11. Alfonse D’Amato

The prodigious star of the Nassau GOP political machine may be even more powerful today as an influential lobbyist and a master of behind-the-scenes intrigue than he was in the U.S. Senate—where he acquired the moniker “Senator Pothole” for his attention to his constituents’ concerns about the streets where they live. His consulting firm Park Strategies, which he founded after losing office to Sen. Chuck Schumer, continues to grow in power and revenue, earning reportedly $8 million in 2014. He recently made news in national politics by throwing his support to Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination rather than his prodigy, former New York Gov. George Pataki, whose political career D’Amato had nurtured from Peekskill to Albany (and who recently dropped his bid for the White House). But so it goes. D’Amato is thinking about the future. He’s pals with both Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, and Sen. John Flanagan, a Northport Republican who’s now the majority leader of the state Senate—some say thanks to D’Amato. Reportedly chairman of the Poker Players Alliance, an online gambling organization, he still holds all the cards, especially when he holds court at Oheka Castle’s star-studded games.