The New Era Democrats, a group that has endorsed Mayor Bloomberg in all three of his campaigns and has a history of backing Republicans, just announced its support of Staten Island DA Dan Donovan’s AG bid.

“The New Era Democrats endorses candidates who are best qualified to serve the people regardless of political party,” said NED founder Mary Sansone.

“Dan Donovan is an ethical and decent man who understands that the attorney general is elected to protect the citizenry of New York, not to persecute individuals or industries in order to achieve higher office. The people of New York need an attorney general who will do what’s right for them, not what is politically right for himself. I am proud to endorse Dan Donovan for attorney general.”

Bloomberg is, of course, Donovan’s biggest backer.

State Sen. Marty Golden, a Brooklyn Republican, was at one time a member of NED, which also has endorsed former Republican Gov. George Pataki and former Republican NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

The group does actually back Democrats, too. In fact, prior to picking Donovan for AG, it supported Democrat Sean Coffey for the same post.

Coffey, of course, finished a distant third in the five-way Democratic AG primary on Sept. 14, well behind the winner – and Donovan’s general election opponent – Sen. Eric Schneiderman.

Interestingly, NED has a connection to former Gov. Mario Cuomo, whose son, Andrew Cuomo, is now the Ag and gubernatorial frontrunner and just last weekend endorsed Schneiderman to succeed him. In 1982, Mary Sansone’s son, Ralph, who is now deceased, worked on Mario Cuomo’s first campaign for governor.

UPDATE: For the record, Donovan isn’t the only AG candidate trying to tout his bipartisan support. Yesterday, former Sen. Mike Balboni, who ditched the Senate Republicans to take a job in the Spitzer administration, causing his colleagues to lose a GOP-held seat to the Democrats (Craig Johnson has it now), backed Schneiderman.

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