Tom Golisano

DENVER—Here's billionaire and State Senate crusader Tom Golisano, who was hanging out at Andrew Cuomo's reception in the Sheraton Hotel this afternoon.

 

When I asked him why he, a Republican, is here, Golisano said, "I'm an American."

Also, as Cuomo was leaving the event, I asked him how he would vote in the roll call. Cuomo told me he would be voting for Barack Obama.

Does anybody else think the logo for Republican Tom Golisano's P.A.C., Responsible New York, looks a little like Barack Obama's campaign logo?

In a letter dated today to billionaire Tom Golisano - who is vowing to pour $5 million into this year‘s elections - Republican Senate leader Dean Skelos makes the case that Republicans are the ones who have tried to make state government fiscally prudent and transparent.

And Skelos ends the letter by reminding Golisano, a Rochester man, that Democrats aren't so much from upstate. (Old theme!)

“Without the checks and balances we assure, state government would be totally controlled by Democrats from New York City. Keep in mind that a Democrat-controlled Senate would be lead by Malcolm Smith of Queens, Tom Duane from Greenwich Village (Manhattan) and Jeff Klein from the Bronx. The Assembly would be lead by Speaker Sheldon Silver of Manhattan. Thus, it is critical that you join our fight and help us achieve reform.”

An adviser to Tom Golisano--who said Golisano is willing to spend at least $5 million on State Senate races this year--is taking the news that Rudy Giuliani is launching a P.A.C. in stride. (The former mayor's fund-raising committee will contribute mainly to State Senate Republicans, who would like to maintain their very narrow majority.)

“Clearly it’s his right to do what he believes and I think this will be quite a critical election,” Golisano adviser Steve Pigeon told me. “I think there will be some candidates we support in common and others we don’t.  But he [Giuliani] clearly has a right to do it.  read more »

Liberal billionaire George Soros and members of his family have contributed a little more than $1 million into state campaign coffers since 2000, with nearly all of it going to help Democrats in the State Senate.

Already this year, George, his son Robert, Robert’s wife, Melissa, and another son, Jonathan, contributed $199,500. George, Robert and Melissa each gave $25,000 to the New York State Democratic Party and gave the maximum allowable personal contributions - $9,500 - to Eric Schneiderman, David Valesky, Craig Johnson and Joe Addabbo.

(Two other members of the Soros family also contributed this year. Son Jonathan gave $9,500 to Democratic State Senate candidate Rick Dollinger and his wife, Jennifer, gave $1,000 to a pro-abortion rights lobbying PAC that donated to Johnson and Dollinger.  read more »

Political junkies and maybe even a few ordinary voters will remember Tom Golisano as New York State’s answer to H. Ross Perot: A business leader with money to burn and an inexplicable desire to be a political player. Mr. Perot, of course, ran for president in 1992 and for a time seemed a threat to the established order. When he ran again in 1996, he seemed like yesterday’s news.

Mr. Golisano seemed to be heading in the same direction. His first bid for governor, as the Independence Party candidate in 1994, attracted a fair amount of attention during a race that eventually saw George Pataki defeat incumbent Mario Cuomo.  read more »

Also at last night’s fund-raiser for Kevin Powell was one of Sheldon Silver’s opponents, Paul Newell.

It seemed like Newell, and fellow challenger Luke Henry, might get a boost when billionaire Tom Golisano announced he would launch a $5 million PAC to help shake up the legislative races and change Albany’s leadership-driven style of politics. But when Golisano made the announcement, he said he didn’t even know who was challenging Silver.

It might be somewhat mutual.

Last night, I asked Newell if he had gotten in touch with Golisano, as a campaign aide told reporters they would.

“I don’t know anything about it,” Newell said.

 

Jeff Klein, the fund-raising chairman for the State Senate Democrats, isn't worried about Tom Golisano's promise to drop $5 million on this year’s legislative races without specifying which, if any, party he will favor.

Klein dismissed the idea that Golisano might target Democratic candidates, telling me in an interview, “The way you shake things up is by putting Democrats in charge.”

Klein echoed Golisano‘s complaints about Albany‘s inactivity. “We can’t be blamed for leaving Albany without doing paid family leave,” he said, citing one of the issues that Democrats and the Working Families Party wanted the legislature to pass during the session that just ended. “We don’t control the legislative agenda.”

"Tom Golisano is certainly someone who has a very important role to play," Klein said, adding, "I give him a lot of credit for putting his money where his mouth is."

Tom Golisano’s new political action committee could put him on a collision course with Michael Bloomberg, who has openly talked very publicly about what he says would be the benefits of keeping Republicans in control of the State Senate.

As Bloomberg’s former communications director Bill Cunningham told me, “They may have dueling agendas.”

“The mayor’s agenda has typically been what’s good for New York City. Golisano’s agenda sounds like it is a traditional reform agenda about the process of state government. So here you have philosophy versus process.” He also said the mayor, since he’s in office, is dealing with “the real politics,” of the Albany-New York City relationship.  read more »

Blair Horner of the good-government group NYPIRG was just on Fred Dicker's Talk 1300 radio show, saying that Tom Golisano may "undermine his own efforts" if "he gets caught up in the courts."

Golisano, who pledged yesterday to put $5 million towards State Senate races, mainly in western New York, says he's launching a political action committee. Horner said the problem may be that laws surrounding P.A.C.s do not allow them to coordinate with campaigns at all.

Golisano, by his own admission, has already met with some campaigns.

"It's pretty murky," Horner said.

Here’s Tom Golisano, a registered Republican, being asked repeatedly by reporters in Albany yesterday if the goal of his new P.A.C. is to help Democrats take control of the State Senate, and answering repeatedly that the organization won't be about partisanship.

“I want to see the senate turn in such a way that we start accomplishing these things,” he said, referring to his eight-point agenda. “I want the assembly to do the same thing.” Later, Golisano denied a report that he told Joe Bruno the new P.A.C. would not help Democrats take control of the senate.

Golisano Makes it Official: He's Throwing $5 Million Into This Fall's Elections

BY AZI PAYBARAH

Rochester billionaire and three-time gubernatorial candidate Tom Golisano waved a $5 million check in front of reporters in Albany this morning and said he was forming a political action committee – “Responsible New York” – that he promised would help liberate lawmakers from the grip of party leaders.

Golisano has yet to endorse any legislative candidates, but his PAC will work on behalf of those who share his vision of reform. So far, he said, he has met with three Democrats running for the State Senate against incumbent Republicans.  read more »

I just spoke with Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, about Tom Golisano’s decision to seed a PAC with $5 million of his own money – and his lawyer’s assertion that Golisano can spend whatever he wants in state legislative races this fall as long as he doesn’t coordinate directly with any of the candidates.

“This is kind of one of those things that slips through the cracks,” Lerner said. “It’s the kind of thing that you’d think wouldn’t be allowed, but that actually he probably can do because these are independent expenditures.”

She added: “It’s exactly the kind of thing that gives people pause about our campaign finance system.  read more »

I just spoke with Tom Golisano's lawyer, Henry Berger, who told me that Golisano, through the new political action committee that he formally launched today, "can spend whatever he wants" in this fall's legislative races.

Speaking by phone from his Manhattan office, Berger said Golisano's committee won't breach any state spending limits because it won't be donating directly to any candidates. Instead, the PAC will only be making "independent expenditures" to support or oppose candidates of Golisano's choosing. This way, Berger said, the PAC's activities are protected by Golisano's right to free speech.

"Golisano can spend as much money as he wishes as long as it's not coordinated" with any campaign, said Berger, who was in the news earlier this year when he helped David Paterson address some campaign finance-related questions that were raised when he became Governor.  read more »

Rochester billionaire and three-time gubernatorial candidate Tom Golisano waved a $5 million check in front of reporters in Albany this morning and said he was forming a political action committee – “Responsible New York” – that he promised would help liberate lawmakers from the grip of party leaders.

Golisano has yet to endorse any legislative candidates, but his PAC will work on behalf of those who share his vision of reform. So far, he said, he has met with three Democrats running for the state Senate against incumbent Republicans. When asked about the G.O.P.’s slim control of that chamber, Golisano, who is still a registered Republican, said, “It has not been successful,” and he later wondered aloud why anybone would register with a political party.  read more »

Here’s a shot of a few people waiting outside Hillary Clinton’s fund-raiser at Capitale last night. Hillary was voting on an immigration bill in D.C. and didn’t attend, but a few other big names did:

Rapper Darryl McDaniels, also known as DMC. Dressed in a Harley Davidson t-shirt and black jeans, he told me, “I came to experience something I can talk to my grandkids about.”

Paychex billionaire Tom Golisano, the erstwhile Independence Party gubernatorial candidate who recently became a Republican, was also there.

And, unmissably, Harvey Weinstein.

A Democratic tsunami may be headed for Albany, but so is a bunch of money to make sure at least one house stays Republican.

In the last days of the campaign season, contributions over $1,000 have to be filed with the state Board of Election within a 24 hours period. Yesterday alone, the New York Republican State Senate Campaign Committee filed around $349,950 in large contributions. (Compare that to the $67,000 Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee raised over the same 24-hour period.)

The biggest help for Senate Republicans came from I. A. Morris ($20,000); Tom Golisano($50,000), and the New York Association of Homes and Services for the Aging - NYAHSA - ($32,000) .

The 24-hour filing contributions database is over here.

Feel free to point out anything interesting. (Like the $25,000 contribution Newmark executive Jeffrey Gural gave yesterday to Andrew Cuomo).

-- Azi Paybarah

Tom Golisano returns.

So do some Swift Boat tactics.

But the Republican convention doesn't.  read more »

And picturedto the right is Jeanine Pirro, whose press conference about her husband's infidelity, her venting to Bernie Kerik, and the fed's probe into the whole thing...is here.

-- Azi Paybarah

The big news from the Clinton Global Initiative conference today was that Richard Branson, the eccentric founder of Virgin group, joined the billionaire philanthropist club with a pledge to donate $3 billion over the next 10 years to anti-global warming initiatives. The money accounts for all of the profits from his transportation and airline businesses, he said.

But the political story of the day was Al Gore's performance during a Global Warming panel. (The sartorial story was his weird, dominatrix-y black leather boots.)

On a stage at the Sheraton in midtown, in front of Mr. Clinton, Tom Golisano, Colin Powell and hundreds of representatives from the business, donor and non-profit community, Mr. Gore delivered an impassioned speech that brought the audience to its feet and had people chattering about what a great President he would have made -- and maybe could still make.

"This crisis is the by far the most dangerous we have ever faced in the entire history of human civilization but it also provides the greatest opportunity," he said with increasing volume. "We are coming together as a Global civilization in our lifetime we have to get our act together and this climate crisis, may, I believe, does, gives us the opportunity to rise, to gain the moral authority and gain the vision not to become the self-destructive, selfish generation, but to become the next greatest generation."

Clinton then made sure that Gore stood next to Branson when the billionaire announced his donation to the whole crowd. Gore, conspicuously elated as he signed his name with Clinton onto the pledge, said that it was "like the old days."

--Jason Horowitz

Capitol Confidential has it that Tom Golisano is working hard on the local level.

DMI blog discusses the so-called exodus of Black New Yorkers reported in the Times on Monday. They say, "the article never mentioned the fact that the Census Bureau does not count as city residents African Americans from New York City incarcerated upstate --- rather, it considers them residents of the upstate counties in which they are imprisoned. "

And Yoda revisits 'Cuomo not the Homo' on Room Eight.

—Nicole Brydson

A tidbit from the meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative at the Time Warner Center today: Laura Bush will participate in September's second Davos-on-Hudson.

Murdoch will be there too, of course. And the main underwriter, again, is Tom Golisano, incongruously seated front and center between his wife and Democratic partisan warrior John Podesta.

The anti-Spitzer PAC effort seems to be gathering momentum, with this report that Ken Langone and Tom Golisano met in Florida.

A Golisano advisor notes that Eliot’s decision to play hardball in a face-to-face meeting with the Rochester billionaire is not looking like such a good idea.

"I assumed at the time that he acted the way he did because he assumed Golisano wanted to run and the thought there was no downside," he said. "Golisano went to the meeting wantting to like Eliot, and prepared to support him."

The New York Press's Azi got Tom on the phone a little while after the news that he had pulled out broke (unbeknownst to Azi). Here's the exchange:

Tom Golisano: "Surprised to hear back from me? What can I do for ya?"

Azi: "I was kind of wondering what your announcement was going to be."

TG: "In your phone message to me, you said you wanted to talk about Paychex."

Me: "I was doing a broader story about—"

TG: "I'm not doing any political interviews."

[Azi, flailing, asks how Paychex has been doing in the last few years.]

TG: "Are you a financial reporter?"

Azi: "No I'm not. I'm a political reporter."

TG: "Well then, forget about it. Okay?"

The AP reports:

"Billionaire B. Thomas Golisano will not seekthe Republican nomination to run for governor of New York, an adviser to the businessman told The Associated Press on Tuesday."

The unnamed adviser cites "personal reasons."

Mid-January is rolling in, and soon the world will know whether Rochester billionaire (and gubernatorial tease?) Tom Golisano will take on Eliot Spitzer. In recent reports, Golisano got a spousal nod and planned to toss money into the wind. But on the whole, the rumblings from Rochester have been pretty faint lately. Perhaps this explains it. According to one associate, he's down -- but definitely not out -- with the flu: "I'm told that he ordered up a bunch of briefing books on issues from various think tanks, and he's propped up in bed with the sniffles, reading through them."  read more »

Fast away the old year passed, and none too soon for political junkies who found last year’s Mayor  read more »

Fast away the old year passed, and none too soon for political junkies who found last year’s M  read more »

These early polls are kind of maddening in the temptation -- to be resisted -- to read much meaning into them. This latest one seems to reveal that some people have heard of Tom Golisano, but that nobody's heard of Tom Suozzi. Also, that something like two-thirds of New Yorkers are willing to say they'll vote for Hillary, and that Pirro's hardly a sure thing for AG.  read more »

The lonely GOPers over at Urban Elephants have been keeping half an eye on today's GOP parley, which looks likely to produce...nothing. (Though it's probably worth reporting that those Republican "insiders" who keep getting quoted saying Jeanine's about to drop out...still say that. Their credibility, however, is kind of in question at this point.)

Meanwhile, over at Alarming News, there's some unhappiness that the elephant not in the room, Tom Golisano, is palling around with Bill Clinton. Nobody seems yet to have picked up on the fact that Golisano was actually the prime sponsor of Clinton's "Global Initiative" this fall.  read more »

Up in Albany this morning, The Politicker is told, Bill Weld met the press, and faced the complicated situation that any Republican promising change is messing with Pataki's legacy.

Can this marriage be saved?  read more »

Can this marriage be saved?As all 62 Republican county chairmen get set to meet on Dec.  read more »

OK, The Politicker is still recovering from the election, and managed to write up last month's Siena poll, rather than this month's, in an earlier version of this post. (Thanks, Scott, for pointing this out.)

One observation from that earlier version is true: Most New Yorkers couldn't tell Jeanine Pirro, John Faso, Tom Golisano (for all he's spent!) and Bill Weld (especially Weld) apart if you put them in a police line-up.  read more »

As for the rest of the analysis, we'll leave it to people smart enough to operate their computers correctly.

So Tom Golisano has officially gone Republican, as per a statement posted today on his website.

The Rochester billionaire name-drops John McCain, Joe Bruno, and Tom Reynolds as pols who lobbied him to cross over, and insists that a new ballot line won't mean new principles. In short, he says he's still committed to lowering taxes and spending, squeezing out the influence of special interests, rooting out Medicaid fraud, and strengthening public schools.

By way of self-definition, he also adds: "I don't believe you have to be born into the Republican Party to be a good Republican, after all, Ronald Reagan, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg all switched Parties to become Republicans."

And: "I am most comfortable in the McCain/Reform wing of the Republican Party."

Our former intern, Azi Paybarah, just spoke with Golisano adviser Roger Stone, who said that the newly-minted Republican doesn't plan on attending the October 12 G.O.P screening in Plattsburgh.

"When you have the kind of resources he has, you can afford to wait a little bit," he told Azi. "So, no he does not intend to go to any of these dog and pony shows."  read more »

Hat tip to Ira Stoll at the Sun, who rightfully kicks us under the table for not posting Golisano's move earlier.

Another day, another poll about the 2006 races, this one from Quinnipiac University.

It must be getting hard to write the headlines on these things. Democrats hold big leads over GOP candidates nobody's ever heard of in races to which nobody is paying attention.  read more »

Scraps of news include Tom Golisano looking marginally stronger against Eliot than any of the other candidates, a reminder that outside media circles New Yorkers have no idea who Bill Weld is. Also, 13% of voters say they hold Al Pirro against his wife, and 59% of voters say Hillary should pledge to serve the full six-year term, a number that's been holding pretty steady.

The Clinton Global Initiative, Bill's big conference, was held in midtown last week with an unlikely prime sponsor: Tom Golisano.

The Rochester mogul, and likely contestant for the Republican nomination for Governor, writes in the event's program: "Although my philanthropic efforts to date have been concentrated primarily in my community in Upstate New York, I have long desired to enter the global arena of giving but was waiting for the right opportunity."  read more »

He continues: "I believe wholeheartedly in President Clinton's vision of bringing together this group..."

Actually, Golisano is one of a number of Republicans seeking statewide office who have reasons to be, at least, cordial to the Senator: there's her old Watergate friend Bill Weld, for one; and Ed Cox, a famously loyal Nixon son-in-law who has talked about how valuable Bill Clinton was to his father-in-law's political rehabilitation.

The stirrings around the Republican nomination to face, probably, Eliot Spitzer, are growing, and it looks like a three-way contest: Tom Golisano, Bill Weld, and some wild-card tycoon -- in the wildest fantasies of GOP insiders, make it Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons.

First, here's some unexpected news from the AP:

Tom Golisano says he just spoke to John McCain: "He was very personable and said the Republican Party could use people like me, and that he'd love to have me as a candidate [for governor]."

An odd, deliberately-placed story that makes it sound like Golisano is feeling a little heat from Weld's increasingly serious mutterings.  read more »

And the Parsons notion is not as farfetched as it sounds. Running Time Warner isn't as fun as it once was. And Parsons came up in New York State politics, as an aide to the original Rockefeller Republican, Nelson Rockefeller.

In declining order of importance:

-The web is abuzz with rumors that Rehnquist will retire momentarily.

-Harry Reid is unenthusiastic about Clinton '08:

"It is a wide-open field," Reid said. "The person who is leading at this stage is Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton, of course, has lots of money. She comes from a state with lots of people in it, but she still has a few ties to Arkansas. I think she is the person to beat, but that doesn't necessarily mean she is the best candidate." (via Slant Point)  read more »

-Tom Golisano"thinks every day of the week" about running for governor, maybe as a Republican; but he's not sure if the Republicans would have him.

-And Andrew Cuomo's fund-raiser at the Regency last night was packed, according to one person who was there. The candidate for state Attorney General picked up more preposterously early endorsements, these from Jose Rivera of the Bronx and Margarita Lopez of Manhattan.

With Democrats gleefully making noise about taking on Michael Bloomberg in the 2005 Mayoral election  read more »

After a colorless, by-the-book campaign that offered little hint of the fiscal perils awaiting the s  read more »

To the outside observer, it looked as if Roger Stone was merely running Independence Party candidate  read more »

On the first day of the last full week of the 2002 gubernatorial campaign, former Mayor Rudolph Giul  read more »

With time running out in the race for Governor, Carl McCall and Tom Golisano are unveiling the endga  read more »

A happy paradox of politics is that cynical motives can advance idealistic purposes.  read more »

Just days after making news by calling for the repeal of the Rockefeller drug laws, billionaire Inde  read more »

While most New Yorkers were preparing to observe the first anniversary of the Sept.  read more »

After a disappointing gubernatorial campaign that left his defeat in the Democratic primary election  read more »

There are many things that downtown Manhattan needs in the ongoing aftermath of 9/11.  read more »

In a sign of heightening tension in the race for Governor, top supporters of George Pataki are accus  read more »

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the leaders of the State Legislature in Albany are engaged in a struggle  read more »

If this year's Governor's race has failed to capture the public's imagination thus far, it's probabl  read more »