Rose will pay the W.F.P. about $8,000 more, nowhere near the $1 million figure Mastro had touted in his suit.

Here's the statement from Dan Cantor, the W.F.P. executive director:

Let me be crystal-clear: DFS did not undercharge the Rose campaign – or any other – by a single dime. DFS settled this case for one reason and one reason only: the enormous cost of battling a gigantic corporate law firm in a “nuisance” suit.

As this incredible shrinking case comes to a close – no million-dollar conspiracies, no massive fraud – there is only a penny-ante dispute over bridge tolls and some part-time campaign workers.

For now, we are pleased that we can return to the serious work of advancing “common-sense progressivism.” Stronger rent regulation. Living wage jobs. Energy efficiency and mass transit. Paid sick days. Lower property taxes on the middle class and higher income taxes on the wealthy. Nothing more, but nothing less, either.

The lawsuit, filed by Randy Mastro, alleges that Rose received an unfair advantage from the Working Families Party because they didn't charge her a "fair market value" for services on the cap. And, with a $161,000 spending cap in a close race, every dollar counts.

I'm not going to speak to the fair/unfair argument, but if you compare the spending, by category, of each candidate, what you see is a clear difference in campaign strategy, which I think could help explain Rose's upset victory.

Rose spent more money on door-to-door canvassing and voter outreach (about $64,000 compared to Mitchell's $8,700). 

Mitchell spent more on political contributions, campaign literature, campaign mailing, print ads and polling. Which are the more general, less-personal contacts campaigns have with the public.

And that strategy isn't held in high regard by at least one expert whose testimony was provided by the plaintiff.

Jake Menges, in his affidavit, said, "Moreover, in my years as a political consultant, I have never heard of any campaign identifying voters by means of a door canvassing operation." 

Menges later said based on the scale, time and budget of a Council campaign, Rose's door-to-door canvassing operation was too small.

"Identifying such voters is typically done by telephone, given the volume of individuals who must be contacted in a short period of time and—ostensibly—on a budget. If such identification was undertaken by means of a door-to-door canvass, it would require contacting a much higher number than 20,000 individuals given voters' inherent resistance to face to face conversations."

Anyway, a reader involved with the race provided this graph, which is easier to look at. My list of head-to-head comparisons, by category, of how Rose and Mitchell spent their money is below the chart.

Mitchell:

Fund-raising-$9,070

Rent-$3,090

Office Expenses-$20,707

Advance Repayment-$2,996

Petition Expenses-$684

Political contributions-$3,305

Professional Services-$0

Campaign Worker Salaries-$10,193

Campaign Consultation-$8,688.75

Campaign Literature-$10,0833

Campaign Mailings-$71,862

Polling-$10,300

Postage-$9,102

Print Ads-$4,095

Radio Ads-$0

Television Ad-$1,500

Voter Registraton-$0

OTHER EXPENSES-$24,101

   Robocalls-$1,953.48

   Posters-$1,192.13

   GOTV Calls-$2,099

   Lawn Signs-$11,417.75

Rose:

Fund-raising-$5,285

Rent-$6,750

Office Expenses-$7,317

Advance Repyament-$1,477

Petition Expenses-$4,542

Political contributions-$750

Professional Services-$234,455

Campaign Workers Salaries-$21,715

Campaign Consultation-$8,000

Campaign Literature-$3,100

Campaign Mailings-$0

Polling-$0

Postage-$829

Print Ads-$1,625

Radio Ads-$0

Television Ads-$3,150

Voter Registration-$0

OTHER EXPENSES-$8,617

Tomorrow is the soonest the D.O.J. could issue a decision on whether the term-limits extension unfairly impacts minority candidates and should be prohibited.

At the event, Attorney Randy Mastro said that since 1993, no minority running for office has unseated a white incumbent. Mastro repeated the phrase "two-term white incumbent" several times at the event, referring to Michael Bloomberg, Marty Markowitz, Helen Sears, Alan Gerson and others.

At the event, I asked Thompson if the confidence he's expressed in his bid against Bloomberg in any way undermines the "chilling" effect argument he and his supporters are making to the D.O.J.

He said it an issue that was bigger than him and his mayoral aspirations.

"I’m confident I’m going to win for mayor," he said. "But this isn’t just about me and it’s not just about the mayoral. This is about other races also. This is about Council races. You heard about borough president races. It’s not just about me. It’s about other people. It’s about the City of New York."

Mr. Giuliani is in danger of being a permanent "Fmr."
If he wants to have a public future outside of cable commentary gigs, his options now seem limited to one elected office: governor of the State of New York. His most loyal backers are already starting to lay down the foundation for such a campaign.

Here's what Randy Mastro, the former deputy mayor and close Giuliani associate, said in response to a question from The Observer about the possibility of the former mayor running: "If ever New York State needed strong leadership in this fiscal crisis, it's today. And the one thing we know for sure is that Rudy Giuliani is a strong leader who led our city through its fiscal crisis in the early '90s. So New York State could use him now more than ever."

In conversations with Republicans around the state, a couple of other candidates come up regularly as potential challengers to weaker-by-the-day Governor David Paterson next year.

Officials and consultants talk about Rick Lazio, the former congressman who ran unsuccessfully for Senate against Hillary Clinton in 2000. They mention Edward Cox, a lawyer (and son-in-law of Richard M. Nixon) who ran even more unsuccessfully for the Senate seat in 2006.

But Mr. Giuliani, undeclared though he is, is widely acknowledged as the 800-pound G.O.P. gorilla in the room.
It should be said that it is very, very early in the campaign season, and that there is as of now no hard evidence that Mr. Giuliani has resolved to run. He has yet to make any formal foray into the race, and has not reached out to Republican chairs around the state.

"He hasn't made his mind up as to his political future," said Anthony Carbonetti, a senior political adviser to Mr. Giuliani. "He obviously loves the city and state very much, but he has not given thought to the point where he has made a decision."
But with a unique résumé, a national fund-raising base that is at least partly intact and near-universal name recognition, Mr. Giuliani may find it all too much for him to resist, his supporters seem to believe.

"Rudy and some of Rudy's people have always thought that he would excel more at an executive position rather than a legislative position," said the former congressman Guy Molinari, adding, "As the days go by and I talk to various people, more and more I'm encouraged that some of his close friends believe that he is going to run."

"Rudy has got instant name recognition," said Robert Christman, the Republican chairman in Allegany County. "Obviously, he came off the platform at the convention with a lot of enthusiasm; he is probably at this point the candidate with the most plausibility. There's no doubt about that."

Mr. Christman said neither he nor any of the other Republican County chairs he knows had been formally approached by Mr. Giuliani or his emissaries.

"But there has been a lot of informal communication about him," Mr. Christman added. "In conversation with the various chairs and politicals in the Republican Party, his name has come up, and obviously that's the beginning of the process."

At the same time, Mr. Giuliani's name has also been circulated by supporters of his potential opponents, and in a less flattering light. They bring up Mr. Giuliani's ill-fated presidential run, in which he failed to win a single primary or delegate, and question whether all the "America's Mayor" imagery still has much currency with New York voters.

There's also the matter of Mr. Giuliani's last high-profile appearance at the Republican National Convention, which didn't exactly have crossover appeal. His malicious mocking of Mr. Obama, the current president of the United States, as a "community organizer" did not go over big with Democrats, and New York, ultimately, has a lot of them.

And New York Republicans with even longer memories are bothered less by the haphazard 2008 campaign than by memories of Mr. Giuliani's last statewide campaign. That would be the Senate bid in 2000 that ended, officially, with the mayor withdrawing to deal with a diagnosis of prostate cancer, but which was preceded by much public indecision about whether to commit to the race and, more memorably, a public declaration of love by Mr. Giuliani for his mistress while he was still married.

"One thing that needs to be watched for is what happened last time," said one longtime ally of Mr. Lazio. "Rick wanted to get in early. Giuliani announces, and Rick is pushed aside by the Republican leadership until Giuliani got sick with five months to go in the race. So if Giuliani is going to do it, he can't play his Hamlet routine back and forth and decide later on. He needs to actually step up, and then Rick can make his decision about what he is going to do."

(Mr. Lazio entered the 2000 race late and suffered a decisive defeat at the hands of Mrs. Clinton.)

"This is 2000 all over again," said one influential Republican consultant not allied with any of the prospective candidates. "Lazio trying to take action to potentially forestall somebody else's candidacy, but having no real capacity to do so until Rudy makes up his mind. I think we've all seen this movie."
This time, though, the stakes for Mr. Giuliani are higher.

Even his closest supporters acknowledge that his options for returning to public life are limited. Even if he ran for and won a Senate seat, at 64, he's too old (and too Republican) to have much of a chance of wielding any real influence before retirement age.

As for running for mayor again one day-he's allowed-his supporters are taking a been-there, done-that attitude. The presidential thing didn't work out, and people in the Giuliani camp acknowledge that the idea of another two-year race is stomach-turning.

Which leaves governor.

"It's a lot easier," said one source close to Mr. Giuliani.
"There may be a lot of people licking their chops," said Lowell Conrad, a Republican chairman from Livingston County. "But when it comes down to it, it's got to be someone who has enough money to win a statewide race."

Some supporters of Mr. Lazio expressed a suspicion that Mr. Giuliani's flirtations with a run were motivated by his need to heighten his political profile to benefit his once-booming consulting business, Giuliani Partners. At the beginning of the year, Mr. Giuliani's longtime spokeswoman, Sunny Mindel, left the firm.

Then again, one source close to Mr. Giuliani pointed out that another former Giuliani operative, Matt Mahoney, was already working to prepare the road for a potential run for governor. Mr. Mahoney is a former Giuliani advance man who did a stint in the State Senate before joining Mayor Michael Bloomberg's reelection campaign last month to help build the mayor's support among Republicans.

According to the source, part of Mr. Mahoney's unofficial role, both in the Senate and with Mr. Bloomberg, was smoothing out any remaining hard feelings toward Mr. Giuliani. His time spent with Mr. Bloomberg's highly funded campaign is also expected to give Mr. Mahoney, and the Giuliani universe, more up-to-date state and city experience after the decade or so Mr. Giuliani spent on the national scene, the source said.

One thing Giuliani supporters and critics both seem to believe is that he's unlikely to jump in unless it looks like a reasonably sure thing.

"Certainly he knows that if he runs and loses, it's a disaster," said an adviser to Mr. Lazio. "So I think he waits to see what happens with Paterson."
But still.

"If a poll came out tomorrow that said Mao Zedong could be a competitive nominee for governor," said the influential Republican consultant, "lots of Republicans would be for him."

Reached by phone this morning, attorney (and former Giuliani staffer) Randy Mastro said that his clients are "focusing now on the vote."

"This is not the end of the process, this is the beginning," he said. "There are many legal infirmities with what the Council is considering doing."

Mastro says there is a possibility of future legal action.

Any new litigation would be assigned to a random judge, probably not the same one who presided yesterday—Justice Jacqueline Silbermann.

Silbermann phrased yesterday's ruling to address only the narrow issue of whether or not the court could legally stop a legislative body from voting (not in this case, according to Silbermann), but did not address legal aspects of the legislation.

According to the New York City Law Department, petitioners and City Council members Letitia James and Bill do Blasio have decided not to appeal yesterday's ruling.

 

No court challenges remain against today's vote.

From the statement:

Also, Giuliani-era deputy mayor Randy Mastro sent a letter to the city Conflict of Interest Board that called into question the legality of a reported "deal" the mayor struck with term-limits advocate Ron Lauder and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

"Looking back at historical precedents, the same argument was made after 9/11 when Rudy Giuliani was in office," Mastro said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Mastro said calls for Giuliani to stay in office after his second term "was an issue that was aired publicly and not brought up by him." He added, "It was Rudy Giuliani who put an end to it and said it would be undemocratic to stay on."

(The way Giuliani's attempt to stay on after 9/11 actually played out was somewhat more complicated, and was abandoned in large part because it proved to be an unpopular idea. Freddy Ferrer, who was running to succeed Giuliani at the time, received a big political boost by speaking out loudly against it.)

The current mayor has taken an open-ended approach.

Mastro declined to speculate on why Bloomberg has not more clearly stated his position on term limits ("You'd have to ask him"), but he did say, "At an earlier point in time, Mayor Bloomberg made it very clear that he thought that would be undemocratic. So, if he's going to be consistent over time, this is a question that should only be addressed by the voters, and not the local legislature."

"Maybe in other years I'd be more picky about it," said Gary Bauer, an evangelical leader who is an informal adviser to the McCain campaign. Citing Republican fatigue and a severely sluggish economy, Bauer said, "People understand that this is a tough year and that Rudy Giuliani is admired nationally for both his success as New York mayor but also his performance after 9/11."

He added, "While people have significant differences with Rudy Giuliani, they will understand the value in showcasing him at the convention."

The McCain campaign announced Giuliani as the convention's keynote speaker on Wednesday afternoon. According to one source close to Giuliani, the McCain campaign recently notified Tony Carbonetti, Giuliani's senior political adviser and longtime aide, who then personally informed the mayor about the pick. Carbonetti, who is also personally close to McCain, has appeared at several McCain campaign events around the country and often rides in McCain's car.

For now, the official reaction from the former mayor was humble appreciation.

"I'm honored to be a keynote speaker at the Republican National Convention and tell the American people why John has the experience, character and courage to lead the country," said Giuliani in a statement. "There is no better opportunity to remind people what I have known about John all along -- he is a proven leader who will put country first and tackle the tough issues head on."

Meanwhile, Giuliani's supporters argued that putting the former mayor in a visible role would improve Mr. McCain's chances in November because he appealed to the moderate Republicans and independent voters who very well could determine the outcome of the election.

"The McCain campaign makes decisions in what is in the best interests of the McCain campaign," said Randy Mastro, one of Rudy Giuliani's closest aides. Giuliani, he suggested, echoed McCain's independent streak. "John McCain is running a very powerful ad right now characterizing himself as the original maverick and as one who is ready to lead. It is something that he and Rudy Giuliani share -- they have proven leadership in the toughest of times."

Another former adviser, speaking on background, put it this way: "The battleground is always in the middle. It's not the party regulars on the left or the right, but slam dab in the center. Yes, Rudy will help with the independents, but he'll also rally the troops by his ability to get the convention rocking and rolling."

The trick for the McCain campaign now will be getting Giuliani to the convention in one piece. In his public debut as convention keynote speaker, on a conference call arranged by the McCain campaign, Giuliani was fairly assailed by participating reporters, prompting a defensive reaction from the McCain aides running the call and offering a reminder of the controversies and uncomfortable associations that helped sink his presidential bid.

The Wednesday afternoon call, ostensibly to talk about a reported meeting between an Obama adviser, Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer, and Syrian government officials, wound up being about Giuliani himself.

At one point, Giuliani seemed to suggest that McCain would be open to picking a pro-choice running mate. A follow-up questioner was subsequently cut off by the McCain campaign.

Earlier in the call, a reporter asking Giuliani about his own association with hostile foreign entities seemed to disappear, mid-query, from the call entirely. (The reporter subsequently said that he was dropped.)

When asked whether McCain could pick a pro-choice vice presidential nominee, Giuliani said, "It would seem to me that the Republican Party is not, as far as I can tell -- and I have traveled to thousands of places last year -- a one-issue party. And that would just be one issue among many that would have to be evaluated by the party. But I believe the party will support Senator McCain's choice."

That answer prompted a follow-up from a reporter from the conservative blog Town Hall.com: "Actually, my understanding is that yesterday Fox News reported the RNC said McCain is no longer considering any candidates who are pro-choice. To your knowledge, is that incorrect?"

McCain aide Mike Goldfarb then interrupted, saying, "We could do a call all day about Senator McCain's VP choices; frankly, we're not talking about Senator McCain's VP choices until he makes a VP choice."

Before that, Ron Kampeas, a reporter from the Jewish news outlet JTA, essentially accused the McCain campaign of hypocrisy for criticizing Kurtzer for meeting with the Syrians because Giuliani, he said, has represented the company Citgo, which is owned by the Venezuelan government. He also noted that Giuliani's firm once represented Saudi Arabian interests.

After several denials by the mayor, Kampeas kept pushing. Eventually, the reporter's line went dead in midsentence. The McCain adviser on the call asked if there were any other questions for the mayor.

Councilman and city comptroller candidate David Yassky, comptroller and likely mayoral candidate Bill Thompson, State Senators Marty Connor and Velmanette Montgomery, Assemblywoman Joan Millman, and Randy Mastro, a deputy mayor under Rudy Giuliani, were among the rally participants. They all gave the current administration an earful for creating what they portray as a serious impediment to the goal of creating a financial hub in Brooklyn.

“This is a classic case of bureaucracy doing what makes sense for the bureaucrats but what does not make sense for the city of New York,” said Yassky, who is often allied with the mayor.

“We’re not going to let you just move forward, ignore the wishes of the community and act as if you can unilaterally reopen and expand this prison. It’s not going to happen. Department of Corrections: back off. It’s a very bad idea,” added Thompson, who has become more vocally critical of Bloomberg.

Calling the jail a “dinosaur,” Connor talked about the flourishing downtown Brooklyn neighborhood. “People live here now. It has the fabric of a real community. A jail doesn’t fit – it makes no sense.”

Mastro’s law firm, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, has agreed to do pro bono work for Stop BHOD, a community group trying to stop the project. Mastro pledged to take the city to court if there isn't more effort to solicit community input or conduct an environmental impact review of the planned expansion.