I just spoke with Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, about Tom Golisano’s decision to seed a PAC with $5 million of his own money – and his lawyer’s assertion that Golisano can spend whatever he wants in state legislative races this fall as long as he doesn’t coordinate directly with any of the candidates.

“This is kind of one of those things that slips through the cracks,” Lerner said. “It’s the kind of thing that you’d think wouldn’t be allowed, but that actually he probably can do because these are independent expenditures.”

She added: “It’s exactly the kind of thing that gives people pause about our campaign finance system.  read more »

On the heels of Lanny Davis’ announcement last month, Howard Wolfson’s move today brings to two the number of top Hillary Clinton allies who have signed on with Fox News since the end of the primary season. And lest we forget that Terry McAuliffe, Clinton’s campaign chairman, also offered praise of Fox that the channel recycled into a promo.

None of this would have been imaginable a year or two ago, back when Fox still treated the Clintons as the face of the enemy. So what happened?  read more »

The Clinton campaign and Clinton supporters obviously believed that traditional “liberal” media outlets like CNN and MSNBC had it in for them and were openly promoting Barack Obama, while Fox – especially as the primary season wore on – was far

I just spoke with Tom Golisano's lawyer, Henry Berger, who told me that Golisano, through the new political action committee that he formally launched today, "can spend whatever he wants" in this fall's legislative races.

Speaking by phone from his Manhattan office, Berger said Golisano's committee won't breach any state spending limits because it won't be donating directly to any candidates. Instead, the PAC will only be making "independent expenditures" to support or oppose candidates of Golisano's choosing. This way, Berger said, the PAC's activities are protected by Golisano's right to free speech.

"Golisano can spend as much money as he wishes as long as it's not coordinated" with any campaign, said Berger, who was in the news earlier this year when he helped David Paterson address some campaign finance-related questions that were raised when he became Governor.  read more »

Rochester billionaire and three-time gubernatorial candidate Tom Golisano waved a $5 million check in front of reporters in Albany this morning and said he was forming a political action committee – “Responsible New York” – that he promised would help liberate lawmakers from the grip of party leaders.

Golisano has yet to endorse any legislative candidates, but his PAC will work on behalf of those who share his vision of reform. So far, he said, he has met with three Democrats running for the state Senate against incumbent Republicans. When asked about the G.O.P.’s slim control of that chamber, Golisano, who is still a registered Republican, said, “It has not been successful,” and he later wondered aloud why anybone would register with a political party.  read more »

Yesterday, Barack Obama lost one of his better V.P. options when Jim Webb backed out of the running, apparently deciding that the rigorous vetting process and the intense scrutiny of a national campaign weren’t for him.

Around the same time, one of John McCain’s most intriguing options might also have removed herself – but not intentionally. That would be Carly Fiorina, whose nonchalant mentions of Viagra and birth control at a breakfast with reporters yesterday are reverberating in the blogosphere today, seemingly confirming the conventional wisdom that the ousted Hewlett Packard C.E.O. would simply be too risky an addition to the G.O.P.’s national ticket.  read more »

Maybe there’s another reason Barack Obama decided to deliver his convention acceptance speech in a football stadium. As Howard Mortman points out this morning, Obama’s August 28 address will coincide with the start of the college football season, with at least four nationally televised games on the docket.

Sure, most of the games scheduled are of regional interest at best, involving middling Division I-A schools and even I-AA teams, and the kickoff times for most of the televised games are early enough to allow viewers to flip over to Obama’ speech (which will probably start around (10:00 P.M.) without missing any of gridiron action.  read more »

Things went much as predicted this Fourth of July weekend. New Yorkers fell in love with a homeless wino with a penchant for busting road signs and throwing live whales into the ocean. Hancock landed on top of Manhattan's sales charts with an $850,956 box office showing. It was the same story nationally. Sony's film scored $66 million in ticket sales, putting it way ahead of Wall-E ($33.4 million) and Wanted ($20.6 million). Since first hitting theaters on July 2nd, Will Smith's jaded superhero has made a total of $107.3 million.

Much like his alky anti-hero, Smith is a force to be reckoned with.  read more »

Why should anyone care about Beck? Isn’t he just some 90's holdover gone morose, gone Scientologist, gone lame with the weight of his early successes and the death of irony, that vein he mined so long and so well?

His last two releases, the aimless Guero and the overworked yet hollow The Information were critically shrugged at and popularly buoyed by the artist’s (deserved) reputation, but seemed to have found Beck Hansen short on good ideas or good energy, something for which he was never, ever lacking.

Yet the father of two is nearing 40, at the tail end of his recording contract, undetermined as to his future, and like the rest of us looking at the abyss that is the future of music.  read more »

Former Radar editor Remy Stern's Web site chronicling New York's influentials has finally gone live with (exclusive!) pictures of Eliot Spitzer's daughter's prom and a handy survival guide for the city's trophy wives to get us going. Click through for more. [Cityfile] 

Lazard Freres banking heir Justin Lazard is planning to sue the Caribbean hotel where he and his wife, former Project Runway contestant Shannon Fluet, were married in early June. Mr. Lazard claims that his then-pregnant wife was assaulted by the hotel's manager and security guards. [P6]

Alex Rodriguez' friends are reportedly accusing his estranged wife, Cynthia Rodriguez, of going on a spiteful spending spree amidst their public divorce.  read more »

Last time we heard from Marcus Brauchli, he was eating a Vidalia onion-crusted petite filet mignon at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington when word came down that he was being dropped as editor of the Wall Street Journal.

Just over 10 weeks later, he has been named executive editor of the Washington Post. Katharine Weymouth wrote in an e-mail that she will introduce Mr. Brauchli tomorrow morning at 11 a.m.

Mr. Brauchli brings a pretty fabulous résumé to the job--both as a foreign correspondent, with most of his time spent in Asia, and as national editor of the Journal. He also, of course, was the Journal's managing editor, but he had few accomplishments and that's for two obvious reasons: He spent little over a year in the office and most of that time was spent trying to shepherd (unsuccessfully) changes for Rupert Murdoch.  read more »