Crains New York - June 24, 2013 - (Page 6)

THE INSIDER ISSUE DATE: 8/12/13 CLOSE DATE: 7/12/13 by Andrew J. Hawkins THE GUIDE TO newscom HIGHER EDUCATION Crain’s Guide to Higher Education is a valuable resource providing a look at key offerings from leading educational institutions, highlighting available courses, specialized programs and upcoming events to help you expand your leadership opportunities in the workplace. For advertising information, please contact: Margaret Chin M any voters have yet to tune in to the mayor’s race, let alone the two dozen competitive contests for City Council seats. But a newly formed probusiness, pro-development political action committee will nonetheless roll out its first endorsements and kick off its field operation in early July. Jobs for New York, through which the Real Estate Board of New York, building trade unions and other backers plan Special Advertising Section CRAIN’S NEW YORK LEGAL PREEMINENT LA W GUIDE 2013 Crain’s New York Legal: Preeminent Law Guide 2013 will provide you with tips, trends and insights about how to make the best decisions for your business-all in a single comprehensive resource. KEY DATES: Publishing: September 16, 2013 Close information: Special Early Bird Pricing: 6/28/2013 Regular Close Date: 8/1/2013 For more information, please visit CrainsNewYork.com/NYLegal or contact Jill Kunkes, Senior Account Executive at (212) 210-0170 or jkunkes@crainsnewyork.com. Special Advertising Section 6 | Crain’s New York Business | June 24, 2013 Micah Kellner Pro-business PAC’s first picks Irene Bar-Am (212) 210-0133 ibaram@crainsnewyork.com Distinguished lawyers and law firms have the opportunity to highlight their strengths and success stories to Crain’s valuable audience of business decision-makers, in a trusted and authoritative content environment. Inez Dickens to spend $10 million, will unveil endorsements for two council incumbents and six challengers in the coming weeks. While the initial focus will be on promoting those eight,the group is not ruling out airing negative ads against other candidates viewed as antithetical to its interests. The endorsees are a mix of elected officials and establishment candidates who have received the backing of their respective party organizations. They are Councilwomen Margaret Chin and Inez Dickens and Assemblyman Micah Kellner of Manhattan; Assemblywoman Vanessa Gibson and attorney Andrew Cohen of the Bronx; Assemblyman Rafael Espinal of Brooklyn; district leader Costa Constantinides of Queens; and Steven Matteo of Staten Island. All are Democrats except Mr. Matteo, who is running to succeed his term-limited boss, Republican Councilman James Oddo. “These candidates are committed to creating jobs and opportunities for middle-class New Yorkers,” said Mike McGuire, political director for the Mason Tenders District Council, a Jobs PAC member. “They understand that government has an important role to play when it comes to rebuilding the economy and helping people make ends meet.” But the group is prohibited from working with campaigns; it can’t sit down candidates and grill them. “We are researching candidates’ records and public statements,combining that with targeting data on who’s voting, overlaid with polling data, and a little dose of political common sense,and supporting candidates who we think are most likely to support the issues that are im- portant to us,”said Harry Giannoulis of the Parkside Group, which will run the polling and field operations. The organization plans to begin stumping for its candidates in early July. Research will be conducted by Phil Singer of Marathon Strategies. The group also has Ken Strasma, a voter-targeting expert from Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign. The plan is to spend $2 million on voter identification and field targeting in a total of 25 races. The bulk of the $10 million total will be on direct mail and radio and television advertising. Field operations are to start in July and continue through the Sept. 10 primary. The conventional wisdom is that voters do not begin to tune in to local council races until late August, if at all. The group hopes to elect a bloc of council members that would make it more difficult for the council to override vetoes by a businessfriendly mayor and to serve as a counterweight to candidates aligned with the pro-labor Working Families Party. That said, all but two of its initial eight candidates, Messrs. Espinal and Matteo, have been endorsed by the WFP. To be sure, several members of Jobs for New York, like Mr. McGuire and Pat Purcell of the grocery-store workers’ union, are also WFP members. But they represent the more centrist, prodevelopment faction of the party. This first round of endorsements likely represents some of the easiest decisions the group will make: All are establishment candidates and front-runners in their races. Later decisions will no doubt present more difficult choices. Ⅲ QUOTE OF THE WEEK: ‘To paraphrase a famous movie line, we’ll be back.’ —UFC head Lorenzo Fertitta, after Assembly Democrats again refused to legalize mixed martial arts in New York state http://www.CrainsNewYork.com/NYLegal http://www.CrainsNewYork.com/NYLegal

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - June 24, 2013

Crains New York - June 24, 2013
IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
SMALL BUSINESS
BUSINESS PEOPLE
OPINION
ALAIR TOWNSEND
GREG DAVID
REAL ESTATE DEALS
REPORT: 50 MOST POWERFUL WOMEN IN NEW YORK
CLASSIFIEDS
DIGITAL NY
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crains New York - June 24, 2013