At a press conference earlier today Andrew Siff of NBC asked Michael Bloomberg, “If you’re not a candidate, how do you justify Kevin Sheekey’s salary?”

“Kevin Sheekey gets paid, I think, the same as all deputy mayors," Bloomberg said. "He works as hard for this city as anybody I know, a lot more hours than anybody has a right to expect. He’s literally one of these 24-7 guys. In his spare time, Kevin Sheekey does have an interest in politics. I don’t think there is any question about that."

More after the jump.  read more »

Kevin Sheekey was walking through the Sheraton Hotel, holding The New York Times and a cellphone he was ignoring.

“I was on the phone talking with Colin Powell last week and he said, ‘You’re tougher to reach than the mayor is,’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I kind of like it that way,’” he said.

Mr. Sheekey, 41, is Michael Bloomberg’s closest political aide, and the architect of the mayor’s unannounced-but-still-possible independent presidential campaign.

People have noticed his work.  read more »

Kevin Sheekey, the architect of the Michael-Bloomberg-for-President story, told me earlier that I was "obsessed" with the Michael Bloomberg-for-President story. Which isn't wrong, but still -- it's saying something.

When someone pointed out that such a term could be applied to him, Sheekey said, deadpan, that he's really much more focused on city government.

Later, I asked Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler about Sheekey's suggestion that Skyler may get into the movie business after leaving City Hall.  read more »

Michael Bloomberg’s office just announced he’s going west to see Arnold Schwarzenegger, who's also a fan of Kevin Sheekey (though the governor never managed to hire the Bloomberg aide).

The two will appear together in Los Angeles on January 19.  read more »

Michael Bloomberg adviser Kevin Sheekey is escalating his FaceBook-page cheerleading for a Bloomberg presidential run.

Here's some recent activity:

December 2
Kevin joined the group Draft Bloomberg! 9:05pm

Kevin joined the group Michael R. Bloomberg for Pres. of U.S.A. 9:04pm

Kevin became a fan of Draft Mike Bloomberg. 8:59pm

This is turning into a bit of a routine. Sheekey puts the ball in motion, Bloomberg denies he's planning a presidential bid, and reporters... Never mind.  read more »

If there was an award for loudest cheerleader encouraging Michael Bloomberg to run for president, it would unquestionably go to Kevin Sheekey, one of his political advisers, who keeps finding both big and small ways to suggest that the mayor will enter the race.

The latest: a subtle change to Sheekey’s profile on Facebook.

A reader who Sheekey 'friended" on Facebook pointed out that Sheekey recently left the “New York” network and joined the one for “Washington D.C.” Technically, Sheekey hasn’t worked in the capitol since his days with Pat Moynihan.

The changes he made to his profile after the jump.

 read more »

Doug Schoen, the noted pollster who crunched numbers for Bill Clinton’s re-election campaign in the mid 1990's, and for Michael Bloomberg’s 2001 mayoral race, said last night that he doesn’t think Bloomberg will run for president.

Schoen, speaking at a forum about presidential polling at Baruch College, was answering a question from an audience member who wanted to know which of the two major parties would be most affected by a Bloomberg presidential run.

“Let me just say at the outset I don’t think he is going to run,” Schoen said. “Largely Phil’s question is an academic one. It was very interesting to me that at this point, he appears to be hurting the Republicans at least as much if not more than the Democrats. I think the reason for that has more to do with disaffected Republicans who probably don’t want to vote, at this point, for Hillary Clinton--who hear, you know, Independent Michael Bloomberg, don’t know much about who Michael Bloomberg is, and are saying, ‘You know what, we don’t want to vote Republican, and this is an alternative.”

More after the jump.  read more »

Here's a clip of Sheekey speaking at a Citizens Union event about how Michael Bloomberg was able to change city government in large part due to being a self-funded candidate.

So how much weight should be put into Michael Bloomberg’s denials about running for president?

According to Bloomberg’s chief political strategist, Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey, not much.

In an interview with City Hall News, Sheekey said that Barack Obama made the same denials, and it hasn’t hurt his campaign.

"The thing about running for president is it makes sense if it makes sense. If there’s a reason for you to run, and there’s a constituency that’s calling for you, and you have real ideas, then people will support you. And if not, they won’t. I have not heard anyone in six months run around talking about Barack Obama saying, 'He swore he wasn’t going to run.' ’Cause no one cares. They care about what he’s going to do for the country."

Sheekey also dismissed the idea of running for office himself. "Yeah, but for what?  I’m gonna run for Gale Brewer’s job?"

Just as new poll numbers revive speculation that Michael Bloomberg could successfully run for governor of New York in 2010, someone who wants to see Bloomberg run for another, higher office emailed this photo to fellow supporters.

It shows Bloomberg, top advisor Kevin Sheekey and the mayor's girlfriend Diana Taylor meeting Karin Gallet, an organizer in the movement to draft Bloomberg into the presidential race. The meeting took place after Bloomberg's public interview with Tom Brokaw at Cooper Union late last month.

While Bloomberg has talked down his interest in that race, he has demonstrated a willingness at least to be photographed for the cause.