Rank-and-File Fury Erupts at Mondello Plan To Seek Re-Election
Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:58:00
Joseph Mondello, the embattled chairman of the New York Republican Party, said he will seek re-election in the fall, despite a series of missteps and losses that have left GOP activists from across the state eager to see him gone.
Nonetheless, Mondello said he is optimistic about his chances.
“Yeah, I mean, yeah, I think I’ll get re-elected,” Mondello said at the party’s annual dinner in New York City earlier this month, laying out an ultimatum for his critics. “I’m too old a dog, I’m not about to change my spots now. So you’re either going to have to take me as I am or reject me.”
Mondello was elected state chair in 2006. Since then, the party’s performance at the ballot has led to him being lambasted privately by Republican operatives and elected officials from across the state, especially after the loss of the last bastion of power in the State Senate last fall.
And the hits have kept coming, from the nosedive of Assembly Member James Tedisco’s Congressional campaign upstate and the failed campaign for Brookhaven Town Supervisor in March in Republican-heavy Suffolk County.
For months, Republican operatives and elected officials assumed Mondello would serve out the remainder of his term and gracefully exit once the 62 county chairs had agreed on a successor. Mondello himself had assured them in private conversations that he would mollify his critics within the party by stepping down at the end of his term, according to Republican officials.
Now, Mondello may be digging his heels in just as the chorus of dissent grows over how Tedisco’s race was handled.
“There is a lot of opposition around the state,” said one senior Republican who has been critical of Mondello. “If Tedisco loses, it will be a terrible embarrassment for him.”
But while the dissatisfaction is widespread among the party’s grassroots, and even among elected officials, many confess that toppling Mondello would be difficult if he does indeed decide to go ahead with a re-election bid.
Elections for chairman are based on a weighted vote that gives more influence to the counties with the most GOP votes in the most recent gubernatorial election. Those counties, such as Nassau and Erie, are generally seen as closer to the party leadership than the smaller counties, and generally fall in line with Mondello. As one party official put it: “It’s about maximizing as much control as possible.”
If Mondello were to lock up the votes from Nassau and Suffolk, as party operatives expect he would, he would already have close to a quarter of the vote. A viable challenger would have to consolidate support from the rest of the state, and wrest one or two of the big counties—such as Erie or Monroe—from Mondello’s control.
Mondello, meanwhile, would likely be able to rely on old alliances with county chairs such as Vincent Reda of Rockland and Jasper Nolan of Saratoga to run up the score and scare off potential opponents.
Compounding Mondello’s problems is the lack of a bigwig elected official, such as a governor or senator, to lend him credibility and help keep the rank-and-file in line. The power vacuum has encouraged insurgent Republicans to consider mounting campaigns for chairman, even if they have to run against him. And the most likely party leaders, such as Rudy Giuliani or George Pataki, are not active enough to referee the infighting.
If Mondello sent clear signals through the party ranks that he was serious about seeking another term, party operatives say, that could keep even the widespread frustration with him from translating into much beyond a long-shot, slash-and-burn campaign against him.
“There is enough anger out there that I could see some county chairman just saying ‘Screw it, I’ve got nothing to lose anyway,’ and going out on a limb,” said one party official. “Honestly, they could get clobbered 90-10 or something in terms of percentages.”
Some party operatives who know Mondello personally maintain that his public insistence about running for re-election may just be misdirection, an attempt to avoid becoming a lame duck and buy time to anoint his preferred successor.
That process, in fact, may already be under way. Mondello is scheduled to sit down with one of the leading contenders for his job, Niagara Chair Henry Wojtaszek, in the next few weeks to discuss the future of the party, according to a GOP official familiar with the meeting. Wojtaszek, one of the younger county chairs, was appointed “upstate coordinator” by Mondello last year, and is seen as the most likely heir apparent should Mondello step aside.
Wojtaszek declined to comment on Mondello’s future, saying party leaders should wait for the results of the Tedisco race before making judgments.
Other potential candidates include former State Sen. Raymond Meier, who has been in discussions with party leaders about a bid for chairman; Ed Cox, the chair of John McCain’s presidential campaign in New York, who has also been gauging support among the county chairs; former New York City Council Member Andrew Eristoff, who is currently spearheading a commission to revitalize the party; and former Assembly Minority Leader John Faso. Dan Isaacs, a Manhattan attorney and former Young Republicans president, has already declared his intention to challenge Mondello, but is not seen as having the heft of the other potential candidates.
Cox, Faso and Eristoff all declined to comment on the prospect of running for chairman, though Faso did say that he thought Mondello should step aside.
Meier said he has been approached about the job, and is currently considering whether or not to go ahead with a run. The question confronting him, he said, is whether he could gather enough support from some of the larger counties to make his candidacy credible.
He’s also not sure whether he wants what many see as a largely thankless job: heading a party that may well be out of power for decades.
“It’s not exactly a choice position to seek right now,” Meier said.
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ABOVE: Joe Mondello, the embattled chairman of the state Republican Party, said he intends to seek re-election despite heavy criticism from the party faithful. Photo by Daniel S. Burnstein
Nonetheless, Mondello said he is optimistic about his chances.
“Yeah, I mean, yeah, I think I’ll get re-elected,” Mondello said at the party’s annual dinner in New York City earlier this month, laying out an ultimatum for his critics. “I’m too old a dog, I’m not about to change my spots now. So you’re either going to have to take me as I am or reject me.”
Mondello was elected state chair in 2006. Since then, the party’s performance at the ballot has led to him being lambasted privately by Republican operatives and elected officials from across the state, especially after the loss of the last bastion of power in the State Senate last fall.
And the hits have kept coming, from the nosedive of Assembly Member James Tedisco’s Congressional campaign upstate and the failed campaign for Brookhaven Town Supervisor in March in Republican-heavy Suffolk County.
For months, Republican operatives and elected officials assumed Mondello would serve out the remainder of his term and gracefully exit once the 62 county chairs had agreed on a successor. Mondello himself had assured them in private conversations that he would mollify his critics within the party by stepping down at the end of his term, according to Republican officials.
Now, Mondello may be digging his heels in just as the chorus of dissent grows over how Tedisco’s race was handled.
“There is a lot of opposition around the state,” said one senior Republican who has been critical of Mondello. “If Tedisco loses, it will be a terrible embarrassment for him.”
But while the dissatisfaction is widespread among the party’s grassroots, and even among elected officials, many confess that toppling Mondello would be difficult if he does indeed decide to go ahead with a re-election bid.
Elections for chairman are based on a weighted vote that gives more influence to the counties with the most GOP votes in the most recent gubernatorial election. Those counties, such as Nassau and Erie, are generally seen as closer to the party leadership than the smaller counties, and generally fall in line with Mondello. As one party official put it: “It’s about maximizing as much control as possible.”
If Mondello were to lock up the votes from Nassau and Suffolk, as party operatives expect he would, he would already have close to a quarter of the vote. A viable challenger would have to consolidate support from the rest of the state, and wrest one or two of the big counties—such as Erie or Monroe—from Mondello’s control.
Mondello, meanwhile, would likely be able to rely on old alliances with county chairs such as Vincent Reda of Rockland and Jasper Nolan of Saratoga to run up the score and scare off potential opponents.
Compounding Mondello’s problems is the lack of a bigwig elected official, such as a governor or senator, to lend him credibility and help keep the rank-and-file in line. The power vacuum has encouraged insurgent Republicans to consider mounting campaigns for chairman, even if they have to run against him. And the most likely party leaders, such as Rudy Giuliani or George Pataki, are not active enough to referee the infighting.
If Mondello sent clear signals through the party ranks that he was serious about seeking another term, party operatives say, that could keep even the widespread frustration with him from translating into much beyond a long-shot, slash-and-burn campaign against him.
“There is enough anger out there that I could see some county chairman just saying ‘Screw it, I’ve got nothing to lose anyway,’ and going out on a limb,” said one party official. “Honestly, they could get clobbered 90-10 or something in terms of percentages.”
Some party operatives who know Mondello personally maintain that his public insistence about running for re-election may just be misdirection, an attempt to avoid becoming a lame duck and buy time to anoint his preferred successor.
That process, in fact, may already be under way. Mondello is scheduled to sit down with one of the leading contenders for his job, Niagara Chair Henry Wojtaszek, in the next few weeks to discuss the future of the party, according to a GOP official familiar with the meeting. Wojtaszek, one of the younger county chairs, was appointed “upstate coordinator” by Mondello last year, and is seen as the most likely heir apparent should Mondello step aside.
Wojtaszek declined to comment on Mondello’s future, saying party leaders should wait for the results of the Tedisco race before making judgments.
Other potential candidates include former State Sen. Raymond Meier, who has been in discussions with party leaders about a bid for chairman; Ed Cox, the chair of John McCain’s presidential campaign in New York, who has also been gauging support among the county chairs; former New York City Council Member Andrew Eristoff, who is currently spearheading a commission to revitalize the party; and former Assembly Minority Leader John Faso. Dan Isaacs, a Manhattan attorney and former Young Republicans president, has already declared his intention to challenge Mondello, but is not seen as having the heft of the other potential candidates.
Cox, Faso and Eristoff all declined to comment on the prospect of running for chairman, though Faso did say that he thought Mondello should step aside.
Meier said he has been approached about the job, and is currently considering whether or not to go ahead with a run. The question confronting him, he said, is whether he could gather enough support from some of the larger counties to make his candidacy credible.
He’s also not sure whether he wants what many see as a largely thankless job: heading a party that may well be out of power for decades.
“It’s not exactly a choice position to seek right now,” Meier said.
--
ABOVE: Joe Mondello, the embattled chairman of the state Republican Party, said he intends to seek re-election despite heavy criticism from the party faithful. Photo by Daniel S. Burnstein
