It's clearly laid out in 140 pages of printed text, handwriting and spreadsheets: The
top-secret plan for Rudy Giuliani's bid for the White House.
The remarkably detailed dossier sets out the budgets, schedules and fund-raising plans
that will underpin the former New York mayor's presidential campaign - as well as his
aides' worries that personal and political baggage could scuttle his run.
At the center of his efforts: a massive fund-raising push to bring in at least $100
million this year, with a scramble for at least $25 million in the next three months
alone.
The loss of the battle plan is a remarkable breach in the high-stakes game of
presidential politics and a potentially disastrous blunder for Giuliani in the early
stages of his campaign.
The document was obtained by the Daily News from a source sympathetic to one of
Giuliani's rivals for the White House. The source said it was left behind in one of the
cities Giuliani visited as he campaigned for dozens of Republican candidates in the weeks
leading up to the November 2006 elections.
Giuliani spokeswoman Sunny Mindel suggested there were political dirty tricks behind
the loss of the documents and called the timing suspicious.
"I wonder why such suspicious activity is occurring and can only guess it is
because of Rudy's poll numbers in New Hampshire and Iowa," Mindel said.
Giuliani leads most public opinion polls of Republican primary voters though he has not
announced his candidacy for President. But the dossier, which envisions spending more than
$21 million this year alone, shows that Giuliani began meeting with potential supporters
last April and that by October, his staff had put in place a detailed plan for a serious
bid for the presidency. But they also depict a candidate torn between his prosperous
business and a political future full of both promise and risk.
One page cites the explicit concern that he might "drop out of [the] race" as
a consequence of his potentially "insurmountable" personal and political
vulnerabilities.
On the same page is a list of the candidate's central problems in bullet-point form:
his private sector business; disgraced former aide Bernard Kerik; his third wife, Judith
Nathan Giuliani; "social issues," on which is he is more liberal than most
Republicans, and his former wife Donna Hanover.
The concerns appear to be listed as issues for Giuliani law partner Pat Oxford to
address and are followed by the central question of the campaign:
Are there "prob[lem]s that are insurmount[able]?" it asks, adding, "Has
anyone reviewed with RWG?" Giuliani, whose middle name is William, is referred to
throughout the document by his initials.
"All will come out - in worst light," the memo continues. "$100 million
against us on this stuff."
The binder's pages are unsigned, but several pages have the initials "AD"
circled, apparently referring to Giuliani's chief fund-raiser, Anne Dickerson. She is also
the most likely person to have prepared the bulk of the binder's contents, which detail
his fund-raising plan.
The pages are photocopied, some including copies of handwritten notes. On one page, two
tasks for Giuliani aide Anthony Carbonetti - his closest political adviser and frequent
travel companion - are highlighted in yellow.
* * *
The detailed fund-raising plans depict a campaign scrambling to catch up with the
organizational advantage of Giuliani's Republican rivals, particularly Arizona Sen. John
McCain.
Some of the leading figures in American business and finance appear as the
"prospective leadership" of Giuliani's campaign, and their names appear
elsewhere with instructions for Giuliani to call and seek their support. Two of the top
figures on Giuliani's list, New Jersey mega-fund-raisers Lew Eisenberg and Larry Bathgate,
have already signed on with McCain, as has another Giuliani target, FedEx CEO Fred Smith.
In a memo that appears in the dossier, Giuliani aides Dickerson and Roy Bailey urge him
to court financier Henry Kravis particularly avidly.
"You need him to be a Wall Street industry leader," the memo says.
McCain announced Kravis' support last month.
The plan also anticipates his recruiting top GOP fund-raiser Cathy Blaney in New York
on a retainer of $260,000 and her Florida counterpart, Ann Herberger, at $216,000. But
between the plan's preparation in the fall and today, Blaney became the chief fund-raiser
for the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, while Herberger reportedly has signed on
to the presidential campaign of Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Other business leaders targeted by Giuliani remain publicly uncommitted: Paramount CEO
Brad Grey, Giuliani's talent agent after 9/11, is envisioned as leading a
"celebrities" fund-raising arm; former Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton would
raise money from professional athletes. News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, PepsiCo chief Dawn
Hudson and Goldman Sachs president Lloyd Blankfein are also listed as "industry
leaders."
The documents depict hedge fund tycoon Paul Singer, a close Giuliani ally, playing a
central role in his fund-raising operation.
The dossier doesn't make clear whether the people named have committed privately to
Giuliani or even been approached to support him.
Giuliani fund-raiser Dickerson served as a deputy to the chief fund-raiser of George
Bush's 2004 reelection campaign, and the papers suggest Giuliani will model at least the
fund-raising portion of his campaign explicitly on Bush's. Several pages appear to be
Bush-Cheney campaign internal budget documents and are marked "confidential."
Bush divided his main fund-raisers into "Rangers," who raised at least
$200,000 each, and "Pioneers," who raised $100,000. Giuliani's metaphor is
baseball: "Team Captains" are responsible for $1 million each in contributions,
and "MVPs" bring in $200,000 each. Bush's "Pioneers" become Giuliani's
"All-Stars," and those who raise $50,000 are "Sluggers."
Giuliani differs from Bush in one important way, though. His fund-raising heartland
isn't Texas, but the more liberal state of California, the only place other than New York
and Washington where the campaign plans to open a dedicated fund-raising office.
Still, Giuliani enters the race with ambitious fund-raising goals that will likely
consume huge amounts of his time and energy this year. The plan projects his raising $100
million to $125 million this year at 250 different gatherings with wealthy donors -
including $25 million to $30 million at 50 events over the next three months.
His schedule, an aide said in a handwritten note on one page, is "an issue."
Originally published on January 1, 2007