State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli has severed ties with the MirRam Group, home to powerhouse Latino lobbyist/consultant Roberto Ramirez, due to the firm’s potential role in AG Andrew Cuomo’s pay-to-play pension fund probe.

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DiNapoli’s campaign manager, Mark Benoit, confirmed the comptroller has decided to part ways with MirRam, sending me the following statement last night:

“In light of the Attorney General’s recent announcement and out of an abundance of caution, DiNapoli 2010 and the MirRam Group have decided to discontinue our consulting agreement, effective immediately.”

An unnamed MirRam representative was present at the April 5, 2007 meeting that Cuomo’s office acknowledged is of interest in its ongoing investigation. Also at the get-together was someone from Global Strategy Group, which recently settled with Cuomo for $2 million.

Cuomo has already made it clear he’s not thrilled with DiNapoli and would like to see the sole trusteeship of the state pension fund ended in favor of a board oversight system, which would dramatically undercut the power of the comptroller’s office. It’s smart for DiNapoli to try to minimize any potential areas of criticism for Cuomo – and that explains this MirRam move.

According to Benoit, DiNapoli’s campaign only recently contracted with MirRam to produce the literature pictured here (somewhat blurrily) in advance of the recent Somos el Futuro conference in Albany. (The piece, English on one side and Spanish on the other, lauds DiNapoli as “a tested and trusted Democratic leader.”

DiNapoli’s most recent campaign finance filing shows no payments to MirRam. The campaign reached out to MirRam in part due to its hiring in the wake of the 2009 mayoral election of Eddy Castell, whose management of former Comptroller Bill Thompson’s campaign impressed Benoit.

(Recall that Thompson was once seen as a potential primary challenger to DiNapoli, but he took a pass on that race – and everything else this fall – to enter the private sector and prepare for another mayoral campaign in 2013).

DiNapoli is far from the only candidate to avail himself of MirRam’s services. Another of the firm’s clients is Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

So far, Gillibrand has refused to heed calls to sever ties with Global from one of her three GOP opponents, David Malpass. To my knowledge, she hasn’t been pressed yet on MirRam.

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