Of course, it is way too early to be talking about the 2008 presidential campaign. On the other hand, everyone seems to be doing it, especially in New York City, now that Mayor Michael Bloomberg is fiddling with the idea of a White House run.
Already, the New York slate of candidates was quite crowded, with Senator Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani vying for the vote.
And now comes Bloomberg. Of course, Mayor Mike has not come close to saying he actually is running for president. Meanwhile, most political pundits give him almost no shot of actually winning the White House.
At the same time, Bloomberg is playing the game, keeping himself in the headlines. It is also worth noting that if Bloomberg does indeed make a run for the presidency, he will most likely call upon some close Irish-American pals who have helped him win in the past.
First, there is Bill Cunningham, the son of Irish immigrants who has worked for Bloomberg’s mayoral campaigns. He has also stayed on to work as a top aide and spokesperson when Bloomberg made it to City Hall.
Cunningham, who also served as chief of staff for the late, great Irish-American Senator Daniel Moynihan, has since taken a job in the private sector. While working for Bloomberg, he was one of the mayor’s closest aides, and also spoke of his Irish background, representing City Hall at events such as the opening of the Irish Famine Memorial in downtown Manhattan.
Just how closely is Cunningham still associated with Bloomberg? When The Washington Post did a story recently about the prospects of a Bloomberg run for the White House, they made sure to get a comment from Cunningham, who likened the Bloomberg’s possible run to an “act on the old Ed Sullivan Show: spinning and multiple platters on tall sticks.”
Cunningham then was quoted as saying, “You have to keep the platters wobbling and keep them on the sticks spinning; otherwise the act is over. There is an art to it.”
The Post article continued, “Regarding speculation about a President Bloomberg, Cunningham said, ‘However it started, it’s now out there, growing like a weed.’”
Another Irish American who has served Bloomberg well is Brooklyn native Patrick Brennan.
Brennan served as political director of Bloomberg’s reelection campaign in 2005. As he explained back then in an interview with the Irish Voice, Brennan’s mother was born in Mohill, Co. Leitrim. His father is from Kiltimagh, Co. Mayo.
“Or as he would like to say,” Brennan added, in the voice of his dad, “ I was born in the toughest country in the world: Ireland. In the toughest town: Kiltmagh. And in that town, in the last house on the toughest street, there were the Brennans.”
Brennan’s father, Patrick Dermott Brennan, retired as chief and commanding officer of Brooklyn South, NYPD, in 1998, and he signed onto Charles Schumer’s Senate campaign and “was bitten by the political bug,” as he explained it.
Brennan, like so many New York Irish Americans, also has lots of experience working with organized labor, holding senior staff positions at District Council 37, the city’s District Council of Carpenters and Local 1199, New York’s Health and Hospitals Union.
Bloomberg eventually appointed Brennan the head of the small but influential Community Assistance Unit, and Brennan’s overall mix of work for Bloomberg, while campaigning and in office, could make him a strong staffer if Mayor Mike actually does decide to run.
Finally, one more Irish American whose fate is closely tied to Bloomberg is top cop Ray Kelly. Kelly already has extensive experience working in Washington, as commission of the U.C. Customs department. He even has foreign policy experience, having helped supervise the situation in Haiti.
That, to go along with Kelly’s impeccable crime fighting credentials, would make him an excellent recruit for Team Bloomberg.
One problem? Kelly is also being touted as a strong New York City mayoral candidate for 2009.
But it’s too early to talk about that now. Isn’t it?
