(Photo: Patrick McMullan)

J eanine Pirro has her PR problems, but fund-raising isn’t one of them: The state GOP money machine has rallied around her. All of which has some Andrew Cuomo supporters worried, even as his private polls show he leads by as many as twenty points. When Cuomo was fending off Mark Green, Pirro outraised Cuomo by more than half a million in the first six-month filing period this year—$2.8 million versus $2.2 million. Fox News host Sean Hannity’s wife, Merri, chipped in $20,000, and Fifth Avenue plastic surgeon Pamela Lipkin gave $10,000. (Lipkin cannot disclose whether Pirro is her patient.) Even the Fortunoff jewelry store in Uniondale kicked in $1,000. Pirro has also recently secured billionaire Nelson Peltz as her finance chair, and the host committee that’s putting on Tuesday morning’s $2,500-per-person breakfast at Cipriani includes the likes of Gail Icahn (wife of Carl) and tough-guy P.I. Richard “Bo” Dietl. Cuomo’s known as an effective fund-raiser himself, but his campaign refused to disclose upcoming events.

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• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Geoffrey Gray
• Table of Contents: Oct 2, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!