I'm fascinated by Bob Warner's stories published in today's Daily News about John Sabatina, the 56th ward leader who has created a role for himself as a consultant who gets judges (and other candidates) elected.
Bob's profile of Sabatina is here; his piece on how consultants are changing the machine-driven system is here.
Sabatina is very successful, by any measure. He raked in $150,000 from the seven candidates he represented in the primary. Five of those got elected. The Democratic City Committee, by contrast, endorsed four judge candidates; one (Linda Carpenter, who was at the top of the ballot) was elected.
There's much to discuss here, including the fact (made in this story) that the rise of these consultants seems to help relatively well-off candidates. But what fascinates me is the argument -- which he makes, and I certainly have no reason to doubt -- that these consultants are needed.
Huh?
Reading between the lines, the argument is this: 1) The Democratic City Committee's endorsement counts for less these days, and ward leaders are not pushing a single slate of candidates 2) There are a lot of ward leaders and other important pols who candidates need to meet and extract promises of support from 3) Ergo, candidates need to hire these consultants to manage the introductions (and, as one source says to Bob, to make sure that the ward leaders make good on those promises).
It's a rational market-based argument -- there's a need, people will pay to fill it, so someone steps up to take the money -- but good grief. Michael Erdos spent half a million dollars to become a judge, $77,000 to four noted consultants (including Sabatina).
Is there no better way to spend that money during an election?
Comments (2)
Rudy may need Sabatina
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/2007/08/07/2007-08-07_giuliani_teen_has_obama_on_her_mind.html
Posted by Jasper Zeigler Jr | August 7, 2007 3:31 PM
Quite bold from young Philly. This shows someone isn't totally in belief of Sabatina's activity sail :-)
Posted by Jasper Zeigler Jr | August 7, 2007 3:39 PM