Team Bloomberg Is a Pretty Good Team To Be On
Working on Michael Bloomberg's reelection campaign might just be the best job in town. He's got lots of money to spend, of course. (He's already shelled out more than $18 million since Jan. 12 despite little in the way of competition.) And then there are those rides aboard his jet, where expensive wine and sushi is always on the menu. He's paying his campaign staff pretty well, too, as Jason Horowitz discovered. And he's generous about looking beyond what others might consider unfortunate career blemishes. Take Bradley Tusk, the mayor's 35-year-old campaign manager, for example. Tusk once worked for Chuck Schumer's communications office and for Mayor Bloomberg at City Hall. But then he took a job as deputy governor of Illinois under now-disgraced Rod Blagojevich, and then left to join Lehman Brothers as a senior vice president. (We all know how that one turned out.) But Tusk has bounced back nicely. He's now making $27,500 a month to run Bloomberg's campaign. And he's not the only one doing well. A roundup of some of Bloomberg key campaign staffers—and their salaries—below.
• Howard Wolfson, whose Blizzard Communications is dealing with "big-picture media stories and major news outlets": $40,000 a month.
• Hank Sheinkopf, who is handling the Spanish-language mailing campaign: $20,000 a month.
• Maura Keaney, who heads up field operations and used to work for Christine Quinn: $17,000 a month.
• Patrick Brennan, who seeks out labor endorsements for Bloomberg: $16,000 a month.
• Jill Hazelbaker, the 27-year-old spokeswoman for Bloomberg who served as communications director for John McCain's presidential campaign: $12,000 a month.
• Jay Weinkam, the campaign's advance man and a former political adviser to Rudy Giuliani: $10,000 a month.
• Andrea Batista Schlesinger, a policy specialist, formerly of the Drum Major Institute: $10,000 a month.
• Silvia Alvarez, "an alumnus of the City Hall press office" who now deals with Spanish-language press: $9,500 a month.
• Chris Coffey, a former deputy commissioner for community assistance at City Hall: $9,000 a month.
