Micah Lasher

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 »

Ben predicted a while back that the primary for Sylvia Friedman's Assembly seat could be one of the hardest-fought races of the year.

That's because of Brian Kavanagh, the who finished second in a crowded City Council race last year, and who is now challenging Friedman. He'll be formidable, with a considerable warchest and the Knickerbocker SKD consulting firm working on his campaign.

But Kavanagh's candidacy apparently had something of a hiccup recently when he showed up late for an endorsement interview with a Working Families Party steering committee, blamed a staffer for the mix-up and then told the stunned room of labor-lefties that the worker in question was no longer with the campaign.

The committee of about 15 promptly endorsed Friedman. Kavanagh got no votes.

"He should have taken the blame himself," said WFP member Michael Hirsch, who related the story. "I guess he didn't know his audience."

Micah Lasher, responding for Kavanagh, took issue with the account and said, "Brian's proud to have the support of many progressive labor unions and looks forward to winning the primary of Democratic voters in Sept. 12."

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's new set of Community Board has been anxiously awaited in Manhattan political circles, and it's out today, with a couple of notable names and a general sense of a change of course. Stringer instituted a new, open, application process, and apparently dropped sitting members who didn't bother participating. He purged quite a bit downtown and, with Councilwoman Inez Dickens, replaced some of the Harlem allies of Virginia Fields and Bill Perkins. Jo Hamilton, whom Virginia removed, is back on Community Board 2.

Other notable new Community Board members: Stringer aide and political consultant Micah Lasher; erstwhile Working Families Party Mayoral Candidate Kevin Finnegan; former City Council chief-of-sfatt Forrest Taylor (a Dickens appointment); and smoothing things over in Harlem, Amsterdam News publisher Elinor Tatum, who will sit on Community Board 3 -- which is not, by the way, anywhere near Harlem, but never mind.

Anyway, you can read the full list here.

Here's a tidbit that closes a few circles in New York politics.

All Sharpton's Keepers of the Dream conference, at which John Kerry is expected to appear next month, is being represented by the new P.R. wing of KnickerbockerSKD (along with the Rev's longtime aide Rachel Noerdlinger). The move extends Al's embrace to Stefan Friedman, a former reporter and editorial hand at a tabloid that never really liked Al, as well as his two partners: Josh Isay, who worked on Mike's campaign, and Micah Lasher, who worked for Mark Green in a capacity that, one imagines, didn't endear him to the Rev.

What amazes us most about this New York Magazine item, which revisits those notorious "racist" flyers from the 2001 campaign, is how Freddy has evidently forgiven what once appeared to be a rather personal wound; while Mike Bloomberg, the sole beneficiary of the Democrats' racial meltdown, is now keeping the grievance alive.

To explain: Freddy, as the New York piece points out, essentially launched this year's campaign by embracing Carl Kruger, a South Brooklyn pol who played a central role in Mark Green's much-criticized appeal to white Brooklyn voters.

Mike, meanwhile, seems to have pursued rather extreme means of distancing himself from the affair. The kid who did the mechanical work of designing the flyer, Micah Lasher, is now a political consultant. (When we say "kid," we mean that, as we recall, he was 19, and an undergrad at NYU, in 2001.) His partner is doing work for Bloomberg. And Team Bloomberg is petrified of the flyer's taint:

"Bloomberg's advisors were so worried about flyer blowback that, after some debate, they had Lasher sign a notarized paper saying he'd recused himself from working with them."  read more »

Notarized?! This strikes us as quite a precedent. What better way to validate the charge that the flyer was racist, toxic, a page from Der Sturmer? And what better way to signal that you'll be an easy target for similar accusations in October?

We were a bit surprised to see "Doctor Dre" listed among the hosts of a fundraiser for Assemblyman Scott Stringer, who's running for Manhattan Borough President, and who is not widely seen as a hip-hop icon.

Stringer's spokesman, Micah Lasher, clarified for us that this is not the West Coast gangster rapper Dr. Dre, but rather half of the East Coast rap-comedy team Dr. Dre and Ed Lover, once famous for hosting Yo! MTV Raps and now apparently in the midst of a grimace-inducing movie career.  read more »

"Scott may be a reformer, but he still likes his rap old-school," Lasher told us.

Poof!  read more »