Who

The president of bland-sounding Bolton-St. Johns, Inc., Adler is one of the city's leading political guns-for-hire, a favorite quote machine for the city's political reporters, and the elder statesman of New York's political consultants.

Backstory

Adler started out his political career as a speechwriter for Mayor Robert Wagner in the 1960s. After dipping in and out of academia—and authoring two books, The Learning of Political Behavior and The Political Clubs of New York—he joined Mario Cuomo's 1982 campaign for governor as field director and deputy campaign manager. He went on to join the Cuomo administration, then became chief of staff for Mel Miller, the Speaker of the New York State Assembly who later resigned in disgrace. Adler left before Miller's downfall, though. After a blowup in the Assembly (see below), he joined the faculty of Baruch College in 1988 before working as head of political action and legislation for District Council 37 of AFSCME.

As head of Bolton-St. Johns, Adler consults for groups ranging from the RIAA to the YMCA. Never one to let party affiliation stand in the way of a job, though, he advises both state Republicans and Democrats. In 2005, Bolton-St. Johns earned $1.8 million in lobbying fees, and it squeaked out even more in 2006, making it the second-largest political consultancy in the city in terms of revenue. In addition to political lobbying and mouthpiece duties, Adler is an adjunct professor at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Affairs.

Scandal

In 1987, Adler—who was then an aide to Assembly Speaker Mel Miller—pushed a Post reporter to the ground and then kicked him after the journo pressed Adler regarding possible payroll fraud in the Assembly. Adler resigned shortly thereafter, but it later turned out there was fraud all right—it just had nothing to do with the State Assembly. In 1991, Miller's political career ended when he was convicted on eight counts of fraud in connection with cheating clients out of some of the profits from investments in co-op apartments. These days, Miller works for his former protégé at Bolton-St. Johns.

Personal

Adler is divorced from Madeleine Wing Adler, the president of Pennsylvania's West Chester University. He lives on West 79th Street, across the street from the Museum of Natural History.