Brendan Quinn

Capitol Confidential reports that Joe Bruno has hired Brendan Quinn, a former state GOP executive director who has riled both Bloomberg and Pataki with his willingness to work for candidates like, for example, Tom Ognibene.

Mike may or may not, it seems, be facing a Republican primary from Tom Ognibene.

One Republican tells us Ognibene now has just about 7,500 petition signatures, and predicts that he will get enough to get on the ballot, but perhaps not enough to beat back a legal challenge from the Bloomberg campaign.

And a last-minute push is certainly underway. A GOP reader reports an unusual robo-call from Tom Ognibene. The call promised an accompanying email that would include a petition to be downloaded, signed, witnessed, and mailed in.

No email arrived in that case, but Ognibene campaign manager Brendan Quinn says he's taken in more than 1,000 petitions via mail and email.  read more »

A court fight, win or lose, would be a publicity gift to Ognibene.

"The question I have for the mayor's campaign is what is he afraid of," Ognibene advisor Brendan Quinn told The Politicker. "I have to assume he's afraid of his record versus a more conservative candidate in a Republican primary."

We hear Tom Ognibene is close to hiring Republican political consultant Brendan Quinn for his attack on Bloomberg's right flank.

Quinn is a former executive director of the New York State Republican Party and a veteran of the bitter post-election action in Florida in 2000. His presence on the campaign would indicate a level of seriousness about the political mechanics -- fundraising, petitioning, etc -- that we hadn't quite seen from Ognibene, and that his critics were hinting would not exist.  read more »

The two men had lunch at the Beekman Pub today, and we're told that Quinn is "very likely" to come on board. That probably means we'll see a real campaign from the right, and a headache for the Mayor.