Giuliani Plan Pilfered From Aide's Luggage

WASHINGTON — The presidential campaign strategy for Mayor Giuliani — complete with a $100 million fundraising target for this year — is out of the bag.

The 140-page schedule for the Republican's budding presidential bid was reported in yesterday's editions of the New York Daily News.

The paper said an anonymous source obtained the document after it was left behind on a campaign swing in 2006, but Giuliani spokeswoman Sunny Mindel claimed it was actually pilfered from a piece of airline luggage.

"This wasn't left in a hotel,'" Ms. Mindel told the Associated Press. "This is clearly a dirty trick. The voters are sick and tired of this kind of thing."

Ms. Mindel said that while working on the 2006 campaign trail, a Giuliani aide lost a piece of luggage containing the paper.

‘"After repeated requests over the course of a few days, the bag was finally returned with the document inside. Because our staffer had custody of this document at all times except for this one occasion, it is clear that the document was removed from the luggage and photocopied," she said.

She did not say exactly where or when the strategy paper was lost, or what was in it, but Ms. Mindel downplayed its importance.