This image was lost some time after publication.

Who

The head of political strategy firm Knickerbocker SKD, Isay is a (primarily) Democratic political consultant who has worked for a long list of elected officials.

Backstory

The son of a psychoanalyst and editor, Isay (it's pronounced "I say") grew up on Park Avenue and earned a reputation as a whiz kid by helping Charles Schumer upset Alfonse D'Amato in the 1998 race for Senate. After serving as Schumer's chief of staff, Isay moved to the private sector, taking a job as head of government affairs for Internet advertising company DoubleClick. But he was back working on campaigns soon enough, initially teaming up with Dan Klores to form a political consulting firm before establishing Knickerbocker SKD to work on Andrew Cuomo's ill-fated 2002 gubernatorial campaign. Isay has since helped elect just about every New York-area Democrat you can name, from Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer to District Attorney Robert Morgenthau to Republican-turned-independent Michael Bloomberg.

Of note

Isay's client list features a who's who of metro area politics. In addition to helping Mayor Bloomberg's 2005 re-election effort, Isay worked with Joe Lieberman on his notoriously difficult 2006 Senate re-election campaign. Naturally, the firm does work for a number of big businesses with political interests in the area, too. In 2006, Isay's firm represented Bruce Ratner, designing cheery brochures aimed at de-vilifying the developer. More recently, Knickerbocker was hired by the makers of aluminum baseball bats who panicked when the city proposed a ban on the bats (a pet project of City Councilman James Oddo). Other corporate clients include Proctor & Gamble, T-Mobile, and the law firm Paul, Weiss. Isay's partners at Knickerbocker include Jennifer Cunningham, Daniel Squadron and Stefan Friedman, the son of former HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman.

Word on the street

Isay describes himself as a Democrat who occasionally works for Republicans. Critics describe him as a mercenary who will work for the highest bidder.

Personal

In 2002, he married Cathie Levine, who worked with Isay on the Schumer campaign. She's now a publicist for ABC's World News Tonight. The couple had a baby named Benjamin Abraham in 2004 and live on West End Avenue in a three-bedroom co-op that Isay paid $3 million for in 2008. Isay's brother is David Isay, a prominent documentary radio producer and MacArthur "genius." David's 1989 documentary, Remembering Stonewall, was inspired by the discovery that their father is gay.

No joke

Notoriously superstitious, Isay has been known to hew to an exact routine when a political campaign is going well, waking at the same time every morning and showering for the same amount of time. When things are going poorly, he'll change his routine.