Mayor Bloomberg is teaming up with upstate billionaire Tom Golisano to revamp the state Independence Party as an “issues oriented” group focusing on government reform, The Post has learned.
“They want to combine their resources,” said Golisano adviser Steve Pigeon of the effort, which is expected to be a multimillion-dollar endeavor.
“It means a lot in New York state politics to have them come together.”
Bloomberg funneled $1.2 million through the state Independence Party last year, in August and October, that was intended for GOP Senate candidates, sources said.
At the same time, Golisano, a registered GOPer who ran for governor as an independent in 2002, was funneling millions into Responsible New York, a third-party effort that largely backed Democrats.
Bloomberg and top political lieutenant Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey sat down with Golisano, one of the Independence Party’s co-founders in the early ’90s, last month, where they struck up an alliance, Pigeon said.
Pigeon and party co-founder Laureen Oliver were also at the meeting.
“They found out they have more in common” than they have different, said Pigeon of the mayor and Golisano – who helped fund efforts against changing term limits when Bloomberg was pushing for a legislative change to the law so he could run for a third term in November.
The new move, observers said, likely keeps Golisano on the sidelines – and from backing anyone from running against the mayor in the fall.
“Tom and Mike are going to come together and market the Independence Party [as] what it was created for,” said Oliver.
A Bloomberg spokesman declined comment. Independence Party Chairman Frank MacKay wasn’t available to comment.
Pigeon said the effort wasn’t related to the mayor’s race, and that the revamped party would have its eye toward state candidates.
The move comes at a time when Bloomberg is expected to seek the city’s Independence Party ballot line for his re-election bid.
The state party doesn’t control that line, but observers said the mayor’s new joint effort with Golisano could help crowd out the faction controlled by Lenora Fulani, who runs the city party and has said the mayor will have an uphill climb getting the line.
The idea behind the new endeavor is to focus on issues like “responsible” state budgets, government transparency and election reforms, aides said, with a spring conference, possible issues ads and certain candidates who will be backed statewide.
But Pigeon said Golisano would also help Bloomberg with his relationship to newly named Democratic Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, after the mayor backed the Senate GOP in its quest to keep the majority in the 2008 elections.
Bloomberg, meanwhile, is also pushing hard for the GOP ballot line – hiring Matt Mahoney, a longtime aide to Rudy Giuliani who ran the Senate GOP’s efforts last fall, to help him secure it, several sources said.