A reader in the comments section tried connecting a few dots between Michael Bloomberg’s former consultants at Knickerbocker SKD and the role some key players in the term-limits debate are playing, including Christine Quinn and the powerful union 1199 SEIU.

It's speculative stuff, but here's what we know: Bloomberg, as the Times noted today, hired Josh Isay of Knickerbocker for his 2005 re-election campaign and is likely to rely on him again for the next one. (In a brief email exchange today, Isay politely declined to detail the role he’s currently playing for Bloomberg.)

Isay is also a consultant for Quinn, who hasn’t publicly stated her position on the effort to change term limits legislatively, although  read more »

In the face of a weirdly mixed (but definitely not positive) reaction to the Post's revelation yesterday that the Council has been stashing away money through appropriations to phony organizations, Christine Quinn’s people have pushed the notion that she actually deserves credit for trying to stop a long-standing practice in the City Council and say that it actually bolsters her credentials as a reformer.  read more »

As more and more New York politicians are preparing their candidacies for the 2009 citywide races, Scott Stringer too has a decision to make. He can either coast to a second term as Manhattan Borough President or pursue a more ambitious, and hard-to-win, position.

His consultant, Josh Isay, seems to be leaving Stringer's options open. 

“He’s had the job for less than two years," Isay just told me. "He’s accomplished a lot in that period of time and is continued to stay focused on the substantive agenda he has as borough president.”

Stringer's hand is somewhat forced in the matter. If he doesn’t run for an open seat now, he’ll face the prospects of being term-limited as Manhattan Borough President when every citywide elected position is held by an incumbent.

In a notable bit of reverse-migration from private political work to the public sector, Micah Lasher -- the recently departed co-founder of Knickerbocker SKD is joining the staff of Representative Jerry Nadler.  read more »

Cunningham will be working alongside Josh Isay, who worked on Cuomo's 2002 gubernatorial race, as well as Micah Lasher and Stefan Friedman, among others.

The full statement from Knickerbocker is after the jump.  read more »

Josh Isay may be new to the Lieberman campaign, but not to Lieberman himself.

Hometown loyalties aside, Isay said he is a great admirer of the Senator, and expressed confidence Lieberman will take on and win against Democrats, Republicans and anyone else going into November's showdown with Ned Lamont.

Lamont's campaign has already jumped on the Lieberman's campaign hiring of Isay -- who recently worked on the reelection campaign of Mike Bloomberg -- and a Republican pollster as another opportunity to question the senator's Democratic credentials.

But Isay, who helped reelect Republican Mayor Bloomberg, said he was a true-blue Democrat.

Bloomberg appears to have, at least for now, backed down. But an independent group just put down $200,000 to go after two Republican State Senators, Serph Maltese of Queens and Nick Spano of Westchester, with the message that "the clock is ticking" to vote the city bundles of education money.

You can watch the ads on the site of the League of Education Voters.

And here's a tidbit in support of that thesis: Quinn retained as a consultant on her run Josh Isay, the same ex-Schumer aide who was a consultant to Bloomberg's reelection campaign. (It was a very good year for Isay and partner Micah Lasher, who also ran Scott Stringer's campaign for Borough President.)

Still, she's by her roots a local pol, not -- like de Blasio -- a Democratic operative who might have set himself up as an ideological or partisan challenger to the Mayor.

Chris's personal style is much more combative than Bill's or Gifford Miller's, but her base is a subset of Mike's own. So the threat she poses to Mike seems, like Giff's, limited.

The contact listed on this press release for the Campaign is Josh Isay, whose firm is part of Squier, Knapp & Dunn, which works for ... Mike Bloomberg.