The Best Campaign Money Can Buy

Another government aide wooed to greener pastures by the financial billionaire is former top City Council staffer Kathleen Cudahy, who joined the campaign staff in April and is pulling in $12,500 per month, with a total of $72,000 earned so far.

On the other side of the political fence is liberal City University professor Alan Gartner, who headed the redistricting commission for the Dinkins administration. Gartner started with Bloomberg last November and has collected $71,000 thus far. Also in the liberal Bloomberg wing is Professor Ester Fuchs, who directs an urban policy center at Barnard College. Fuchs, another former Dinkins adviser, received $17,000 in a single payment in August for helping the billionaire think about issues. Another liberal recruit is New York University professor Mitchell Moss, who opined a year ago that if the Democrats ran to the left, then Bloomberg could run as the "good government/good management candidate." Bloomberg apparently liked what he heard and has shelled out $7500 so far to Professor Moss.

Verna Eggleston, director of the Hetrick-Martin Institute, which assists gay and lesbian youth, has praised the media mogul in a Bloomberg television ad and in a glossy campaign mailing. Both times, Eggleston was described only as a "child welfare expert." Then the New York Postrevealed that Eggleston is a paid consultant to Bloomberg's campaign. Filings show she received $10,000 last month.

In sharp contrast to the high-spending Bloom-berg, Democrat Mark Green appears to be keeping his staff on a tuna-fish diet. All three of Green's top aides—campaign manager Rich Schrader, deputy manager Jeremy Ben Ami, and spokesman Joe DePlasco—earn the same $75,000 a year on an annualized rate (the campaign, however, fails to break out those salaries in its expense filings). And Sheinkopf Communications, which has played the key role in shaping Green's campaign message, has collected a mere $191,000 thus far.

They don't call David Garth a wise man for nothing.