good.
Q: Would you ever think of running for office yourself?
A: Yeah, but for what? I’m gonna run for Gale Brewer’s job?
Q: Well, the mayor once said maybe you should run for president.
A: I like that. Do you think I could run for office? Do you have any idea what they pay Councilmen? I mean, no way. Hell, no.
