Charlie King has been an attorney, a politician and a civil rights activist. After retooling following his third attempt for statewide office—he ran for lieutenant governor in 1998 and 2002, and attorney general in 2006—King joined Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network as its interim director.
Sitting in his office at the law firm Rosenthal & Herman, P.C., and flanked by an oversized poster of Robert F. Kennedy, King discussed the Sean Bell case, the state of race relations in New York, and whether he ever intends to run for statewide office again.
What follows is an edited tran scri pt.

The Capitol: What do you do here at the law firm?
Charlie King: [gestures to office] This is not a law firm. This is my own little space. What of things I do, after being re-elected a private citizen with a mandate…

TC: Is that how you view it?
CK: That’s how most people view it. The people have definitely spoken. I’ve created a little company that’s sort of eclectic in what it does. I do a lot of work obviously with the National Action Network. But I also do work with Martin Luther King III. Since I have a lot of friends in government now, issues that are problems for folks, sometimes I can help solve those problems. We help with some of the African-American electeds learn how to raise money. Because one of the issues that I think is a big impediment for electeds of color who would want to run for office beyond their district is how to raise money. One of the things I happened to do well when I was a candidate for office was raise money. I actually raised more money than anyone other than Andrew [Cuomo] in the attorney general’s race.

TC: What are the tips you give?
CK: It’s all about developing relationships, get to meet folks. If you did a study, which I did a couple years ago, of the big traditional givers to politics and elected officials, about 90 percent of them never contribute to African-American electeds unless they’re running for a higher office. Which means just the relationship is not there. So one thing is for those elected officials to begin to develop those relationships with people who give. But the other is, it’s all volume. You have to come in and sit in a windowless room being served dry crackers and water through a slot and just make phone calls.

TC: You seem to have a lot of different jobs. What sort of title would you use to refer to yourself?
CK:My eminence.

TC: Do you think of yourself as a consultant? An activist?
CK: I’d probably refer to myself as someone who’s still passionate about making a difference, and making a difference in a variety of ways, either being in government or running for office at this time. A lot of people reach out to me for advice on issues, a lot of people in politics. My career has been so eclectic. From a political operative to being in government in the Clinton administration, running a big agency to running for office myself. There’s a lot of experiences that I have that a lot of people just don’t have.

TC: How receptive has Andrew Cuomo been to your suggestions?
CK: We’re rivals. We’re brothers. Sometimes we love each other. Sometimes we hate each other. Sometimes one of us loves the other and one of us hates the other. It really is like we’re relatives. We’ve known each other long enough where I can prod him and tease him. But by and large I haven’t had to, because he’s been doing great.

TC: New York City has been roiled recently by the Sean Bell case. In your view, what is the current state of racial politics?
CK: First, Mayor Bloomberg is to be commended for having an open-door policy for discussions on this. I don’t think that he and I agree or he and Rev. Sharpton agree on everything. At least having a dialogue is good. I also think that Rev. Sharpton should be commended. A lot of people fail to recognize the role that he plays in keeping the peace. For example, I said to him, “What effect has the Sean Bell verdict had?” On the steps of the courthouse he said, “This is an unacceptable verdict. I can’t take it.” People do what they want to do. What kind of violence might of happened then. He works very hard to ensure that everything he does is done in the non-violent tradition of Dr. King, and very few people give him credit for that. Now, having said that, we need to continue to have discussions about this issue. There is a T-shirt that is coming out of the Sean Bell case, which is “We are all Sean Bell” or “I am Sean Bell.” That resonates. A guy like me, lives in the suburbs, I have an Ivy League education, went to private school, but I identify with Sean Bell because I truly believe that that could happen to me.

TC: You feel so strongly about these things, why be the interim director at the National Action Network, and not look to make it a permanent position?
CK:I felt very strongly about the “interim” piece of that because Rev. Sharpton wanted me to come in, and I wanted to come in to help build the infrastructure of the National Action Network that could grow with the stature that Rev. Sharpton has enjoyed over the last few years. He’s growing in terms of his status exponentially. You got to make sure that you have an infrastructure around you that can absorb that and can strengthen it, so things don’t fall through the cracks and mistakes aren’t made. I think there’s also the idea of governing versus running. I think for many years Rev. Sharpton has run to become president of black America. And as I well know, when you run for office you can say a lot of things that, you get much greater freedom to say and do things when you’re running to gain attention than when you actually win and start to govern.

TC: How does your style jibe with Sharpton’s?
CK: It jibes like incredibly well. It’s a very good fit. It’s almost the converse of that. When I get exercised, he knows we really have to…And when he’s kind of quiet and responsible…A good example is before I was working for him, I was helping the witnesses pro bono to facilitate them coming in on the Sean Bell case. And one of my guys got taken off the street on a disorderly conduct charge and was like lost in the system for about 18 hours. And I just reached my breaking point. I had sources telling me where he was, but the Queens DA was getting misinformation from the police department much lower down. So I said, “You know what Rev? I’m going down to the steps of City Hall and I’m just going to call the mayor out right now and say this is absolutely ridiculous.” And he said quietly, “Listen, that’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. But do what you want to do.”

TC:Would you ever consider running for office again?
CK: I might. I was in Andrew Cuomo’s office the other day. I told him I left my tape measure at home so I was not going to measure the drapes. I think that I’m very excited about who we have in office right now at the statewide level. The only offices I would run for would be statewide. We’ve got great people there. I’m committed to making sure they succeed.

TC: You have run for lieutenant governor and attorney general. Does running for state comptroller have any appeal to you?
CK: First, I think Tom DiNapoli is doing an outstanding job. Sometimes I pretend like I could have done a better job, but I couldn’t. He’s doing everything. He’s doing very, very well. Do I think about it at all? Not really, because I expect these guys to be there forever. But the comptroller job is a really cool job. I would never run for it. But it’s almost like being a governor without a Legislature. You can wake up one day and say, “Let’s buy Chemung County.” As long as the return is good, you could do it, and who’s going to complain?