Sally Minard

Here's an invitation to Joe Bruno's Fall Fest at 7th Avenue and 51st Street, on October 17. That's quite a way away from Bruno's Rensselaer district and right in Eliot Spitzer's backyard. It's also taking place around the time some people expect the state's new Commission on Public Integrity to issue its report on Spitzer's use of state police to track Bruno's traveling. (It'll be interesting to see how he's getting there.)

This fund-raiser should, if nothing else, provide some indication of how enthusiastically donor-class Republicans are rallying around Bruno.

On an unrelated fund-raising note...On October 1, Jonathan Bing is having an event featuring Chef David Burke. It's being hosted in the home of Sally Minard, who is a pretty generous contributor to local and national Democrats.

UPDATE: A reader brought to my attention the fact that three of the four people listed on Bruno’s fun-raiser as members of the Senate Republican Campaign Committee are also members of the committee investigating the governor.

UPDATE 2: Bruno's spokeswoman, Lisa Black, emailed to say, "Members of any Senate committee are chosen by the Majority Leader based on seniority. (Just look at the members of the highly coveted Finance Committee - Majority members sitting on that committee have a decade or more of Senate tenure).  The Investigations and Government perations Committee members were in place far before the Governor's dirty tricks campaign, aka 'Troopergate.' "

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Mark Green had a laugh at his opponents' expense at last night's fund-raiser at Caroline's Comedy Club featuring the irascible faux-news curmudgeon Lewis Black and the significantly less funny Paul Mecurio. (Mecurio, for those unfamiliar with his act, is the rather aggressive audience "fluffer" on the Daily Show who stomps around the stage before each episode in an effort to rev the crowd into a clapping, screaming frenzy.)

Mecurio did manage to get a rise out of the audience -- which included Broadway laughstress Elaine May, Democratic lady-donor Sally Minard, Singin' in the Rain director Stanley Donen, actor (and MC) Bob Balaban, and metals magnate Henry Jarecki -- with a few topical political jokes. Like the one he told about Jeanine Pirro mulling a run for state senate because the campaign speeches are short (an allusion to her infamous "do you have page 10?" gaffe last year). Or when he pointed to a guy in the audience and said he looked like an Andrew Cuomo handler except that his neck wasn't thick enough.

Most of the other jokes were generic political satire -- you know, standard rants about airport security, Dick Cheney, quail hunting, the Axis of Evil, etc.

The event raised some $250,000, according to the Green folks. Now he just has to figure out how to turn that money into 18 percentage points.

-- Lizzy Ratner

As far as local politics go, the East Side seems to be divided when it comes to this year's race for Attorney General.

An invitation to Mark Green's upcoming comedic fundraiser listed as a vice chair of the event William Samuels, whose sister, Jacqui, is a fundraiser for Carolyn Maloney.

And two East Side District Leaders, Sally Minard and Linda Foa, who are listed as benefactor and patron, respectively, are also close to Maloney. (Ms. Minard held a fundraiser for the congresswoman at her home last year.)

The catch, of course, is that Maloney is supporting Andrew Cuomo, who won the endorsement of the Lex Club by a vote of 69 to 23 over Mark Green after she endorsed him.

Maybe her friends didn't get the memo.

—Nicole Brydson