The Brooklyn Mechanic

 

 

Politico

 When Eric Adams needed space to work on his mayoral campaign, an old friend set him up with a brightly-lit spot in his own downtown Brooklyn office, steps from Adams’ Borough Hall headquarters.

When he was setting up his campaign team, Adams hired the same confidante for legal advice and help putting together ballot petitions.

And when Adams was building a war chest to underwrite his victory in the Democratic primary last month, it was that friend, Frank Carone, who hosted fundraisers and, along with his wife, donated the maximum amount allowed under law. Their Mill Basin, Brooklyn neighbors followed suit, contributing $29,430 to Adams — the Brooklyn borough president who is now the odds-on favorite to become the city’s 110th mayor.

In fact, Carone has been such a constant in Adams’ political and personal orbit, he was summoned over a loudspeaker at an election night victory party a few weeks ago: “Frank Carone, we need you by the DJ area please.”

Carone is an attorney whose practice at Abrams Fensterman has exploded since he joined in 2011. The firm covers a bit of everything — divorce proceedings, criminal trials, medical malpractice cases.

And its more than 100 attorneys also represent real estate, nursing home and transportation companies that rely on city government for their businesses. That’s when Carone’s reputation as a well-connected litigator and man about town became a lucrative asset.

As head of the firm’s Brooklyn office, Carone offers clients strategic advice on government relations while also helping them accelerate the grind of municipal bureaucracy. He relies on a thick Rolodex built over the years, through a keen knowledge of city agencies and control over a piece of the Brooklyn Democratic political machine.

He makes himself a port in a storm, sticking by friends in tough times and inviting them for a home-cooked meal at his house in Southern Brooklyn, replete with neoclassical rooflines and a waterfront pool deck. But Carone can just as quickly exert pressure when he feels he’s been crossed, according to more than a dozen interviews with politicians and operatives who have dealt with him.

Now, after eight years of friendship with Mayor Bill de Blasio, Carone has an opportunity for an even closer connection to a government he readily does business with. Carone and Adams are so close, they’ve even spent Thanksgiving together.

“Frank is a very honest broker. He is a man of his word and he’s very public about who he supports. He’s been with Eric since day one,” Carlo Scissura, president and CEO of the New York Building Congress, said. “He’ll continue to be a confidante of Eric’s when he’s mayor — he’ll be one of his top confidantes, one of his top friends in the world — and someone he can rely on.”