Bloomberg's Pollster Aided Senate Republicans Too

Michael Bloomberg drew some fire last week for donating $500,000 to state Senate Republicans just as Eliot Spitzer is trying to help Democrats take over the Senate.

A minor-but-interesting side-detail about that working relationship: As late as 2006, the New York State Senate Republican Campaign Committee was paying thousands of dollars in consulting fees to the firm Penn, Schoen & Berland, which was co-founded by Hillary Clinton’s top strategist Mark Penn.

(The financial details: On August 22, 2006, the firm was paid $80,206.45; On September 8, they were paid $50,000;On October 4, they were paid $29,310.10.)

The work for the Republican state Senate was performed by co-founder Doug Schoen, according to a high-level source currently at the firm. Schoen's client was a single State Senate campaign, which he worked on at the request of Bloomberg, according to the source.

Schoen and the third founding member of the firm, Michael Berland, have since left the firm.

When I asked him about it, Schoen told me he doesn't comment on questions regarding his former firm and referred all questions to Mark Penn.