According to several sources, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez is backing Jesus Gonzalez, a community organizer with Make the Road New York who also has the support of the Working Families Party. Velazquez has a longtime rivalry with Brooklyn Democratic leader Vito Lopez. Rafael Espinal, who is the chief-of-staff to Council member Erik Dilan--a longtime Lopez ally--is also in the race.

Meanwhile, the third candidate in the race, Deidra Towns--daughter of Congressman Ed Towns--has hired longtime Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf to manage her campaign.

No date for the special election has been set, but allies of Towns and Gonzalez are pushing for it to be held during the Democratic primary in September. Espinal is believed to have the inside track with the Kings County executive committee, and holding the election during the September primary will allow Towns and Gonzalez the chance to position onto the ballot.

Well, the wondering is over.

The State Democratic Party--an extension of the Cuomo operation--just announced they've hired the longtime consultant, who delighted in referring to Cuomo as "Andy" when he helped defeat him in 2002, and opposed him again in 2006.

"The New York State Democratic Committee has retained veteran political consultant Hank Sheinkopf to assist with communications strategy and rapid response during this election season," said chairman Jay Jacobs in a statement.

"It's a perfect marriage," said Sheinkopf by telephone. He called his old foe "an excellent attorney general."

Hiring the bare-knuckled Sheinkopf--who also worked for Michael Bloomberg in 2009--suggests the state party might be gearing up now for a potential brawl with either Rick Lazio, or Buffalo developer Carl Paladino--who, it might be noted, has now sent a duck to dog Cuomo on his upstate tour.

Menges, a political operative who worked for Rudy Giuliani, wrote to the court that "in my years as a political consultant, I have never heard of any campaign identifying voters by means of a door canvassing operation."

Democratic consultants disagreed.

"Door to door campaigning and canvassing are excellent methods of voter contact and communication and should generally result in higher turnout levels for those so directly contacted," wrote Hank Sheinkopf, in an email.

Evan Stavisky, a Democratic consultant who worked against Rose and declined to comment specifically about this race, said that, in general, door-knocking has its benefits.

"Having advised 70 or more successful candidates for office, in my experience door to door outreach is an essential tool in the modern political arsenal, whether done by a candidate or by paid or volunteer canvassers. Smart campaigns put boots on the ground to identify and mobilize supporters."

These days, Sheinkopf is more supportive.

He sent an unsolicited email to me this morning, saying, "For the record; Why is the governor trying to draw fire away from the budget mess by attacking Andrew Cuomo? Politics should be taking a back seat to the fiscal crisis."

On NY1 last week, Sheinkopf articulated Cuomo's rational for running for governor, if he chooses to. Sheinkopf said Cuomo "will be the outsider, he'll be the guy we picked to clean up the mess, and that's his argument." 

Later in the show, Sheinkopf noted he was "uniquely qualified" to talk about Cuomo's political prospects, and said, "He's a different guy. He's ready to do this. If he runs, it'll be very exciting."

I emailed Shienkopf to say I was wondering if he's considered working for Cuomo.

Sheinkopf replied, "Keep wondering." 

A reader pointed out to me that David Paterson is in the unenviable position of most likely needing to rely on a high turnout among African-American voters to boost his chances of winning a competitive primary, but opposing the Senate candidacy of Harold Ford Jr., who would be running against Paterson's appointed senator, might be detrimental to the cause.

 I contacted Hank Sheinkopf -  a Democratic consultant that has a keen sense of how race, identity and politics mingle together -  and asked him whether Ford could bring out the African-American vote and help Paterson in a primary?

No, he said.

That's because while Ford and Paterson are both African-Americans, Sheinkopf said they'll represent two different things to voters this fall: the establishment and the none-establishment.

"Ford would bring out the insurgents probably and the anti's over all, and people possibly who are not high propensity voters," he said. These voters, said Sheinkopf would rather "use their votes as protests against the current state of affairs: state government perceived to be out of control and the presence of four appointed, unelected individuals in normally elected offices."

That would be Paterson, DiNapoli, Gillibrand and, Ravitch.

Paterson's poll numbers are low, and his fund-raising is anemic, but much of the talk about getting Paterson out of the race was, at least publicly, premised on the notion that a credible Republican candidate in the general election--that would be Rudy Giuliani--could snatch the governorship away from Democrats. And if Paterson went down, he could bring with him Senate Democrats, flipping control of that house into Republican hands right as lawmakers prepare to redraw legislative lines.

As one Paterson partisan put it, the anti-Patersons "have been holding up Rudy as a poster boy." Without that poster boy, they will no longer be able to affect an air of regret about having to push the governor aside for the sake of the party. No, those same critics will only be able to contend (not unreasonably, but more harshly) that Paterson has been such a failure as governor that he must give way to Andrew Cuomo. Either that, or they'll have to make the (somewhat tougher) case that New York will elect Rick Lazio.

Which doesn't necessarily change any outcomes, but will certainly serve to make things somewhat more awkward.

Paterson, in a scrum with Albany reporters after the reports came out about Giuliani not running, was reserved.

"I won't minimize that Rudy Giuliani served well as the mayor of the city of New York; he has a national reputation and he would be, obviously, an opponent that would have a lot of support," he said. "I don't know who's running. I don't even know why we're talking about this."

But what may have scared Giuliani out of the race is the same thing that may yet derail Paterson: Andrew Cuomo.

He's popular, has lots of money, and has refused to stamp out chatter about his ambitions for that office.

Cuomo even sent a private - and subsequently leaked - signal to Giuliani that he's prepared to run.

"Andrew's positioning is so strong, I don't think anything can happen to him," said Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf.

The first was Eric Ulrich, who held his seat in the Howard Beach, Rockaway section, which is pretty blue-collar and the kind of place Rudy Giuliani did well. Which is why the former mayor campaigned there with Republican Eric Ulrich. But Ulrich could have held the seat on his own. He’s young and a talented public speaker who first won the seat in a special election after the front-runner was knocked off the ballot. On Tuesday, Ulrich was helped by the fact that Michael Bloomberg carried the district, according to this fun interactive map.

In Bayside, Dan Hallaron – a pagan – edged out Democrat Kevin Kim, an aide to Representative Gary Ackerman.

The pagan angle was, predictably, distracting. One television report quotes Halloran, but attributes it like this: "Pagan said."

Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf said the District didn’t do anything special by voting in Halloran.

“The district went back to what it was before Avella. It’s a Republican neighborhood. They made an option to vote and to sustain the old. It’s not so new,” he said.

And if you think about it, Avella was usually with Republicans when it came to things like taxes.

But it’s in Flushing that Republicans made their most surprising gain.

Peter Koo, a local businessman , beat out Yen Chou, who won a crowded Democratic primary back in September, and had the support of outgoing Councilman John Liu – who demonstrated an amazing ability to attract voters in Asian neighborhoods like Flushing.

One Democratic operative said Chou’s people made a few classic mistakes: the first was not expanding their outreach to the non-Asian voters in Flushing. Also, Chou came out of a crowded primary with just 25 percent of the vote. Since then, she hadn’t consolidated the Democratic vote or establishment to her cause, one consultant said.

Flushing Assemblywoman Grace Meng, who supported Chou, told me via email, “I think Queens Democrats didn't expect a Republican to win in Flushing. We were focused on Kevin Kim, Liz Crowley and Bill Thompson.”

Liz Crowley, who, like Ulrich, won her seat in a special election earlier this year, held off a challenge from former Republican Councilman Tom Ognibene.

"Michael Oliva will act as Sheinkopf's senior strategic adviser to the Siegel campaign," the campaign said.

That's the same Michael Oliva who recently parted ways with another public advocate candidate, Eric Gioia, over strategic differences.

"I like him because being public advocate is the only job he's interested in. The other candidates seem to see this office as a stepping stone for higher aspirations," Oliva said, echoing a major talking point of his candidate.

"With Norman, it's all about helping the people, and making the office a better vehicle with which to do so. Above all, I respect his sincerity, and I believe the voters will too."

The latest hiring is also a slap at Mark Green, whom Sheinkopf tried to help elect to attorney general in 2006. And the move also brings Siegel closer to Michael Bloomberg, who hired Sheinkopf earlier and has been unexpectedly collegial to Siegel.

He points to an invitation to a fund-raiser she’s having at the home of Howard Milstein, described alternately as a “real estate magnate” and a “real estate mogul."

Sheinkopf, a spokesman for comptroller candidate David Weprin, said Katz "lives out of the real estate industry" and "that’s where her allegiances lie."

A spokesman for Katz's campaign, Ben Branham, disagreed with the characterization of Milstein as a one-dimensional creature of the real estate world, noting he supports a number of charitable causes.

Branham also said that the wider argument that Katz is beholden to the real estate industry is inaccurate.

He said she's the "only candidate in the race who’s sat across from developers and gotten them to build affordable housing, parks and schools. None of the candidates can say they sat across the table from developers and forced them to create affordable housing and prevailing wage jobs."

Milstein has given money to progressive Democrats, including mayoral candidate Bill Thompson and public advocate candidate Eric Gioia. He's also helping Manhattan D.A. candidate Richard Aborn raise money.

He was also a major supporter of Barack Obama.

Here's the response I got from Sheinkopf, who is working for candidate David Weprin, to yesterday’s Quinnipiac poll, which showed Weprin behind the three other Democratic candidates:

"The road to city hall has never been paid for by landlords’ money. Landlord candidate Melinda katz, will be found out by the voters."

This is not the first time Sheinkopf has made Katz, the target of his ire. But Katz, who enjoys good relations with the real estate industry, is polling in second place. (Maybe Sheinkopf just doesn't have anything bad to say about first-place candidate John Liu. Or maybe he just doesn't believe in polls.)

A spokesman for Katz, Ryan Toohey, had this to say in response to Sheinkopf:

“Melinda is proudly running on her record of working with business leaders, labor unions and New York's workers to create jobs, build affordable housing and provide quality schools for our kids. And this was all done while preserving more than 6000 blocks in this city. Today's poll shows that voters are responding to that record."