Chad Clanton

"David Axelrod, Media Advisor to the Ferrer Campaign, and Chad Clanton, Communications Consultant, will leave the campaign effective immediately due to strategic differences. " 'David Axelrod, with his long association with Fernando Ferrer, and Chad Clanton, Communications Consultant, share Fernando Ferrer's values and vision for New York City, and we wish them luck,' said Jen Bluestein, a spokesperson for the Ferrer Campaign."  read more »

Shelly Silver is often accused of being less than helpful in creating other, potentially rival, Democratic power bases.

We'll be interested in whether anybody gets a hold of him today to talk about Freddy's big new proposal, a stock transfer tax that will make Wall Street, as Ferrer happily predicted, "howl." (Randi called it "bold," the Ferrer-campaign word for the day.)  read more »

The plan to reinstate a fraction of the old tax would have to be passed by the Assembly and Senate, and cold words from Shelly would be a real blow to the Ferrer plan.

You'll get lots of substance in tomorrow's papers no doubt. On the matter of style, the oddly-lit press conference at Pace (Freddy had a Powerpoint presentation projected onto his face) featured a nice culture clash: Chad Clanton tries to explain that an unnameable policy director is not to be named in print, and Rafael Martinez Alequin tries to explain to Chad that, while he has no problem with Texans, this kind of thing won't do on his turf.

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.

New Yorkers know there's no place quite like this city.  read more »

Those New York Times "Public Lives" profiles are, in the political world at least, the equivalent of a large bulls-eye on your back. We have this vague feeling that Ed Skyler learned that at some point, and today's the turn of Ferrer spokesman Chad Clanton.

And Wonkette, who's in charge of these things, wasn't feeling particularly kind today:  read more »

"[W]e can't say if the political consulting skills he learned at the foot of James Carville are working for Ferrer, the Carville-esque self-promotional skills sure are. The article focuses heavily on the "boyish" Clanton's accent and his affection (or is that "affectation") for Southern sodie pop Dr. Pepper. It ends with him quoting Dale Earnhardt. Thank God they ended the interview before Clanton jumped down a turn and picked a bale of cotton.

"Also, somewhere, David Brooks is crying."

The Politicker is deeply committed to the principles of Truth, Honesty, and Moral Probity. So when we learn that we have made an error -- either of omission or commission -- we like to own up to the mistake and correct the record as quickly as possible.

Last week we posted an item, titled "Washington on the Hudson," about the Ferrer campaign's hiring of former Kerry spokesman Chad Clanton as its new P.R. maestro. We tried to do our best with the post, but we made one grievous mistake: we suggested that the members of Team Ferrer favor the retro-style hipster hangout Mayrose diner, when, in fact, they favor the more humbly-priced alterkocker hangout Eisenberg's Sandwich Shop. A closet-sized greasy-spoon that's been clogging arteries since the Great Depression, Eisenberg's is famous for making egg creams and tuna melts just like your bubbe did. (We, however, recommend the matzo ball soup).  read more »

We can't imagine how we mistook the Ferrer folks for Mayrose people when they are so clearly hot pastrami types, but we apologize for the error. And from here on out: we'll see you at Eisenberg's.

In yet further confirmation of our (okay, Ben Smith's) theory of the Washingtonization of New York politics, Team Freddy Ferrer announced today that it has just hired former Kerry spokesman Chad Clanton as the campaign's new P.R. maestro.

And they sound pretty pleased about it.

According to a press release, issued this afternoon by the Ferrer campaign, Mr. Clanton not only "played a critical role" in helping develop the Kerry's camp's notoriously sluggish (oops, we meant lightening-fast) rapid response operation, but he's also "run campaigns" with those grand pooh-bahs of Washington insiderdom James Carville and Paul Begala (who was also, apparently, Mr. Clanton's professor at the University of Texas once upon a time.)

The press release continues: "In 2002, Clanton managed the Alex Sanders for U.S. Senate campaign in South Carolina. And during the 2000 presidential campaign for Al Gore, Clanton ran the communications operation in Michigan for the Democratic Coordinated Campaign."  read more »

The Ferrer camp's big Beltway hire comes, of course, as the Bloomberg campaign continues to buy up every spare political operative in New York City who hasn't been nailed down. And even some who have.

So welcome to New York, Mr. Clanton. We'll see you at Mayrose.