John Catsimatidis

John Catsimatidis, the Clinton donor and Gristedes founder who is now planning to run for mayor as a Republican, blames Democrats, naturally, for the failure of the federal bailout legislation.

"Nancy Pelosi should have known about it before she brought it for a vote," Catsimatidis told me in an email. 

 

And the first TV ad of the 2009 mayoral race is from...Bruce Blakeman?

He's the Republican candidate who just announced, and, it seems, will go up against John Catsimatidis for the G.O.P. nomination.

But there's another figure looming. Michael Bloomberg's mayoral plans could torpedo Blakeman's candidacy, as well as the plans of many others, if he manages to extend term limits and run again.

In a brief interview yesterday, I asked Blakeman if he'd run against Bloomberg. Blakeman basically said it's a hypothetical question and that he'd evaluate the situation if Bloomberg actually decides to run.

[via Liz Benjamin] 

Possible mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis threw himself a 60th birthday party last night at the famous Rainbow Room.

My invitation must have been lost in the mail, but one attendee I spoke to said about 300 people showed up, and they included Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, Representative Carolyn Maloney, and Republican county leaders Jay Savino of the Bronx, Craig Eaton of Brooklyn and Phil Ragusa of Queens. Republican State Senator Serf Maltese also attended.

Catsimatidis received proclamations from both David Paterson and Michael Bloomberg.

NYS Republican Chairman Joe Mondello just began speaking at a luncheon here at the Marriott Hotel that will feature speeches from Rudy Giuliani and Goerge Pataki.

From the podium, Mondello announced that the lunch is being sponsored by John Catsimatidis, who Mondello said is "a great potential candidate for the City of New York."

Catsimatidis already used his airplane to fly Giuliani and others to the convention.

Mondello said that Catsimatidis was not planning to attend the convention but did not give a reason. 

Here’s Sheldon Silver playfully introducing Democratic County Leader Jose Rivera, also an assemblyman, at the Bronx Democratic County Dinner last night.

Silver told the crowd that Rivera was “in the Assembly for five years and he went to Albany Medical Center and the doctor told him to go on light duty. So, he went to the City Council for 13 years. And then he was all cured and he came back. Now he’s working again real hard.”

“I say that in jest,” said Silver to Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Guests also included Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, City Comptroller Bill Thompson, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, likely Republican mayoral candidate John Catisimatidis (who had brief chats with Silver and Cuomo); City Council members Eric Gioia, John Liu, and David Weprin; Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV; and former county leader Roberto Ramirez.

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The first thing you noticed Wednesday night when you walked into Hugh Hefner's old Playboy suite on the 23rd floor of 730 5th Avenue were the dozens of fur coats hanging from hooks like racks of lamb and the blasting Russian rap music.

Between this and the elaborate pastries imported from the jungles of Brighton Beach and the severe blonde woman dressed like an alien (slicked-back hair, reptilian Armani sunglasses) smoking a cigarette right there, inside, even though there was a spacious balcony overlooking the park three feet away, you could tell right away that at this party you weren't going to be served any hamburgers or hot dogs.  read more »

The grocery king who wants to be New York City’s next billionaire mayor has a rather poor attendance record when it comes to a state board that oversees the Javits Center renovation and expansion.

Gristedes supermarket chain owner John Catsimatidis was put on the Convention Center Development Corporation board in March, but has not attended any of the four meetings since.

Mr. Catsimatidis, who is vying for the Republican nomination for mayor in 2009, was appointed by the State Senate’s majority leader, Joseph Bruno, to fill one of his two slots on the board. Other members of the committee, who include members of the Bloomberg administration and appointees of Governor Paterson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, generally show up frequently to the board meetings, which provide oversight on the more than $1 billion project.  read more »

Here's supermarket magnate and mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis hanging out with former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge at last night's Lincoln Dinner, organized by the King's County Republican Committee and held at Grand Prospect Hall.

Note the absence of Catsimatidis' distinctive eyeglasses.

The Gristedes owner underwent cataract surgery a month ago to enable him to put his glasses away when he's working a room or reading off a teleprompter. There have been some complications, and recently he had to have more surgery, according to spokesman Rob Ryan.

This sort of cosmetic preparation is not unique to Catsimatidis. City politicians have been known to shave a mustache (Bill Thompson, Hiram Monserrate), or lose weight (John Faso, Michael McMahon) in advance of a big campaign.

The speculation that Rudy Giuliani might try to run for governor in 2010 has one of his earliest supporters pretty excited.  read more »

Likely mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner released a summary of his tax returns just now. From his spokesman:

Weiner earned $152,996 of income in the year 2007. He made payments of $13,900 in New York City/State taxes and $24,300 in Federal taxes.

Longshot (but announced!) mayoral candidate Tony Avella already released his, while Bill Thompson and Christine Quinn have not.  read more »

Gristedes grocery store billionaire John Catsimatidis apparently has the support of Donald Trump in his race for mayor.

The New Yorker’s Ben McGrath reports that Mr. Catsimatidis has signed up pledges of support from not only Mr. Trump but also from most of the “at least thirty-five to forty percent of the Congress, and most of the major governors” who, according to Mr. Catsimatidis, “know I’m doing what I have to do.”  read more »

Here’s a shot from the breakfast hosted Sunday morning by the Council of Orthodox Jewish Organizations on the West Side, which, as Grace Rauh noted, attracted nearly every 2009 candidate for citywide office.  read more »

Republican mayoral hopeful (and Hillraiser) John Catsimatidis is hosting a free breakfast for Republican district leaders in Queens this Saturday. Catsimadis has been courting local operatives and discussing his potential campaign for a good while now.

At a Republican dinner last year, while he was still a Democrat, Catsimatidis told Queens Republicans that he would “do whatever is possible to help build the party.” The Queens County Republican organization reciprocated by giving Catsimatidis one of its annual awards.

This Saturday’s breakfast is by invitation only and is billed as a meet-and-greet. It’s taking place at the Reception House on Northern Boulevard, the same place where last year’s dinner was held.

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One of the Clinton campaign's finance chairs, Hassan Nemazee, called in to dispute Clinton fund-raiser John Catsimatidis' assertion that the number of Clinton donors moving to Obama were "too numerous to mention."

"We have seen no evidence whatsoever" of a defection, Nemazee said. "If anything we are delighted to still see so much enthusiasm."

Instead of an exodus, Nemazee said, his donors had actually rallied around their candidate this month. As evidence that the big money people are sticking with Hillary, Nemazee points out that Obama's massive haul in January came from small donations and Internet contributions. His major donor money, Nemazee said, was around $4 million, and only about $1 million of that probably came from New York donors. (I should also add that in calls I've have made to Obama supporters around the country in the last couple of days, none were able to cite any major donors who have defected to their column since Wisconsin.)  read more »

One of Hillary Clinton's local "Hillraisers" predicts that the campaign's fund-raisers and donors will begin to defect from Clinton to Obama "sooner than later" if they haven't already.

John Catsimatidis, a New York supermarket magnate and Clinton supporter, said that the number of people who had written checks to Clinton who were now sending money, or bundling checks, for Obama were "too numerous to mention."

Catsimatidis declined to name any of the donors in question.

"Listen, I'm loyal to my friend," he said.  read more »

John Catsimatidis told The Observer today that Extell Development chairman Gary Barnett was one of the two buyers of his commercial building at 516 East 14th Street.

A spokesperson for Mr.  read more »

Here's a clip of Fred Thompson taking a whack at Rudy Giuliani last night during his midtown appearance before an audience of New York Conservatives.

“I was conservative yesterday, I’m a conservative today and I will be a conservative tomorrow,” he said.

In attendance for the event were Al D’Amato, John Faso, John Catsimatidis, congressional candidate Kieran Lalor, financierBruce Bent and firefighter union head and noted Giuliani critic Steve Cassidy.

After the speech, Thompson shook hands and posed for photos, then ran out of the room, ignoring most reporters questions. A senior advisor to Thompson told me afterwards that the goal of the appearance was in part to “pierce the myth” that Giuliani “is a little bit liberal. He’s very liberal.”

At the Clinton Global Initiative yesterday, I ran into Hillary Clinton fund-raiser and aspiring Bloomberg successor John Catsimatidis. When I told him I was on my way to an event for Barack Obama, Catsimatidis said, "Is he still running?"

Before leaving, I asked Catsimatidis when he was going to change his party registration from Democrat to Republican, something he said he'd do in order to run for mayor. He told me the deadline to watch for was coming up on October 12.

Here is an ad in this week’s issue of City Hall urging Eliot Spitzer to sign the “Freedom to Report Terrorism Act,” bill in the Assembly, courtesy of John Catsimatidis, the garrulous Hillary Clinton fund-raiser and possible mayoral contender.

Setting himself up as the Giuliani-esque tough-on-terror candidate, perhaps?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In an interesting bit of 2009-related news, The New York Sun noted that John Catismatidis, a fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton who said he wants to run for mayor as a Republican, just hired a Republican advisor, Rob Ryan.

Ryan, you may recall, worked for former Yonkers mayor John Spencer in a no-hope Senate bid against Clinton during the course of which he found himself explaining Spencer's contentions that Hillary had had plastic surgery and that she was of a piece with Osama Bin Laden.

Ryan told me he doesn’t see any problem having worked for a bitter Clinton opponent last year and for one of her major financial supporters this year. And he noted that Catsimatidis was a contributor to another former boss of his: George Pataki.

“If my criteria was working with people I totally agree with, I wouldn’t have too much work out there,” he said.

 

Councilman Dennis Gallagher is having a fund-raiser next week at Russo’s on the Bay featuring billionaire John Catsimatidis on the finance committee.

So, what is Gallagher running for? He’s term-limited and, he told me, he’s not interested in running for Congress.

“Washington isn’t the type of place where I would want to be an elected official," he told me. "In the city and on the state level you could accomplish a great deal more impact on people’s quality of life. For me, all politcs is local.”

Your speculation is welcome.

One of Hillary Clinton's top donors says that the campaign's claim to now prefer lower-dollar fund-raising events will mean "more work" for Hillary, but that it is a necessary step in her pursuit of the nomination.

John Catsimatidis, who once suggested that Clinton would crush her rivals in political contributions, now has a much more modest take on the fund-raising challenges facing Clinton since Obama's strong showing.

"You have to expand your base," said Catsimatidis. "First you go out and get the money from the easiest sources -- past supporters who wrote big checks. Then you go out and find new people. It's more work."

Asked why she didn't just have more big ticket fund-raisers that hauled in record sums of cash in the first quarter, Catsimatidis wouldn't say that that well had dried up, but instead argued the logic of cheaper events.

"You have to do it because you have to expand your base," he said.

Ben wonders why Hillary isn't discussing gay issues more openly.

Liz wants to know what Eliot Spitzer will do about the ban on late-term abortions, since he hasn't said anything about it so far.

Andrea Batista Schlesinger wants more informative ads from the 2008 candidates.

Spitzer announced an agreement on building cell towers along I-87.

Peter Powers is heading over to Giuliani Partners.

Barack Obama leads Hillary among young voters.

Iowans want to see the Democratic candidates a little more.

And pictured above is an ad inside City Hall News featuring possible mayoral candidiate John Catsimatidis.  read more »

Supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis thinks he’s figured out how to make himself Mayor in 200  read more »

In this week's paper, I wrote about the efforts of supermarket magnate and Clinton bundler John Catsimatidis to ingratiate himself with local Republicans in advance of his prospective bid for mayor.

The fact that he's a Democrat, he stressed, shouldn't be a big deal.

"I was a Republican in the 1980's--a Ronald Reagan Republican," he said. "I donated to the Republican library. I supported George H.W. Bush. I helped build the chapel at Camp David under George H.W. Bush, and then I was chairman of the New York County dinner two years out of five under Roy Goodman. I've done a lot of Republican things. "And I'm baaaack."

-- Azi Paybarah

According to prospective mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis, running for mayor as a Democrat-turned-Republican (like Mike Bloomberg did) works, but running for President as an independent (like Mike Bloomberg may) probably doesn't.

"On a national basis, if Mr. Bloomberg wants to run, the one thing he has to overcome that I don't have to overcome -- lets say he has to spend three, four, five hundred million dollars on his own, he's capable of spending. And lets say he gets good name recognition, and people actually like him and people vote for him, and lets say he splits up the vote three ways, 33, 33, 33. If [Ross] Perot got 19 [percent], I'm sure Mike Bloomberg is capable of getting 33.

"But if nobody gets 270 electoral electoral votes, and it goes to the House of Representatives, there's no independents in the House of Representatives. How do you become president?"

-- Azi Paybarah

John Catsimatidis, the Hillary Clinton fund-raiser who said he wants to run for mayor, told me he'll be changing his party registration from Democrat to Republican "maybe in the next week or two."

Why?

"Because of my future plans," he said when reached by cell phone in Manhattan, back from from a trip to his home in the Hamptons.

Crain's has something on Catsimatidis today [looking for link now].

Previously, Catsimatidis said he'd run for mayor as a Republican "Because I'm a moderate business man. I don't' think a moderate businessman has a chance in hell winning the Democratic primary."

-- Azi Paybarah

That's John Catsimatidis, Hillary Clinton fund-raiser and possible Republican mayoral candidate, getting chummy with Queens County Republican chairman Phil Ragusa and state GOP chair Joe Mondello.

Catsimatidis, a registered Democrat, was there to receive the Abraham Lincoln Award, while Mondello received the Teddy Roosevelt Award.

During his acceptance speech, Catsimatidis said that he had spoke with local Republican leaders and "told them I will help them do whatever is possible to help build the party."

-- Azi Paybarah

While the coverage of the Clintons this weekend centered around the symbolically crucial visit to Selma, their money machine was busily -- and quietly -- pumping away close to home.

On Saturday evening, Bill Clinton donned his best-supporting husband hat and headlined a Hillary fund-raiser at the Fifth Avenue home of super market magnate John Catsimatidis. Tickets cost $4600 a person (in other words, it required donors to max out their contributions for both the primary and presidential election), and between 50 and 60 big spenders showed up. Contacted by phone, an unusually reticent Catsimatidis refused to talk specifics, but he did confirm that the event took place and that the food was good.

"Yes, we had the President at my home," he said. "How did you find out? Nobody found out."

As for who attended the shoulder-rubbing fest, Mr. Catsimatidis would only say, "We have a broad reach."

He predicted that he'll end up raising more than a million dollars for Hillary 08.

-- Lizzy Ratner

Granted, John Catsimatidis has made noises about running for mayor before. More than once.

But there's still something refreshing about a person so willing to talk about every aspect of his theoretical campaign before so much as hiring a press secretary.

Yesterday, we chatted about some of the specifics of the Catsimatidis '09 agenda.

The price for the campaign? $30 million. "If it's going well and I want to spend 40, I'll spend 40. It doesn't matter."

In which party? "Most likely the Republican Party. I mean, I'm not a left-wing Democrat. I'm a Rockefeller Republican, the way Bloomberg Republican."

What makes you a Rockefeller Republican?

"I'm pro-people and pro-business."

And your vision for the future of New York?

"My number one concern is not chase the middle class out of New York. Do you want to turn New York into a downtown Detroit or downtown Cleveland? I love New York. I don't want to do that."

And what's that like?

"Downtown Cleveland? There's nobody down town except the people on welfare," Catsimatidis said. "You know, you need a mixed society, you need a little bit of everybody.

Everybody?

"When you talk about illegal aliens, they have a purpose too. I want illegal aliens, and I'll support them if they're paying their taxes, hard working families. But if they're here to live off the rest of us, then I'm not going to support them. If they're here to commit felonies and murders, I'll have them on the first boat out. You know, if it's within my power."

More Catsimatidis after the jump.  read more »

Not sure how I missed this the other day, but much rumored 2009 mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis is throwing his hat in the ring...according to the Daily News gossip page.

Here's the piece [second item]:

John Catsimatidis, a longtime supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton and other Democrats, knows he wants to run for mayor but hasn't decided whether to run as a Democrat or Republican. "I was a Republican in the 1980s, but I love Bill Clinton and he won me over. He's the smartest guy I know." The supermarket magnate and chairman of Red Apple Group, Inc., added: "I'll probably use 90% of my own money, and I estimate it will cost $30 million." The activist mogul thinks Mayor Bloomberg has done a great job, but "we still have a ways to go with the schools and other areas. I love New York. This is a great city, and we can't let it get into the wrong hands."

Describing how much of your personal fortune you'll spend on the race is, at this early stage, pretty close to a confirmation. Catsimatidis, who made his money in the supermarket business, and would be the candidate most compared to Bloomberg...unless another rich guy gets into the race.

Then again, the fact that this made absolutely no ripples in political circles around here may be an ever louder statement.

I called Catsimatidis at his Manhattan office to see if he indeed was running, but was told he's out at lunch. No doubtedly with some consultants! -- Azi Paybarah

Hillary Clinton's people wasted no time engaging their Republican opponent, John Spencer. "Given John Spencer's history he probably doesn't consider a campaign negative until he threatens to murder his opponent," Hillary spokesman, Howard Wolfson, said.

One of the corporate leaders backing Eliot Spitzer for governor, John Catsimatidis, was investigated by the attorney general for underpaying deliver workers.

Mayor Bloomberg acknowledged a link between working at Ground Zero and health problems faced by rescue workers.

Complaints about police rose 16% since last year, according to the Mayor's Management Report.

At a City Council hearing, officials wondered how to add "sizzle" and "substance" to the city-owned television station.

Jim McGreevey's efforts to publicize his new book make him look like "a prime example of the irresponsible expectant father," according to the New York Times.

Despite the headline on the New York Post editorial page saying "Run Mike Run!," the paper's editorial board writes, "We're not endorsing anyone for president yet; it's way too early for that."

And New Yorkers may not know who he is, but this is a big deal: John Lynch, long one of New Jersey's dominant political power brokers, is pleading guilty to federal corruption charges.

-- Azi Paybarah

Last November, Ian Schrager and Aby Rosen invited about 25 of Manhattan’s top luxury real-estate b  read more »

The Politicker is told that Dennis Mehiel, the Westchester business man who was Carl McCall's running mate in 2002, is taking another shot at Lieutenant Governor.

I wasn't able immediately to reach Mehiel, but ran the story past his friend, the supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis, who confirmed it.  read more »

"He's got money in the bank, he's bored, and he thinks he can do some good things for the world," Catsimatidis said.

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