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Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Giuliani's campaign concerns aired in public
NEW YORK (CNN) -- An internal Rudy Giuliani campaign memo listing everything from potential budgets to political baggage was supposed to stay top secret. But the 140 page document made the front page of the New York Daily News Tuesday and Giuliani's camp suggests its leaking is nothing short of a dirty political trick.
Daily News reporter Ben Smith, who obtained the document, says the Giuliani camp aims to raise at least $100 million in 2007, as the former New York City mayor prepares a run for the White House. Giuliani has already opened up an exploratory committee as he considers a presidential bid. Smith said "the most striking thing was that there was this sort of explicit worries about some of these issues with his ex-wife Donna Hanover, his current wife, his business. Social issues were last among the worries." Republican strategists tell CNN it's not surprising these concerns would be listed. Giuliani supports abortion and gay rights, which clashes with social conservatives in his party. While he was the New York City mayor, Giuliani's divorce from Hanover became fodder for the tabloids. And his former aide and police commissioner Bernard Kerik -- has become a source of embarrassment due to Kerik's own publicized problems. GOP strategist Jonathan Grella said what he finds surprising is that these concerns would be written down. "It would seem that these are not the kind of things that you would want to put down on paper," said Grella, a former spokesman for ex-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. "It's an old political maxim not to ever put pen to paper in situations like this." Sunny Mindel, Giuliani's spokeswoman, said the document belonged to a staffer traveling with the former mayor, as he campaigned for Republicans in the months leading up to the midterm elections. Mindel said during a plane transfer, the staffer's luggage was not returned and claims that the document was removed and photocopied before the luggage was returned to the staffer. Smith, of the Daily News, told CNN he obtained the document from a source sympathetic to one of Giuliani's opponents, who said the document had been left behind. -- CNN Correspondent Mary Snow
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