McMahon, who served on the City Council before being elected to Congress in 2009, was narrowly defeated in November by Michael Grimm. Since then, McMahon has been rumored for future runs ranging from a re-match with Grimm--who's now having his own issues straddling the politics of the swing district--to a possible run for Staten Island borough president.

Presumably, his new position will keep McMahon close to government while other possibilities take shape. According to the release:

McMahon said he weighed a variety of options before deciding to join Herrick, Feinstein, whose client base, he said, meshed well with his professional interests in financial services, real estate investment, transportation and infrastructure, energy, and environmental and recycling issues.

He joins another former member of Congress, Liz Holtzman, and the Republican consultant Kevin Fullington, who worked for the Bloomberg administration and on Rick Lazio's gubernatorial campaign last year.

"Between Liz and Kevin, I knew that Herrick is serious about its government relations practice, and if I was going to join a law firm, I wanted it to be a firm where I would be able to work with people who know how to get things done at every level of government," McMahon said in the release.

According to McMahon, "Obama voters"--those who traveled to the polls for the first time in 2008 and helped turn the seat Democratic--failed to materialize in 2010.

"The 13th Congressional District is fertile ground to get more activists out to vote," McMahon told the members of the Gaeta Democratic club. "We need to get back the congressional seat, the [East Shore] Assembly seat, the district attorney's seat." 

According to sources on Staten Island, McMahon is making something of a tour of the borough's Democratic clubs in recent days, hitting up the Staten Island Democratic Association on Jan 18th, the Young Democrats of Richmond County on Jan 20th, the Democratic Organization of Richmond County next Monday, the North Shore Democratic Club on Tuesday and the South Shore Democratic Club on January 9, in addition to the Gaeta last night.

All that said, it is not clear that McMahon's analysis is entirely correct. This district was carried by John McCain in 2008, and having Obama at the top of the ticket in 2012, especially with the energized Tea Party presence on the island, could hurt any Democratic efforts to take back the seat.

"As the Republican nominee, he has my support. I don't know him really. I only met him once," Grimm said. "I would like to get to meet him and get to know about his positions to really give full comment. I am so caught up in my race I haven't really looked at most of the other candidates."

Grimm is in a race with Democratic incumbent Mike McMahon that is not on most Congressional prognosticator's radars as a seat likely to flip, but it is a district that voted for John McCain in 2008.

When asked his opinion on some of Paladino's more flamboyant episodes--like the controversial emails he has sent, his talk about "taking a baseball bat to Albany," and his plan to house welfare recipients in prison dorms--Grimm demurred. He instead referred to his own earlier comments about how Staten Islanders would have been after McMahon "like they were going for Frankenstein...Physically he would have been in danger" had McMahon voted for the health care bill as a way of saying that it's possible for comments to be misunderstood.

"I personally wasn't there when some of those things were said," Grimm said. "I know even in my case in the heat of the moment you can use a euphemism...sometimes things can be taken out of context."

Asked specifically to comment on Paladino's emails, Grimm said, "I don't know. I didn't read those emails so it's hard for me to comment. I haven't read it. It would be unfair."

Grimm paused for a moment when he tried to recall who he voted for in the primary.

"As a matter of fact, I am trying to think who I voted for," he said. "I know it was either Paladino or Lazio. I think I voted for Lazio."

Grimm was in Washington to attend a breakfast and lunch for the "Young Guns" program, which enables the National Republican Campaign Committee to identify promising challengers and connect them with donors and strategy ideas. Grimm was just added to the program. Grimm said he spent the days meeting with different Political Action Committees and collecting checks from various G.O.P members of the House, and getting "some [policy] information so we can build our positions and our platforms."

Grimm said he spent several months helping with the clean-up after the World Trade Center attacks--including some time volunteering at Fresh Kills landfill looking for remains--and he said he was pleased that the 9/11 Health Bill passed, but wishes it went further.

"There is still work to be done. I would amend the bill to include cancer," he said. "I know some guys coming down with some rare forms of cancer and what they have in common is 9/11."

He added, "Those Republicans that crossed the aisle should be commended."

dfreedlander@observer.com

Jennifer Nelson, who has in the past been the Albany bureau chief for the Staten Island Advance and the spokeswoman for Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari, will be McMahon's communications director.

Antoinette Fuoto was the deputy finance director for Mark Green's 2009 and 2006 races (public advocate and attorney general), a campaign that vied for the support of New York's most progressive donors. She will be the campaign's deputy finance director.

McMahon, a freshman, is the first Democrat to represent the 13th congressional district, which includes the Staten island and parts of Brooklyn, areas that are notably more conservative than the rest of the city. McMahon’s opposition to the bill is, arguably, a way of holding onto those voters in what could be a tough general election (possibly featuring his predecessor, Republican Vito Fossella).

But event organizer Mark Hannay, director of Metro New York Health Care for All, said McMahon should consider “his base” when considering the health care bill.

Hannay, standing on the steps of City Hall with dozens of supporters, said McMahon won his seat “with a majority of Democrats, and Democrats care deeply about this health care issue.”

“So,” Hanny said, “I think if he really wants to play to the voters who elected him in the first place, they want him to vote for health care reform. And they are much more likely to turn out and vote for him and campaign for him if he votes for a health care reform bill. If he does not vote for a health care reform bill then he’s likely to have much more political problems with his base. So, we encourage him to think seriously about who his voters are and who will vote for him based on how he votes.”

Now the Staten Island Democrat is the target of a protest from healthcare advocates, who will be joined by one of McMahon's colleagues, Eliot Engel of the Bronx and Westchester.

Engel is taking part in a rally tomorrow to “thank another home team for bringing home victory” and to express “disappointment with one team member who voted against” the bill, according to an advisory from the event's organizers, which include Citizen Action of New York City and Health Care for America Now.

McMahon's opposition here is, like that of other moderate Democrats, just one of the consequences of Democrats expanding their majority by picking up seats in traditionally Republican territory.

The rally is taking place at 1 p.m. tomorrow outside City Hall.

When asked what he'd like to Obama to say, Thompson told reporters, "I have no idea what the president is going to say. I think his endorsement has been helpful so far. I’d like him to add to it and put a little more substance to it, but I think his endorsement so far has been helpful. Very grateful for that endorsement , and proud of that endorsement. So, we’ll see what the president has to say. The one thing I don’t think any of us would try and do is put words in President Barack Obama’s mouth."

Michael Bloomberg, at an event this morning, sought to downplay Obama's endorsement, telling reporters, “I don’t know whether he’s going to energize” Democratic voters in the city. “He’s the leader of the Democratic Party. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody that he would endorse the Democratic candidate.”

Bloomberg was speaking by the ferry terminal in Lower Manhattan where he picked up up the endorsement of Democratic Representative Mike McMahon of Staten Island. There, Bloomberg sought to associate himself with Obama, while downplaying the president’s endorsement of Thompson.

“There’s a whole host of things that I’ve worked with this administration,” said Bloomberg. “And it has nothing to do with who he endorses, it has to do with the fact that I will work with anybody that is going to do the things that are right and needed by New York City.”

"This race isn’t about party politics. It’s about leadership," Bloomberg said.

While at the ferry terminal in Lower Manhattan to receive the endorsement of Democratic Representative Mike McMahon, Bloomberg was asked if critics had “misinterpreted what he was saying.”

“I don’t know,” said Bloomberg. “I’ve got to work on trying to bring people together, which is what I’ve tried to do, and continue the progress that we’ve made in this city.”

When I asked McMahon at the event if he agreed with Giuliani’s statement, McMahon only said that Bloomberg’s administration has “done an incredible job” on fighting crime. Bloomberg did not seek to answer the question.

After the event, I asked McMahon the question again. McMahon sough to put some distance between Bloomberg and Giuliani’s comments.

“The feeling that came out of that does not speak to this man’s record at all,” McMahon said.

In a conversation after the event, I mentioned to Bloomberg campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson that Bloomberg had again deflected questions about Giuliani’s comments by speaking only about his own record.

Wolfson suggested that Bloomberg would stand pat.

“People know what his record is, people know what he stands for,” Wolfson said.

In the days since Representative Steve Israel decided not to consider a primary against Gillibrand, following calls from President Barack Obama and Senator Chuck Schumer, other members of the New York Congressional delegation have quickly lined up in support of Gillibrand: Nita Lowey, Maurice Hinchey, Brian Higgins, Michael McMahon, Yvette Clarke, John Hall, Michael Arcuri. Soon Nydia Velasquez and Ed Towns are expected to make their support public. Anthony Weiner is considered supportive, too.

"I think what is happening, with all due respect to them, is that when you begin to get a lot of calls of people saying we have got to put this to bed and this has to end, if they get a call from higher-ups in the party they succumb to that," said Serrano. "I understand that. I was there in the early days when you lose sleep over a phone call and you don't know what to do with it. Those days aren't there for me anymore. I've been in office for 35 years."

Serrano, who told Liz that he thinks Obama's White House acted like Tammany Hall in forcing out Israel, said that very few people in the delegation, including those who have endorsed her, are "jumping for joy" about the momentum building around her. He said he now counts himself with Carolyn Maloney and Carolyn McCarthy as potential challengers to Gillibrand.

"Maloney told me she is running," added Serrano. "McCarthy is still waiting to see who doesn't run. And if the field narrows down to no one running, she may do it."

It is quite possible that Serrano has no intention of running, and that his last-ditch effort to cause trouble for Gillibrand is mostly motivated by his objection to the fact that no one has seen fit to take him seriously enough to call. ("I think he is genuinely hurt that he wasn't considered," said one member of the delegation.)  But either way, the fact that he is making these kinds of noises—just as the Gillibrand campaign is attempting to convey momentum in gaining support from the once-aggrieved House delegation—is not great news for the party leaders looking to avoid making the 2010 Senate race any more interesting than it already is.

"As the dean, I wish we didn't have a primary," said Representative Charlie Rangel, the dean of the New York Congressional delegation. "But having said that, I don't think it's up to me or anyone else what their political ambitions should be kept at just for the sake of unity. It's just not fair. I'm not going to tell them not to run."  

Rangel, one of the most senior officials in the House, said that he himself has received no pressure from Gillibrand's office, from Schumer or from the White House to support her, and he said that he would endorse Gillibrand if she ran unchallenged. He said he didn't know what he would do if there was a primary.

"It depends on if there is anyone running," he said.  "And I don't think there would be."

Gillibrand has actively sought to ensure that there isn't one, and has worked to convince some of her former critics, like Velasquez, that she is not as conservative as she was when she represented a mostly Republican district upstate.

But there are still holdouts. And Serrano said they are senior enough to resist even the strongest institutional pressures.

Several sources echoed Serrano's claims that state and national party leaders have aggressively sought to pressure members of the delegation to get behind Gillibrand, and expressed frustration with the White House for injecting itself into a state primary. Gillibrand's office, one Congressional source noted, has offered to help carry pet legislation or talk to senior administration officials in order to get one member's bills moved along.

"When Senator Gillibrand was in the House, then Senator Clinton was always willing to work with her on her priorities," said Gillibrand's spokesman, Matt Canter. "That's the kind of senator she plans to be."

The support Gillibrand most covets is that of liberal downstate representatives, who have thus far been reluctant to endorse. Their support would amount to a kosherizing effect on Gillibrand for many progressives wary of her past positions.

Perhaps first among that class of legislator is Representative Jerry Nadler, who is yet to support Gillibrand.

"You get Jerry Nadler's endorsement, that means a lot to a lot of people," Serrano said. "Jerry is one of the finest legislators and progressive voices we have."

In addition to Nadler and Israel, Eliot Engel, Joe Crowley, Gary Ackerman, Louise Slaughter, Eric Massa, Paul Tonko and Timothy Bishop, all Democrats, have still not endorsed.

"I don't think any of this matters to their reelection," said a member of the delegation, speaking on background. "And if she is successful, they'll reestablish a connection."

And, of course, there is Serrano, who holds a grudge against Gillibrand for her past positions on immigration and what he considers the "botched" way in which she was appointed.

 "We don't have a relationship," he said.

Also expected to endorse Gillibrand, according to one of her aides, are representatives Nita Lowey of Westchester and Brian Higgins of Buffalo.

But it's going to be interesting, as some of the delegation starts to fall in behind Gillibrand, to watch who the holdouts are.

After all, this thing isn't totally settled, even among New York's Democratic House members. Carolyn Maloney insists she is still considering a Senate bid, and Carolyn McCarthy said in a recent interview that she still feels someone—anyone—needs to challenge Gillibrand. And it’s not just Gillibrand’s policies that McCarthy said she finds objectionable: “It’s not just the issues, it’s the personality.”

The roll-out of endorsements today comes the same day that Liz Benjamin quoted an unnamed White House source saying, "We won't do anything else until she produces endorsements from her delegation," and, "[Obama] is sensitive to the fact that none of her colleagues like her."