Suri Kasirer

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 »

Suri Kasier is out of Bill Thompson’s campaign.

“We no longer do Bill Thompson fund-raising,” woman who answered the phone at the offices of Kasirer Consulting confirmed. The woman, who did not give her name, then referred my inquiry to Thompson’s campaign office.

Kasirer has consistently ranked among the city’s top lobbyists and active money people since opening her office in 1999, when her husband, Bruce Teitelbaum, worked for then-mayor Rudy Giuliani.

It’s unclear what prompted the departure, or whether this was a move that was a long time coming.

If anyone knows more (or I'm missing something obvious), please let me know.

UPDATE: More than one person I've spoken with said Kasier had been winding down her fund-raising operation for some time, and Thompson was her last fund-raising client.

Crain's published its list yesterday of the 100 most influential women in New York City business.

Topping the list in the Power 25 category were the head of the teacher’s union, Randi Weingarten, and powerhouse lobbyist Jennifer Cunningham.

Also honored were lobbyist Suri Kasirer and fund-raiser andimmigrants' rights advocate Chung-Wha Hong.

UPDATE: I just noticed that in her little profile, Cunningham manages to get in a little dig at Spitzer’s persona: “It was an odd assumption that because there was this new 'tough guy,' we would have any other response than to do right by health care workers and patients.”

A couple of interesting observations I've heard about the fund-raising numbers reported today for the 2009 mayoral candidates:

Number one: The $2.01 million raised by Anthony Weiner is nearly as much as he raised during the entire 2005 race ($3,039,693).

Number two: Suri Kasirer, one of the city’s top most successful lobbyists, has done less well as a fund-raiser for Bill Thompson, who came in fourth for this filing period, with $750,000.

UPDATE: A bit of context: as a reader notes, Thompson has three million dollars on hand, the most of anybody running. Also, there is a spending cap in the race -- Bloomberg-type candidacies notwithstanding -- so there's only so much of a lead anyone can have in that department.  read more »

Here's an account from Democratic consultant Suri Kasirer and former Giuliani aide Bruce Teitelbaum.

Kasirer: We met [in 1993] when he was on the Giuliani campaign and I was helping Dinkins.

Teitelbaum: I would see her very frequently at campaign events and thought she was a very sweet person even though she was a misguided liberal Democrat. A about three or four months of bumping into her pretty much on a regular basis, I though to myself it would be nice to ask her out, which I did immediately following the election.