For two elections in a row, the state Independence Party endorsed a Republican candidate who hired a political consultant with close ties to party Chairman Frank MacKay, campaign records show.
Harry Wilson, the GOP comptroller contender, paid the Roosevelt Strategy Group $10,000 on June 11, six days after winning the party’s endorsement over Democratic incumbent Tom DiNapoli, the records show.
In 2006, Jeanine Pirro also hired the Roosevelt Group when she ran for attorney general on the Republican line and was backed by the Independence Party. Her total tab came to $100,000.
The Roosevelt Group is run by Anthony Manetta, who previously helped set up a computer-services company with MacKay’s wife, Kristin, that now figures in an investigation by Staten Island DA Dan Donovan.
Bill O’Reilly, Wilson’s campaign spokesman, said Manetta severed his ties to the computer firm, Government Response Inc., in 2005 and has no other business connections to MacKay.
“We hired him of our own volition, and we’re very happy with his performance,” O’Reilly said of Manetta.
But one Independence Party member who is a MacKay critic insisted Wilson got a leg up in the endorsement process by selecting Manetta to run his Long Island operation.
“It definitely helped his chances [for the endorsement],” said the critic.
The Staten Island DA is investigating a $10,000 business loan for Government Response that Kristin MacKay solicited last year from John Tabacco, a council candidate who was seeking the Independence Party’s backing.
While Manetta said he was no longer associated with Government Response, he conceded that he was copied in an e-mail exchange on April 15 and 16 between Tabacco and the company over a possible loan extension.
O’Reilly said that wasn’t unusual because Kristin MacKay frequently consults Manetta.
“He’s been friends with Kristin for years,” said O’Reilly. “It’s not unusual for her to seek his advice.”
That friendship seems to have paid off.
In 2007, Manetta was named vice chairman of the Suffolk County Independence Party while MacKay did double-duty as its chairman, a post he holds to this day. Records also show that the Independence Party has paid $52,758 to Roosevelt over the years for consulting.
There’s no question that MacKay thinks highly of Manetta since he’s provided him with a testimonial that appears on the Roosevelt Group’s Web site calling him “the top up-and-coming political consultant in the state of New York.”