Errol Cockfield

 

David Paterson is reimbursing his campaign $253 for two stays at a hotel for which his campaign counsel, Henry Berger, said there was not enough adequate documentation to justify as a campaign expense.

In a press conference at Berger’s office in the Empire State Building this afternoon, Berger said the expenses were for staffers who stayed there, and not related to the extramarital affairs Paterson recently admitted to.  read more »

Eliot Spitzer is bring another seasoned hand into his administration's press operation.

The new spokesman for the Empire State Development Corporation will be Warner Johnston, currently the spokesman for the city’s parks department and unofficial orchestrator of a series of social functions bringing together press aides and political officials and operatives.

“After 6.5 years of city service, I am joining E.S.D.C’s Communication Department in the middle of December,” Johnston said via email.

Johnston is filling the vacancy created when E.S.D.C. spokesman Errol Cockfield left to join the governor’s press office.

Errol Cockfield has joined the Empire State Development Corporation as press secretary, the second Newsday staffer to defect to the state's economic development agency that is now run by a Long Islander.

How did this happen?

The ESDC's new senior vice president for communications, A.J. Carter, was the first hire. As Newsday's associate business editor and business columnist, he told The Real Estate that he knew Pat Foye, the downstate ESDC co-chairman, back when Mr. Foye was president of the United Way of Long Island. "He's somebody I wrote about off and on," Mr. Carter said. In fact, he even broke the story in November of Mr. Foye's leaving for an undefined job in the Spitzer administration. Mr. Carter, dispelling notions that his hire somehow represented a conflict of interest, said his discussions about a job came well after that.

Mr. Cockfield was one of several applicants for the job of press secretary. But since he had been stationed in Albany as bureau chief for the previous two years, and before that in Manhattan, he hardly knew Mr. Carter. Mr. Cockfield, it turned out, had the scoop in December on what job it was exactly that Mr. Foye was getting. Mr. Cockfield won't reveal his sources, but he told The Real Estate that he and Mr. Foye never met until his job interview for the ESDC post.

"Errol clearly was the best," Mr. Carter said. "The fact that we both came from the same place didn't matter."

Of course, it's no secret that the newspaper industry, and Newsday in particular, has had its own troubles recently. Mr. Carter said that, after 34 years at the paper, he was ready for a change. Mr. Cockfield, a 10-year veteran, was more frank.

"It's not the same journalism as it used to be," he said. "In government, I felt I could have much more influence."

- Matthew Schuerman

Eliot Spitzer has a message for Shelly Silver: pick a comptroller "from among the three."

Errol Cockfield gets his hands on NARAL's lit, which says that Republican Maureen O'Connell's stances "changes with the weather."

Chuck Schumer's book got a nice review from Michiko Kakutani, who Norman Mailer swears "disdains white male authors."

Ralph Nader is unimpressed with the Internet. "I don't think the electronic media is very motivating for people to really act."

Chris Cillizza plays the expectations game (already!) with Hillary Clinton in Iowa. "She doesn't need to leapfrog Edwards, but she does need to show movement."

Kerry Eleveld gets an earful from comptroller candidate Martha Stark about social investment.

The Brooklyn Paper editor in chief responds, politely, to Errol Louis. [Response in the comment section, at the 1:42 mark]

And above is my month-old photo of a happy Roberto Ramirez.

-- Azi Paybarah