New Possible Challenger Emerges to Take On Michael Grimm
2:29 pm • 22 April 2011
Investment banker Robert Diamond is seriously considering jumping into the race to challenge incumbent Staten Island Republican Congressman Michael Grimm, The Politicker has learned.
Diamond is a senior vice-president at Realty Capital International, a real estate investment banking firm, and a former vice-president at Bear Stearns. Prior to his career in finance, he served in the U.S. Navy and was the Navy’s legislative liasion to the House of Representatives. A Truman Security Fellow, he also serves as vice-chairman of the Democratic National Committee’s Veterans and Military Families Council.
According to a Times story about his 2004 wedding, Diamond’s mother served as the district director to former Staten Island Republican Congressman Vito Fossella.
A man named Robert Diamond gave $2,000 to Republican Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan once in 2009 (for his D.A. election) and twice again for his unsuccessful Attorney General race against Eric Schneiderman in 2010. Problem is that the address associated with the contributions is in Scotch Plains, New Jersey.
Update: Luckily federal disclosures list employers, and Diamond definitely has a residence on the Upper East Side as well (or they are two different Robert Diamonds), which would make him eligible to run in NY-13 if that’s his primary home since he’d be a resident of New York.
For Congressional races, one only has to be a resident of the state (unlike state or city legislature races).
Update 2: The more I research it, the more I think that the New Jersey one is a completely different Robert Diamond.
I did discover that it seems he married his future boss’s daughter in 2006 though, heh.
