Howard Wolfson

As Bloomberg’s powerful deputy mayor for government affairs and communications, Wolfson has embraced Bloomberg’s disdain of party politics and pushed the kind of transactional politics that puts results over ideology. Wolfson has taken to saying of Bloomberg that “he is the only major political figure in America operating outside the two-party system, and as a result, he sometimes makes decisions that partisans don’t understand.” Wolfson also runs Bloomberg’s well-funded Independence USA PAC and is expected to continue to do so after the mayor leaves office.The famously neurotic Wolfson, who declined to comment for this story, is now described as unusually well-adjusted. He has traded his sweater vests for sharp suits and needles reporters about their shaggy hair. The 46-year-old lives in his beloved New York, finally residing full time in the same city as his wife, Terri McCullough, the former chief of staff to Nancy Pelosi, and their young children. As deputy mayor he has a broad portfolio, defending right-leaning stop-and-frisk police policies and denouncing Occupy Wall Street; he also spends many Fridays in the White House strategizing with other gun-control advocates