The Nation: A Prince Maker Strikes Again

(2 of 2)

How completely Garth and his 14-member staff move in depends on the customer's needs. Koch started with no organization and little money. Therefore, Garth supplied professional staff and research aides. A reporter writing something unpleasant could even expect a caustic phone call from Garth, using his Edward G. Robinson manner and Damon Runyon dialogue ("You guys are putting out a lotta crap, y'know?"). When Koch did a live interview with a TV personality high on Garth's low list, Koch got a loud complaint. "Garth called me and was really furious," Koch recalls with a chuckle. "David is very warm and has become a close personal friend. Of course, he can be volatile and dictatorial too."

For having sound advice yelled at them, candidates eagerly line up to pay the Garth firm $15,000 a month as a retainer, plus 15% of the cost of commercial air time. In the Koch campaign, the commission came to roughly $120,000. Though he tries to keep it quiet, Garth occasionally donates services to an impecunious politician whom he admires, like Bellamy. He pays himself a salary of $130,000 a year.

There is no charge for Garth's post-election consultations. After Carey won, he chose five top aides who had been proposed by Garth. Now friction has developed between Garth and other Carey staffers; as a result, Garth has talked about withdrawing from Carey's 1978 re-election campaign. Last week Koch's first appointment as mayor-elect was his city hall press secretary—Maureen Connelly, 29, until now Garth's research chief.

How long Garth's honeymoon with His Honor will last is an open question. Garth, a student of Machiavelli as well as McLuhan, keeps a passage from The Prince on his office wall: "Whoever is the cause of another becoming powerful, is ruined himself." Waving his cigar, Garth says of his 16th century political consultant: "I live by that son of a bitch. He's never wrong." Luckily for Garth, every campaign brings along new potential princes.