Jason Weingartner

Yesterday, I reported that Suri Kasirer, who used to do Bill Thompson's fund-raising, no longer works for him in that capacity. According to people I spoke with, Kasirer is winding down her fund-raising operations and focusing more on the lobbying part of her business.

But that doesn't mean she's stopped helping people raise money.

She helped organize a fund-raiser for David Paterson last week, according to a reader who attended the event and two people I contacted who were familiar with it. (When I called Kasirer's office, a receptionist there said she is on vacation for the week and declined to comment.)

This gets at the interesting question of when a person who raises money for candidates is not, officially speaking, a fund-raiser.  read more »

Here is an invitation to the first-ever Senate Summer Social, organized by state Senate Republicans for August 21 by the South Street Seaport.

George Pataki held his birthday fund-raisers at that very location for years. But with Republicans holding no statewide office, the job of roping in contributors has now fallen into the hands of Joe Bruno and company.

The event is being organized by Bruno's spokeswoman, Lisa Black, and other Republican-friendly types like Scott Sala of Urban Elephants, Jason Weingartner of Cathy Blaney Associates and Bill Smith from the Staten Island DA's office.

CORRECTION: Never mind all that. An organizer called to tell me that it's not a fund-raiser.

New York GOP fund-raiser extraordinaire Jason Weingartner appeared on FoxNews recently, only to have his friends comment on the size of his monstrous sideburns. Pictured above is a trimmed-down version of Weingartner's trademark burns, which were on display at a John Faso fund-raiser recently.  read more »