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Obama victory may assure political post for Cooper

BY REID J. EPSTEIN | reid.epstein@newsday.com

May 27, 2008

When Suffolk Legis. Jon Cooper publicly backed Sen. Barack Obama's Democratic presidential campaign early last year, he received a phone call from a member of the Long Island Congressional delegation who backs Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The message: "Think of your future," the member of congress said. "Think of your constituents."

But Cooper (D-Lloyd Harbor), who has been the Illinois senator's most prominent Long Island supporter, may likely soon find himself in an enviable political position. Should Obama win the Democratic nomination and go on to defeat Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in November, Cooper would be in consideration for a plum political post.

Keeping an eye on issues

Cooper said he wasn't thinking about the political gamble when he spurned the New York and Long Island political establishment and the state's junior senator to back Obama. As almost every other elected official on Long Island and in the city endorsed Clinton early, complete with a bus ride to Albany for a Capitol steps photo-op at the campaign's outset, Cooper said he focused solely on the issues, particularly Clinton's 2002 Iraq war authorization vote.

"That was an overriding issue," he said. "That was what propelled me away from Hillary. I knew I couldn't support her."

But even if he becomes the Democratic nominee, there is no guarantee that Obama will win the general election.

If Obama loses, said Bradley Blakeman, a Washington consultant who is a veteran of both Bush administrations, Cooper should watch his back.

"He better hope against hope that Obama is the winner," Blakeman said. "Because if Obama loses, Hillary is going to remember who supported her and who didn't."

Now as Obama edges closer to clinching the Democratic nomination, Cooper is joking about tropical island nation ambassadorships and planning six-figure summer fund-raisers in The Hamptons and in Nassau. He is also hosting a fundraiser June 12 at his Lloyd Harbor home with David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager.

Cooper, who is co-chairman of Obama's national gay and lesbian outreach committee and sits on the campaign's national finance committee, said he's focused only on electing Obama, not on his own political future.

"I got involved because of issues I believe in and a candidate that I have tremendous respect for," Cooper said. "It's just so exciting to be part of not just a political campaign, but a political movement."

Access to power players

New presidents typically reward their major fund-raisers - Cooper will have raised well over $1 million by the end of the campaign - with ambassadorships, choice administrative jobs or the ability to recommend friends for such jobs.

Nassau Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs, a major Clinton fundraiser, said the most important thing Cooper would gain is access.

"It's access to the key players and key policy makers that's very important," Jacobs said. "It's most likely that Jon has developed a good relationship with people around Barack Obama who will be making up the core of his administration."

Cooper, 53, said business and family considerations - he owns a Westbury manufacturing firm and has five children with his partner, Robert Cooper - will for now keep him on Long Island. He said he won't consider moving until his youngest children, twin 13-year-old girls, are at least in college.

"If there's some role I could play long distance," he said, "I guess I'd be open to that."

Such roles, of course, are plentiful in presidential politics. Presidents control appointments to commissions and political party posts and could certainly boost a politician's profile should he run for a higher office.

The ultimate recognition

"He's going to be recognized, he's going to be appreciated," said Stephen Hess, who worked in the Eisenhower and Nixon administrations and is a fellow at the Brookings Institution, in Washington, D.C. "Sometimes the monetary value is indirect. People will notice that he's close to the president and they will want to do nice things for him."

Blakeman was a new Adelphi University graduate in 1980 when he volunteered as a driver for Ronald Reagan's campaign. Once Reagan won, Blakeman, formerly of Valley Stream, parlayed his support into a presidential commission post and later a job working for Vice President George H.W. Bush.

Blakeman said an Obama victory would make Cooper "the greatest thing since sliced bread."

Jacobs, who like other New York politicians remains publicly steadfast behind Clinton, said it's likely Cooper would be on a short list for jobs in an Obama administration.

"They pick qualified, intelligent people who they trust," he said. "That's the way administrations come together."

And Blakeman dismissed Cooper's protestations that he won't move his family from Long Island for a high-profile Washington job.

"That's what they all say," he said.