NYPost

By ROBERT HARDT Jr.

November 8, 2001 -- It was a Tom Wolfe novel come to life - and the secret plot was to have former President Bill Clinton save Mark Green's nose-diving mayoral campaign.

The featured characters in the Monday-night political drama at the Four Seasons hotel also included the head of the national Democratic Party, a movie mogul, a black activist, a Bronx political boss, a public-relations maven and an angry ex-mayoral candidate.

The story of Clinton's failed last-ditch effort to save the Democratic Party was pieced together by The Post after speaking with most of the participants.

It started when publicist and longtime Green buddy Ken Sunshine realized Green was in desperate need of getting more support from the Latino community.

Sunshine wanted to arrange a high-profile, last-minute campaign appearance with Green's defeated Democratic rival, Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer.

Ferrer, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Bronx Democratic leader Roberto Ramirez had been infuriated with anti-Ferrer fliers distributed by Green supporters in the waning days of the Oct. 11 primary runoff.

Ferrer and Ramirez both gave Green perfunctory endorsements while Sharpton ominously hinted voters should perhaps just stay home.

Sunshine enlisted the help of Miramax films honcho Harvey Weinstein without telling the Green campaign, setting up a meeting with Sharpton in a Midtown Miramax office.

Unhappy that Ferrer didn't show for a large Democratic "unity dinner' he hosted at the Sheraton New York hotel on Friday night, Weinstein wanted to get the Puerto Rican politician on board.

After talking with the two men, Sharpton suggested they meet at the Four Seasons hotel with Ferrer and Ramirez.

Sipping a Diet Coke at the hotel bar, Sharpton proposed an impartial third person help broker the peace - perhaps Clinton, who had recently appeared in Harlem with Green.

A longtime Democratic fund-raiser, Weinstein instantly called Clinton and asked him to come to the hotel.

The ex-president quickly agreed and called Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe to tell him he was going to bring Ferrer back into the Green fold at the 11th hour.

Attending a gubernatorial fund-raiser at a black church in Trenton, N.J., McAuliffe seemed nervous. He wondered, Did the Green people know about this?

After calling one of Green's deputy campaign managers, Jeremy Ben-Ami, McAuliffe learned to his dismay the Green team was out of the loop and didn't want Sharpton engaging in a photo op with Clinton on election eve.

McAuliffe called Clinton back from the church and told him to cancel his trip to the hotel.

When Weinstein heard Clinton was pulling out because of Ben-Ami, he exploded and called McAuliffe.

"People in the church could hear Harvey screaming over Terry's cell phone. It was wild," said one witness.

Ferrer, Ramirez, Weinstein, Sharpton and Sunshine were now ensconced in a 40th-floor suite in the hotel, ordering room service - with Ramirez and Sharpton grumbling and talking about holding an anti-Green press conference.

Learning that Sharpton was now even more furious with him, Green telephoned Clinton after a campaign stop at Sandy's, an East Harlem restaurant.

"He told Clinton that maybe it was a good idea to meet with them after all and Clinton was really into the role of being the peacemaker," said one source.

Green's hope was to have Clinton and Ferrer join him in a dramatic unity appearance outside Florent restaurant in the Meatpacking District with Green supporters in time for the 11 p.m. news - but without Sharpton.

When Clinton was driven to the hotel, he was shocked to find camera crews - obviously tipped off by Sharpton - waiting for him.

After Clinton quickly drove away, the five men ended their 51/2-hour meeting in the suite - with Sharpton and Ramirez leaving from the front of the hotel and Sunshine, Ferrer and Weinstein slipping out through a garage.

"The idea was to get Roberto's machine on board to get out the vote in The Bronx and to make a bold public statement," said another participant.

Instead, Weinstein was so furious with Green that he gave Michael Bloomberg some last-minute support and Ramirez very publicly ate dinner with his Bronx cronies on election night rather than urge people to vote.

"When it fell through, I really wondered if Bloomberg had just won the election," said one negotiator.

"It was the strangest night I have ever seen in politics."

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2001

Answers

Snip from the NYT, nicked from Lucianne:

It was a humiliating defeat. And if Mark Green is at all interested in understanding the real reason he is not the mayor-elect of New York at this critical moment in the city's history, he should do the thing he has always done best — look in a mirror. To get a sense of how quickly and disastrously the Green campaign collapsed, consider that on Friday night the co-chairman of Miramax Films, Harvey Weinstein, served as chairman of a gala "Unity Dinner" for Mr. Green, which was attended by, among others, former President Bill Clinton and Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer. Seventy-two hours later Mr. Weinstein endorsed Michael Bloomberg for mayor. That is bizarre by anyone's definition.

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2001

Today: November 08, 2001 at 13:25:29 PST

Dems Blame Consultants for NYC Loss

WASHINGTON- Stunned by the loss of the New York mayor's race, Democrats are bickering over the roles of party consultants who switched sides to work for billionaire Republican Michael Bloomberg's come-from-behind campaign.

Pollster Doug Schoen and media consultant Bill Knapp have worked for the Democratic National Committee but were on the Bloomberg campaign's payroll.

"I am very upset about Democratic consultants who have made all their money representing Democrats - made a fortune representing Democrats - and then turn around and represent Republicans and attack our Democratic candidates," said Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

McAuliffe was particularly angry about advertising that criticized Democratic mayoral candidate Mark Green. He said, "If I have anything to say about it, people who partake in those activities will no longer get business with this committee."

But Jim Jordan, the executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said Thursday that he would still work with Knapp. He said Knapp and Knapp's partner, Anita Dunn, "are good friends personally and are good and loyal and long-standing friends to this committee."

Knapp worked for Al Gore's presidential campaign and Dunn for Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. They are partners in the firm Squier Knapp Dunn.

"They are, in fact, owed a fair share of credit for our Democratic majority in the Senate, and we'll continue to work closely with the firm throughout this cycle," Jordan said.

Knapp was among Democratic consultants who worked for the campaign of Democrat-turned-Republican Bloomberg. Among the others: David Garth, who had worked on former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo's failed 1994 re-election bid, and William Cunningham, a veteran adviser to former Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

Schoen is a partner in the firm Penn Schoen and Berland. Mark Penn is a longtime pollster for Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who played a key role in getting the polling firm work with the DNC.

Sen. Clinton's office had no comment. But one of her campaign advisers, former White House aide Harold Ickes, said, "I don't think the party should engage political consultants who work both sides of the street."

Neither Schoen nor Knapp returned phone calls seeking comment Thursday.

The finger-pointing came as Democrats tried to figure out how they could lose New York City, where Democrats hold a 5-1 enrollment edge over Republicans, but win governor's races in New Jersey and Virginia, the latter a state where Republicans had held the governor's job for eight years.

Green at one point held a double-digit lead over Bloomberg in polls. But Bloomberg was helped at the end by outgoing Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's endorsement and by heavy spending on ads.

Green has been criticized for what some said was a racially divisive primary race against Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer. The ad that upset McAuliffe featured quotes from Democrats suggesting they left the Green camp because of his behavior in the primary.

Bloomberg, who founded the financial news company that bears his name, spent some $50 million of his own money during the campaign. It's unclear how much Knapp's or Schoen's firms were paid.

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2001

It's up to a candidate to impose order to avoid this kind of total fiasco. If a candidate can't even run his own campaign with an iron hand, why should people trust him with a bigger job?

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2001

Since when do candidates run their own campaigns, at least the big ones? Seems to me that they are only trying to gain office and rely on constantly shifting polling results, and staff advisors, to steer their course. Politics just doesn't seem to care about actual causes, only what the public "perceives" to be a cause. Later, the winners do whatever they want, or can get away with, to maintain power.

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2001