Session: 123456789101112131415161718192021222324         Page 514515516517518519520521522523524525526527528529530531532533534535536537538539540541 of 592

strike, sixty-two days, and to indicate that if the strike continued, it could polarize the city. They said, “If you can do that, the governor will step in, but we could use that.” They didn't believe I could do it.

One day they called me and they said the governor's counsel called, and said, “Moe, it's happening. The governor has just announced that he's stopping his campaign tour with Joe Carlino to a meeting in his office in New York to which he's inviting the hospitals and the union. Davis won't be invited because the hospitals won't sit in the same room.”

Anyway, and then when we were in the campaign -- let me just end it at that point -- I got editorials not only from New York, at one point the governor's office said, “We've got opposition upstate from the Catholics and the big hospitals.” They said, “What can be done?”

I called Jimmy Wechsler, and in two days, editorials were appearing in places like the Adirondack Post Gazette, places that had never had a hospital union, urging support for the law. The governor's counsel, when we finished the campaign, said to me, he asked, “Moe, which firm handled this campaign? You must have spent an enormous amount of money. Which big firm?” I just said, “Me.” He said, “You must be kidding me.”

There's one concept that seems key in this: trust. You have access to Wechsler or Raskin, to reporters and some of the editors, but access only takes you so far. How did you gain their trust so that [cross talk]

You have to be sure that the facts you give are accurate, that you don't make up things for them, because then you're dead with them. They'll know that you're a conniver. They have to feel that this is a committed person. And also, in my case, they felt that if they didn't answer my call, I would keep calling, they'll never hear the end of it. But after a while, people who I never dreamed I could speak to on the phone --

It's commitment, there's accuracy, reliability, and persistence.

Right.

Okay. Now, let's see. I took you astray. You were telling about '87 and getting publicity for home care following the hearings.

All right. Now, I suggested at one point to Dennis, I said, “You know, let's get the Cardinal.”

He said, “How should I get the Cardinal?”