Tom Suozzi may not stand much of a chance in his fight for the Democratic nomination in New York’s gubernatorial race, but that hasn’t stopped a bipartisan list of notables from supporting his effort to best combative state attorney general and self-appointed Wall Street reformer Eliot Spitzer.
Suozzi’s most publicized proponent is Ken Langone, the former New York Stock Exchange compensation committee chief; Spitzer is suing Langone and ex-NYSE chairman Dick Grasso in a case alleging that Grasso received excessive compensation while running the exchange. But several other prominent Street figures are also in Suozzi’s camp. Former Goldman Sachs chairman John Whitehead, a Republican fixture who publicly clashed with Spitzer last year, has given $9,200 to Suozzi’s campaign, according to New York State Board of Elections documents. In a December Wall Street Journal op-ed piece, Whitehead alleged that Spitzer verbally threatened him after reading an earlier op-ed in which Whitehead criticized the attorney general’s conduct during his investigation of ex–AIG CEO Hank Greenberg. Whitehead wrote that Spitzer warned him that he had started a “war” between the two men with his remarks and that the attorney general would be “coming after” him. Spitzer has denied threatening Whitehead, who wrote that he was “astounded” at Spitzer’s alleged remarks: “No one had ever talked to me like that before. It was a little scary.”
Another Suozzi supporter is Silicon Valley financier Thom Weisel, a prominent Republican who was once a director of the conservative group Empower America. Weisel’s eponymous, San Francisco–based investment bank was one of 12 firms targeted by Spitzer and other regulators in 2002 for allegedly misleading investors with overly rosy stock research. Most of those firms settled the charges in 2003, but Thomas Weisel Partners fought the $1.5 billion settlement and held out for better terms before signing in 2004. Weisel has given $10,000 to Suozzi’s campaign.
Also on the list of Suozzi donors: former Republican Treasury secretary Nicholas Brady ($10,000); activist investor Dan Loeb of Third Point Management ($50,000); Mickey Gooch, who heads derivatives brokerage GFI Group, and his wife, Diane ($101,000); and two renowned hedge fund managers who have served with Langone on the board of the antipoverty Robin Hood Foundation: Paul Tudor Jones ($32,000, with wife Sonia) and Stanley Druckenmiller ($32,000, with wife Fiona). Langone and his family have given $64,000 to Suozzi, 43, who currently serves as the executive of Nassau County, in western Long Island. All of these donors either declined to comment or failed to return calls. The primary election is scheduled for September 12.
Some Wall Streeters are working both sides of the contest. Lewis Ranieri, chairman of embattled software company CA, based in Islandia, New York, has given $10,000 to Suozzi. Ranieri is friendly with Grasso, who served on CA’s board from 1994 to 2002. But the former Salomon Brothers bond-trading whiz has also donated $25,000 to Spitzer’s campaign.
At least one Republican Wall Streeter, Barry Friedberg, head of investment firm FriedbergMilstein, contends that his $15,000 donation to Suozzi has nothing to do with the attorney general’s investigations into the financial world. “I wanted a debate,” says Friedberg, a former Merrill Lynch investment banker. Friedberg’s partner, Howard Milstein, gave $25,000 to Spitzer in October.
Suozzi’s Wall Street backers aren’t likely to see much of a return on their investments. Though they have helped the candidate raise some $9 million, his war chest pales beside the $35 million raised by Spitzer, who is expected to easily win the Democratic nomination and the governor’s mansion. The latest poll conducted by the Siena Research Institute at Siena College has Spitzer trouncing Suozzi by a margin of 78 percent to 9 percent. Neither campaign would comment on the fundraising wars. — Pierre Paulden with Danielle Beurteaux
