Worth noting on that transition are people like:

--Albany DA David Soares, who is investigating state comptroller Alan Hevesi over the chauffeur scandal;

--Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes, who is prosecuting former Assemblyman and Kings County Democratic Leader Clarence Norman;

--Ed Cox, one-time Republican senatorial challenger to Hillary Clinton; and

--former Democratic opponents Charlie King and Denise O'Donnell.

One group that is not heavily represented on the list are people currently in the Attorney General's office.

The full list is after the jump.

-- Azi Paybarah

Executive Chair
Robert Abrams, Partner, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP; New York Attorney General (1978-1994).

Special Advisors
Hon. Richard Blumenthal, Attorney General for the State of Connecticut.
Julian Bond, Chairman, NAACP National Board of Directors.

Hon. Jerry Brown, Attorney General-Elect for the State of California; Mayor of Oakland, California; Governor of California (1975-1983).

Carol M. Browner, Principal, The Albright Group LLC; Administrator, United States Environmental Protection Agency (1993 - 2000).

Hon. Louis Freeh, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation (1993 - 2001).

Hon. Raymond W. Kelly, New York City Police Commissioner.

Arthur Levitt, Senior Advisor, The Carlyle Group; Chairman, United States Securities and Exchange Commission (1993 - 2001).

Hon. John Lewis, Member, United States House of Representatives.

Hon. Lisa Madigan, Attorney General for the State of Illinois.

Thurgood Marshall, Jr., Partner, Bingham McCutchen LLP; Cabinet Secretary and Assistant to the President (1997-2001).

Hon. Tom Miller, Attorney General for the State of Iowa.

Hon. Robert M. Morgenthau, New York County District Attorney.

Janet Murguía, President, National Council of La Raza.

Peter G. Peterson, Senior Chairman and Co-Founder, The Blackstone Group; Chairman, Council on Foreign
Relations; Chairman, Federal Reserve Bank of New York (2000 - 2004).

Secretary Robert B. Reich, Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley; United States Secretary of Labor (1993 -1997).

Dean Richard L. Revesz, New York University School of Law.

Secretary Robert E. Rubin, Director & Chairman of the Executive Committee of Citigroup; Member, Office of the Chairman Citigroup Inc.; United States Secretary of the Treasury (1995-1999).

Committee Chairs
Preeta D. Bansal, Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP; New York State Solicitor General (1999-2001).

Hon. Michael E. Bongiorno, President, New York State District Attorneys Association; Rockland County District Attorney.

Zachary W. Carter, Partner, Dorsey & Whitney LLP; United States Attorney, Eastern District of New York (1993-1999).

Derrick Cephas, President & CEO, Amalgamated Bank; New York State Superintendent of Banks (1991-1994).
Edward F. Cox, Chair, New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund; Partner, Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP.

Committee Chairs (Cont'd)
Eric R. Dinallo, General Counsel, Willis Group Holdings; Fmr. Chief of the Investment Protection Bureau of the New York Attorney General.

Dean and Prof. John D. Feerick, Chair, New York State Commission on Judicial Elections (2003); Dean, Fordham University School of Law (1982-2002).

Denis M. Hughes, President, New York State AFL-CIO.

Charlie King, Chief Executive Officer, Praxis Housing Initiatives, Inc.; Fmr. Of Counsel, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson.

Denise O'Donnell, Partner, Hodgson Russ; United States Attorney, Western District of New York (1997-2001).
Cesar Perales, President and General Counsel, Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Hon. Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr., Chairman, New York City Campaign Finance Board; Senior Counsel, Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP.

Hon. George Bundy Smith, Associate Judge, New York Court of Appeals (1982-2006) (retired).
Mary Jo White, Partner, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP; United States Attorney, Southern District of New York (1993-2002).

Antitrust/Investment Protection
Co-Chairs: Zachary Carter and Jeh C. Johnson

Zachary Carter, Partner, Dorsey & Whitney LLP; United States Attorney, Eastern District of New York (1993-1999).

Daniel J. Castleman, First Assistant District Attorney, New York County.
H. Rodgin Cohen, Chairman, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.

John C. Coffee, Professor, Columbia Law School.

Hon. Stewart F. Hancock, Jr. Of Counsel, Hancock & Estabrook LLP; New York Court of Appeals Judge (retired).

Jeh C. Johnson, Partner, Paul, Weiss, Rifkin, Wharton & Garrison LLP.

G. Robert Witmer, Senior Counsel, Nixon Peabody LLP; Chairman, University of Rochester Board of Trustees.

Civil Rights
Co-Chairs: Cesar Perales and Charlie King

Mario Baeza, Chairman and CEO, The Baeza Group; Co-Chair New York City Latin Media and Entertainment Commission.

Alan Van Capelle, Executive Director, Empire State Pride Agenda

Kelli Conlin, President, NARAL Pro-Choice New York.

David J. Hernandez, President, Puerto Rican Bar Association

Charlie King, Chief Executive Officer, Praxis Housing Initiatives, Inc.

Christopher Kui, Executive Director, Asian Americans for Equality.

Cesar Perales, President and General Counsel, Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Hon. Carol Robles-Roman, New York City Deputy Mayor for Legal Affairs and Counsel to the Mayor.

Consumer Protection/Labor
Co-Chairs: Derrick Cephas and Denis M. Hughes

Derrick Cephas, President & CEO, Amalgamated Bank; New York State Superintendent of Banks (1991-1994).

Hon. Nelson Diaz, Partner, Blank and Rome LLP; Fmr. General Counsel, United States Department of Housing and
Urban Development; Judge, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas (1981-1993).

Denis M. Hughes, President, New York State AFL-CIO.

Rachel Leon, Executive Director, Common Cause.

Sharon L. Nelson, Chairperson of the Board of Directors, Consumers Union; Fmr. Chief, Consumer Protection Division, Washington State Attorney General's Office.

Hon. Christine C. Quinn, New York City Council Speaker.

Criminal/Medicaid Fraud
Co-Chairs: Michael G. Bongiorno, Eric R. Dinallo, Mary Jo White

Hon. Michael E. Bongiorno, President, New York State District Attorneys Association; Rockland County District Attorney.

Eric R. Dinallo, General Counsel, Willis Group Holdings; Fmr. Chief of the Investment Protection Bureau of the New York Attorney General.

Hon. Janet DiFiore, Westchester County District Attorney.

Hon. Robert J. Duffy, Mayor of Rochester.

Hon. Charles J. Hynes, Kings County District Attorney.

Linda Fairstein, Chief Prosecutor, New York County District Attorney's Office Sex Crimes Unit. (1976 - 2002).

John J. Poklemba, Partner, Poklemba & Hobbs; Counsel, New York State Association of Chiefs of Police; Fmr.
Commissioner of New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services.

Dennis W. Quirk, President, New York State Court Officers Association.

Prof. Barry C. Scheck, Co-Founder, Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva
University.

Hon. Thomas J. Spota, Suffolk County District Attorney.

Mary Jo White, Partner, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP; United States Attorney, Southern District of New York (1993-2002).

Environment
Chair: Edward F. Cox

Edward F. Cox, Chair, New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund; Commissioner, New York State Commission on Judicial Nominations; Partner, Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP.

Frances Beinecke, President, Natural Resources Defense Council.
Carol M. Browner, Principal, The Albright Group LLC; Administrator, United States Environmental Protection Agency (1993 - 2000).

Robert M. Hallman, Board Member, New York League of Conservation Voters; Partner, Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP.

Rhea Jezer, Board Member, New York League of Conservation Voters.
Charles S. Warren, Chairman of the Board, New York League of Conservation Voters; Partner, Bryan Cave LLP.

Public Integrity
Co-Chairs: John D. Feerick, Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr., Denise O'Donnell

Michael A. Cardozo, Corporation Counsel for the City of New York.

Jeremy M. Creelan, Associate, Jenner & Block LLP; Fmr. Deputy Director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.

Dick Dadey, Executive Director, Citizens Union.

Prof. William B. Eimicke, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.

Blair Horner, New York Public Interest Research Group.

Ira M. Millstein, Partner, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP; Chairman, New York State Commission on Public Authority Reform.

Richard P. Nathan, Co-Director, Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government.

Denise O'Donnell, Partner, Hodgson Russ LLP. United States Attorney, Western District of New York (1997-2001).

Associate Dean Patricia E. Salkin, Associate Dean and Director of the Government Law Center, Albany Law School.

Hon. Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr., Chairman, New York City Campaign Finance Board; Senior Counsel, Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP.

Hon. David Soares, Albany County District Attorney.

Solicitor General / State Counsel
Co-Chairs: Preeta D. Bansal and Hon. George Bundy Smith

Preeta D. Bansal, Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP; New York State Solicitor General (1999-2001).

Daniel J. French, Partner, French-Alcott PLLC; United States Attorney, Northern District of New York (1999 - 2001).

Hon. Howard A. Levine, Senior Counsel, Whiteman Osterman & Hanna; Associate Judge, New York Court of Appeals (1982-1993)

Hon. George Bundy Smith, Associate Judge, New York Court of Appeals (1992-2006) (retired).

Co-Directors
Kumiki Gibson, Senior Vice President and Counsel, National Urban League; Counsel to Vice President Al Gore (1993 - 1997); Partner, Williams & Connelly, LLP.

Stephen P. Younger, Partner, Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP.

Along with the usually mentioned names - Nassau County Leader Joe Mondello, President Nixon's son-in-law Ed Cox, and Joe Bruno's aide Ed Lurie - comes another one from a Republican consultant who swears it's not a put-on:

Jeanine Pirro.

Me: Isn't she damaged goods?

Consultant: She did better than anybody else did on Tuesday.

This consultant said that if the FBI investigation into Pirro's alleged wiretapping of her husband goes nowhere, she would be able to play the victim more credibly than she was ever able to during the campaign. The consultant pointed out that she hasn't wasted a second getting her face on Fox News as a commentator. And after her crucible of an attorney general campaign, how hard can a party chairmanship be?

I suppose all this really shows is that there is no clear front-runner for the job of cleaning of the mess that is now the state Republican Party. Any additional nominations are welcome.

-- Azi Paybarah

"Last month, on behalf of many Republican county chairmen, State Chairman Minarik asked me to consider restarting my campaign. I have been honored by these and other renewed expressions of support from many county and state GOP leaders and other New Yorkers.

"However, after careful consideration of the circumstances and conditions as they exist surrounding the race, including the now shortened time frame available to run an aggressive and effective campaign, I will not seek my party's nomination."

Jeanine Pirro has been around New York politics for a couple of decades. So it’s hard to figure out exactly why she decided to take on U.S. Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton in next year’s election. Were Ms. Pirro a relative newcomer, her decision could be ascribed to naïveté. But Jeanine Pirro, after all that she has been through, is anything but naïve.

And so the question: What gives? Why did the longtime Westchester District Attorney decide to take on Mrs. Clinton, one of the nation’s most astute politicians, rather than take the obvious step of running for State Attorney General?

Political insiders no doubt have their own theories, but for voters, all of this seems mystifying. And recent events have made Ms. Pirro’s very public candidacy all the more inexplicable. Only a few months after declaring, she is now being advised to stand down and instead run for the office she should have declared for in the first place: Attorney General.

What an unseemly spectacle. Where, one wonders, is the party’s leadership? Governor George Pataki, the titular head of the bedraggled state G.O.P., immediately endorsed Ms. Pirro when she announced her Senate campaign. Mr. Pataki’s endorsement led another would-be candidate, Edward Cox (best known as Richard Nixon’s son-in-law), to withdraw his own potential Senate candidacy.

So the field was cleared for Ms. Pirro, and now, months later, the Republican leadership apparently wants a do-over. That sound you hear is Edward Cox as he starts to warm up in the scandalously thin Republican bullpen.

The recent calls for Ms. Pirro to step aside have weakened an already quixotic candidacy. If she does heed the advice of other Republicans and drops out of the Senate race in favor of a campaign for Attorney General, what are we to make of her political instincts and her judgment? By the same token, we could ask the same question if she stays in the race.

In either case, the once-promising career of Jeanine Pirro appears headed for the political dustbin. At 53, she ought to have been prepared for this moment. Instead, she has come off as something of a political amateur, a veteran who makes rookie mistakes.

A seasoned professional would have known to avoid a hopeless candidacy, which is what the Senate race figures to be. It would be worth knowing whether Ms. Pirro was pushed into the race, only to be left adrift by her putative friends, or if she pursued the Senate nomination of her own accord.

Whatever the case, the result has been a disaster—for the candidate, for the party and for voters.

The Mob and Ground Zero

Even as the world watched in horror as the World Trade Center ceased to exist on Sept. 11, 2001, a reputed mobster on Staten Island was making telephone calls to “associates.” Where most human beings saw a horrifying tragedy underway, this wise guy saw a business opportunity.

According to a superb investigation by the Daily News, the reputed mobster, Allen Monchik of Staten Island, started calling friends in the contracting business at 11:34 on that awful morning. He knew that somebody would have to clean up the tragic remains of the Twin Towers. He wanted to make sure that mob-connected companies got a piece of the action.

No doubt he considered himself a pretty smart fellow. Who else, after all, was thinking so far ahead? Little did he know that his phone was being tapped by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau as part of an unrelated investigation.

According to the Daily News story, those phone calls on Sept. 11 put in motion a series of events which allowed the mob and crooked subcontractors to reap what the newspaper called a “windfall” in the aftermath of the attacks. The Lucchese, Colombo and Gambino crime families conspired to get pieces of the $21.4 billion recovery effort at Ground Zero. The paper said the crime families divided up the work “the way the mob carved up Las Vegas in the old days.”

This is an unspeakable outrage. U.S. Representative Peter King, a Long Island Republican who heads the House Homeland Security Committee, has called for a federal investigation not only of the mob presence at Ground Zero, but of the entire recovery effort. “In the months after Sept. 11,” the Congressman said, “the intention was to get the job done and worry about the details later. Now we should look to see how well the job was done and see if money was given to those who didn’t need it or weren’t entitled to it.”

The articles have also revealed disturbing instances of fraud and wasteful spending in the recovery work. These findings merit the full weight of a federal investigation.

City Kids Lead Nation in Closing Racial Gap

When New Yorkers first elected Mike Bloomberg to City Hall, he pledged to be the education Mayor, the man who would reverse the seemingly irreversible tide of neglect, failure and frustration that had defined the city’s public schools. To do so, he set about dismantling the moribund Board of Education and began talking about things like higher standards and accountability. He ended the social promotion of third graders and stressed the importance of studying—gasp—literature. All this was too much for the education bureaucrats, who claimed that his policies were too hard on the kids, that he was asking too much, too soon, that students from disadvantaged backgrounds couldn’t be asked to tackle the classics.

But guess what? It turns out the kids were smarter than their so-called advocates: Last year, the city showed impressive gains in reading and math tests. And newly released federal statistics report that the performance gap between white students and their black and Hispanic peers in New York City has narrowed significantly, and more so than in the country’s other large urban school systems. As he enters his second term, Mr. Bloomberg’s no-nonsense approach to education is paying off.

The new report, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, paints a picture of steady advancement by the city’s poorest students. For example, New York came out on top nationwide in reading levels for fourth and eighth graders who are eligible for free or reduced price lunches. And the racial divide is narrowing: Among the city’s fourth graders, the gap between the reading scores of black and white students narrowed by 10 points, while the gap between Hispanic and white students shrank seven points. Of the country’s largest cities, New York showed the greatest gains in fourth-grade reading scores, with 57 percent of students testing at the basic level, up 10 percent since 2002. Likewise, in fourth-grade math, the number of students achieving the basic level was 73 percent, up six percentage points from 2003.

There is, of course, much hard and thankless work that needs to be done. But Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein have New York’s 1.1 million public schoolchildren pointed in the right direction.

"Dear Smart Conservative," begins a recent fundraising letter from Spencer, and in a campaign already characterized by hysterical fundraising pleas from both Clinton and Pirro, this one may set a new standard.

The four-page letter is full of chatty asides: "Plus, while I'm at it, I should mention I'm BIG on 2nd Amendment rights." And there's a nice intramural potshot: "It doesn't help that a liberal RINO (Republican in Name Only), Jeanine Pirro, is also running."

But the heart is a plea to give Spencer money to publicize his "five appalling reasons why Hillary Clinton must NEVER be President," which "will never be reported in the mainstream New York media."

The Politicker is here to help. We're fairly mainstream, if narrowstream, and here, without further ado, are Spencer's hidden insights:

1. Hillary Clinton is just not serious about the war on terror. She wants to slash military spending...

2. Hillary Clinton will force you into government-controlled socialized medicine!...

3. Hillary Clinton will forcibly take your tax dollars to support illegal immigrants -- their housing, schools, and health care...

4. Hillary Clinton wants a Supreme Court dominated by leftists...

5. Hillary Clinton wants your tax money paying for abortions and special rights for homosexuals.

OK, grant him number 4. And number 1, I think, is flatly false. The others, let's call tendentious.

In any case, now the secrets are out.

On the political front, this frees Jeanine Pirro and Ed Cox from their uncomfortable position to the left of Hillary Clinton. She had freely denounced it while they, bound to Pataki, held back.

More broadly, though, as Matt Schuerman got at in his piece on the subject in today's Observer, this is about the collapse of the center. There used to be uncontroversial ideas -- freedom, say -- and people -- call them moderate Republicans -- who embraced them. Tom Bernstein seems to be the last of that species. And Pataki is left sounding a bit plaintive:

"I strongly believe in this nation's core principle of freedom..."

The AP reports that Spencer just cut a televsion ad, which will run on cable starting next week. For now you can see it here. The ad bashes Jeanine for those "broad blue stripes" she likes to talk about, asserting: "She's not running to beat Hillary Clinton, she's running to be Hillary Clinton."

And Cox has picked up an endorsement from Washington County GOP Chairman John Aspland.

He clearly plans to hang in, perhaps hoping the endless airing of "where's page 10" and the like will dampen her appeal.

Cox's spokesman, Tom Basile, just sent out this statement:

"Partial-birth abortion is a serious moral issue. One's position should be guided on a strong personal conviction - not political opportunism. Ed Cox has always favored a ban on this abhorrent procedure.

"On Monday, Ms. Pirro claimed to be 'blue.' On Tuesday, she claimed to be 'red.' Republicans and Conservatives should look at this flip-flop and ask 'What is she going to be tomorrow?'

"That's not the kind of candidate we need for the Republican and Conservative parties or the people of New York."

Now in an editorial yesterday and a column today, the paper is laying the groundwork for a Hillary endorsement next year and perhaps again two years later.

Remember, Rupert Murdoch has always backed Tony Blair.

At the moment the battleground is charter schools, and a possible Clinton opponent, Ed Cox, appears to be on the verge of voting in favor of letting the UFT run one of them.

Cox and Randy Daniels "need to do the right thing tomorrow and oppose the union — if they wish to be taken as men of principle," the Post writes, urging a no vote.

The vote is today, but Cox and Daniels seemed to rebuff the Post in their letter to the editor today.

So: You heard it here first: Murdoch to endorse Hillary.