Business groups in New York were seething.
They had been outgunned by their liberal opponents in the battle over the state’s $14 billion budget deficit. The new Democratic majority in the State Senate, with the help of organized labor, had succeeded in filling the gap largely with tax increases.
So on April 2, a day after the budget was passed, Gov. David Paterson’s chief aide, Larry Schwartz, counseled a gathering of the city's most powerful industry titans on how to reclaim their sway over New York politics, according to participants in the meeting. At a breakfast hosted by the Association for a Better New York, Schwartz told the moguls that they would have to transform themselves into an electoral force akin to the state's labor unions and their political apparatus, the Working Families Party, which had helped put the Democrats in the majority.
Little did Schwartz know that the process had already begun.
Several of those moguls and real estate titans have partnered quietly in recent weeks with the leaders of an obscure but influential third party, the Independence Party, to help elect candidates sympathetic to their agenda. And their most powerful patron, according to people with knowledge of the plans, is Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“We may be reaching out to a new party to see if it makes sense to work with them," said Steven Spinola, the president of the Real Estate Board of New York and one of the central architects of the plan. "So far, we're impressed."
The day before the April 2 meeting, Frank MacKay, the chair of the state Independence Party, met in Manhattan with representatives of a wide range of business and civic organizations, from REBNY to the Business Council of New York.
The agenda was simple: how to beat the Working Families Party and its constituent unions. “They are a lobby group that needs to have a counterbalance,” Spinola said.
In the months since that April meeting, some of the city's most powerful real estate moguls have funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars into the coffers of the Independence Party. The donors include Tishman Speyer and the Durst Organization, as well famed real estate moguls Leonard Litwin and Mary Ann Tighe.
The political action committee of the Rent Stabilization Association, a landlord group, has also contributed at least $15,000, according to records.
The plans begin with a quiet effort in this year's City Council elections, with a broader push to influence state legislative races next year. The leaders of the Independence Party have agreed to lend their ballot line to candidates REBNY and other industry leaders deem sufficiently pro-business. In New York's system of fusion voting, in which candidates can collect votes on multiple ballot lines, the Independence Party has often proved crucial (as in 2001, when Bloomberg's margin of victory came on the Independence line).
“I think that there are places where we can set up with certain people, several of them incumbents, who are being, for lack of a better term, accosted by the Working Families Party,” said Tom Connolly, the vice chair of the state Independence Party, which last year seized control over the ballot line from local leaders. “And I think there are opportunities for us to move on those.”
Connolly added that the party was being supported in that effort by business groups across the state. “There are all kinds of business groups, there are all kinds of civic organizations that are looking to help,” he said. “Some of them are real estate people, some of them are business people.”
Bloomberg has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the state Independence Party as well as a separate, local faction loyal to Fred Newman and Lenora Fulani, according to records. He will appear on the Independence line himself in the fall.
The mayor's aides have directed the leaders of the Independence Party to endorse several candidates for City Council, in some cases overriding the wishes of local party members, according to state Independence Party leaders and the candidates themselves.
“We put up recommendations, and a good chunk of them didn’t go through,” said Michael Zumbluskas, a member of the Independence Party’s executive committee who screened candidates in New York City. “Some of it, I know, is because the mayor wanted certain people.”
Zumbluskas added that, in races where Bloomberg did not have a preference, party leaders chose to target WFP-backed candidates. In most cases, the candidates who received the line are running against WFP- backed opponents.
“There is a little bit of a battle going on between us and the Working Families Party,” Zumbluskas said.
Tom Ognibene, a Republican candidate for City Council who is running against WFP-backed incumbent Elizabeth Crowley, was recruited into the race by Bloomberg in February. Ognibene confirmed that he would not have received the Independence Party’s ballot line without the mayor’s permission.
“If I wasn’t being supported by the mayor, if the mayor and I didn’t have a mutual agreement to support each other, I don’t think that the Independence Party would have given me the line,” he said. “Those on the inside understand that would not happen if the mayor didn’t consent it.”
The WFP and its constituent unions are apparently retaliating. Party leaders have discouraged several candidates during the screening process from pursuing the Independence Party ballot line, and have suggested that doing so would disqualify them from receiving WFP support. In at least one race—for the seat of Council Member Tony Avella in Queens—the WFP declined to endorse a candidate after the top three contenders in the Democratic primary all interviewed for the Independence line.
Dan Levitan, a spokesperson for the WFP, confirmed that the party discourages potential candidates from seeking the Independence Party’s support. He argued that the Independence Party’s connections to the real estate and business worlds would repel voters.
“If they want to help highlight which candidates are in the pocket of real estate developers and landlords, it will make the choice to vote against them that much easier for middle-class families on election day,” he said.
But after years of being marginalized and dismissed, the Independence Party is finally becoming a power broker, Ognibene said--with Bloomberg's help.
He added: “It was revived, kind of, by the mayor, I guess you’d say.”
They had been outgunned by their liberal opponents in the battle over the state’s $14 billion budget deficit. The new Democratic majority in the State Senate, with the help of organized labor, had succeeded in filling the gap largely with tax increases.
So on April 2, a day after the budget was passed, Gov. David Paterson’s chief aide, Larry Schwartz, counseled a gathering of the city's most powerful industry titans on how to reclaim their sway over New York politics, according to participants in the meeting. At a breakfast hosted by the Association for a Better New York, Schwartz told the moguls that they would have to transform themselves into an electoral force akin to the state's labor unions and their political apparatus, the Working Families Party, which had helped put the Democrats in the majority.
Little did Schwartz know that the process had already begun.
Several of those moguls and real estate titans have partnered quietly in recent weeks with the leaders of an obscure but influential third party, the Independence Party, to help elect candidates sympathetic to their agenda. And their most powerful patron, according to people with knowledge of the plans, is Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“We may be reaching out to a new party to see if it makes sense to work with them," said Steven Spinola, the president of the Real Estate Board of New York and one of the central architects of the plan. "So far, we're impressed."
The day before the April 2 meeting, Frank MacKay, the chair of the state Independence Party, met in Manhattan with representatives of a wide range of business and civic organizations, from REBNY to the Business Council of New York.
The agenda was simple: how to beat the Working Families Party and its constituent unions. “They are a lobby group that needs to have a counterbalance,” Spinola said.
In the months since that April meeting, some of the city's most powerful real estate moguls have funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars into the coffers of the Independence Party. The donors include Tishman Speyer and the Durst Organization, as well famed real estate moguls Leonard Litwin and Mary Ann Tighe.
The political action committee of the Rent Stabilization Association, a landlord group, has also contributed at least $15,000, according to records.
The plans begin with a quiet effort in this year's City Council elections, with a broader push to influence state legislative races next year. The leaders of the Independence Party have agreed to lend their ballot line to candidates REBNY and other industry leaders deem sufficiently pro-business. In New York's system of fusion voting, in which candidates can collect votes on multiple ballot lines, the Independence Party has often proved crucial (as in 2001, when Bloomberg's margin of victory came on the Independence line).
“I think that there are places where we can set up with certain people, several of them incumbents, who are being, for lack of a better term, accosted by the Working Families Party,” said Tom Connolly, the vice chair of the state Independence Party, which last year seized control over the ballot line from local leaders. “And I think there are opportunities for us to move on those.”
Connolly added that the party was being supported in that effort by business groups across the state. “There are all kinds of business groups, there are all kinds of civic organizations that are looking to help,” he said. “Some of them are real estate people, some of them are business people.”
Bloomberg has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the state Independence Party as well as a separate, local faction loyal to Fred Newman and Lenora Fulani, according to records. He will appear on the Independence line himself in the fall.
The mayor's aides have directed the leaders of the Independence Party to endorse several candidates for City Council, in some cases overriding the wishes of local party members, according to state Independence Party leaders and the candidates themselves.
“We put up recommendations, and a good chunk of them didn’t go through,” said Michael Zumbluskas, a member of the Independence Party’s executive committee who screened candidates in New York City. “Some of it, I know, is because the mayor wanted certain people.”
Zumbluskas added that, in races where Bloomberg did not have a preference, party leaders chose to target WFP-backed candidates. In most cases, the candidates who received the line are running against WFP- backed opponents.
“There is a little bit of a battle going on between us and the Working Families Party,” Zumbluskas said.
Tom Ognibene, a Republican candidate for City Council who is running against WFP-backed incumbent Elizabeth Crowley, was recruited into the race by Bloomberg in February. Ognibene confirmed that he would not have received the Independence Party’s ballot line without the mayor’s permission.
“If I wasn’t being supported by the mayor, if the mayor and I didn’t have a mutual agreement to support each other, I don’t think that the Independence Party would have given me the line,” he said. “Those on the inside understand that would not happen if the mayor didn’t consent it.”
The WFP and its constituent unions are apparently retaliating. Party leaders have discouraged several candidates during the screening process from pursuing the Independence Party ballot line, and have suggested that doing so would disqualify them from receiving WFP support. In at least one race—for the seat of Council Member Tony Avella in Queens—the WFP declined to endorse a candidate after the top three contenders in the Democratic primary all interviewed for the Independence line.
Dan Levitan, a spokesperson for the WFP, confirmed that the party discourages potential candidates from seeking the Independence Party’s support. He argued that the Independence Party’s connections to the real estate and business worlds would repel voters.
“If they want to help highlight which candidates are in the pocket of real estate developers and landlords, it will make the choice to vote against them that much easier for middle-class families on election day,” he said.
But after years of being marginalized and dismissed, the Independence Party is finally becoming a power broker, Ognibene said--with Bloomberg's help.
He added: “It was revived, kind of, by the mayor, I guess you’d say.”
