Bill Lynch

Bill Lynch, one of New York's most powerful black Democratic political consultants (and Hillary Clinton supporter), thinks that Georgia, where Barack Obama is favored, could break for Clinton.  read more »

Taking stock of plan to expant Columbia Univerisity's campus uptown, lobbyist Richard Lipsky is criticizing what he says is a possible conflict of interest among some key principles, including Harlem powerhouse Bill Lynch.

On his website, Lipsky writes that among other possible actions, critics of the plan "will be calling for an investigation of any conflicts of interest between elected officials on the LDC [local development corporation] and Bill Lynch, recently hired by Columbia to represent the university's interest."

I just got off the phone with Bill Lynch, who said the argument is pretty weak.

"Well I don't see how we have any conflict of interest," he said. "We've been hired by Columbia University to do outreach to the community and that's what we've done."

When asked about the elected officials in the area, Lynch said, "I know them all, but I don't have any official relationship with them."

Which, he said, leaves him a little puzzled as to what the problem is.

"I'm not a lawyer," Lynch said. "My lawyers tell me it's not a conflict of interest. It looks like they're grasping for straws. That's what it looks like to me."

-- Azi Paybarah

Here are a couple of visible reminders (from this morning) of the upcoming special election for the Yvette Clarke council seat.

While this race has gotten relatively little attention -- compared with, say, the $5 million special Senate election in Nassau this week -- it has, at least, prompted a number of influential figures within the party to take a rooting interest.

Clarke, who gave up the seat when she was elected to congress, is backing Dr. Mathieu Eugene; Councilman Lew Fidler, Rock Hackshaw and other notable Brooklyn operatives are backing Wellington Sharpe; the formidable Kevin Wardally, of Bill Lynch Associates, has contributed money to Jennifer James.

Eleven more days.

-- Azi Paybarah

With Barack Obama is officially considering a run, I was reminded of a report that he was seeking to recruit influential operative and former deputy mayor Bill Lynch to help get his bid off the ground.

Here's what Lynch, who worked for Hillary Clinton in 2000 and 2006, told me earlier today:

"I think there was a story in New York Magazine about a month ago where the Obama people reached out to me and said they wanted to meet, but I have not heard back from them."

"He has not reached out to me to ask me to be involved at all," Lynch added. "Right now, I'm helping Malcolm Smith in the Democratic state senate race in Nassau County."

I asked if he'd definitely be getting involved with Obama or Hillary or any of the other 2008 candidates once the special election was over.

"I'll cross that bridge when I get there," he said.

-- Azi Paybarah

Ferrer aides have argued lately that he's getting unfair treatment from the media. Luis Miranda put it most clearly the other day, telling Newsday:

"We have learned to live with the fact that unfairness has characterized the coverage of this campaign," Miranda said. "The double standard is there."

I talked to Bill Lynch about this the other day, thinking that David Dinkins' old campaign manager would have a long view of the subject. He emphatically seconded Luis:

"I don't think it's been balanced," he said. "You would think Freddy was the frontrunner the way they've gone after Freddy and not gone after Bloomberg."

"In '89 I thought it was a lot more balanced. I think Dinkins even got better coverage in '93 than freddy is now," he continued. "I don't understand it - I really don't. I'm not saying give Freddy a free ride, I'm saying, why hasn't there been scrutiny of Bloomberg."

Lynch was particularly upset that Voice stories on Mike having unsavory friends on Staten Island and in the Bronx hadn't been followed, and that the increase in test scores was generally taken at face value.

He also said he was shocked that this remark from John McCain the other night wasn't a story:

"This is truly a distinguished audience. You have the haves and have mores, and the have mores than that, and finally my good friend Mike Bloomberg. But Mike, I think we're all relieved that the organizers decided not to hold this dinner at the Apollo Theater."  read more »

So are we being unfair to Freddy? More to come.

The Ferrer campaign's split with Leonard Joseph, a political aide allied with Bill Lynch who also worked for John Kerry, has some insiders grumbling that Joseph -- who left after taking the blame for a screw-up involving a claimed endorsement from Joe Hynes -- got a raw deal.

So Joseph's friends were pleased to see that when John Kerry came to town last night to headline a couple of Ferrer fundraisers, the first person the Senator asked to see was ... Joseph. Who, obviously, wasn't there.  read more »

Kerry aides called him, and Kerry was seen leaving the second fundraiser deep in conversation with his, and Freddy's, former aide.

I left last night's debate feeling no envy for reporters on daily deadlines, as it can be so hard to tease a clear storyline out of a generally mild, unfocused debate like that. Indeed, two competing ones seem to have emerged in this morning's papers: Everybody's picking on Freddy; and everybody's picking on Mike.

In any event, the series of rapid-fire questions did manage to knock the candidates a bit off their talking points and generate some real contrast; they revealed, among other things, that Gifford has thought a bit more about the logistics of actually being Mayor -- how do you get to City Hall? -- than the others, and that Anthony is less haunted by the specter of Rudy.

In the spin-room after the debate, Ferrer supporter Bill Lynch offered a firm prediction that his candidate would break 40%, Democratic Party chairman Denny Farrell kindly complimented this reporter's footwear, and word of Ferrer's elision of his daughter's Catholic High School -- I suspect we haven't heard the last of that -- circulated subrosa.

Mostly, however, it was Sharpton time. The Rev., meandering in, quickly attracted the biggest crowd of reporters and after a second or two on his "they all won" talking point, revived his on-again-off-again, involvement in this race. (Though who really believed he wouldn't be a player?)  read more »

Sharpton: I said I'm probably going to make an endorsement in the primary. Reporter: Not again! We gotta go through this again? Charles Barron: Yep. Here we go.

As mentioned, we don't really buy the parallel, though that doesn't mean Freddy couldn't capture some energy from the Los Angeles contest.

There's some more discussion of the two Hispanic candidates, however, in Newsweek today, including some interesting back-and-forth with Bill Lynch. (And don't miss the Paul Rivera cameo.)  read more »

And Howard Jordan, writing in Hoy, really isn't buying, under the headline, "Freddy No Es Villaraigosa."

Another day, another Freddy press conference returns to his increasingly poisonous standoff with the press.

Today, it was Carl McCall's endorsement of Freddy. It was all going well until Dave Evans noticed that Carl had said he and Freddy have different opinions on the Diallo shooting.

Carl was happy to give his position, which was very clear: "I thought it was a crime, a jury has not said it wasn't."

Freddy, instead of agreeing or disagreeing or giving an equally clear position, again took "responsibility" for the "confusion," which is an odd thing to do when you think about it. Why not clear up the confusion, rather than try to own it?

This reminds us of an email we sent Chad Clanton the other day, asking for a yes or no answer on this question. No dice, we got a paragraph.

Anyway, Bill Lynch doesn't want to own this mess. He got in the middle of a scrum of reporters after the press conference and was asked repeatedly about why Freddy wouldn't just answer yes or no.  read more »

"I'm advising Mr. Ferrer, not running his campaign," he responded.

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"First of all, the rap has gone out that Gore can't win," said Democratic insider John LoCicero, apr  read more »