New York GOP Chief Opens Door To Postponing Vote on Candidates

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The New York Sun

ALBANY, N.Y. – Facing growing disagreement over his push to quickly anoint 2006 candidates for Senate and governor, the state GOP chairman, Stephen Minarik, said yesterday he is open to putting off an endorsement vote on December 12 by New York’s 62 county chairmen.


“There is no special magic to the 12th date,” he said.


Mr. Minarik, Governor Pataki’s handpicked state party chairman, had been hoping to have the local leaders at the December 12 meeting endorse Jeanine Pirro to run against Senator Clinton and the former Massachusetts governor, Bill Weld, be the party pick to run for governor of his native New York.


But on Tuesday, the state Legislature’s most powerful Republican, the state Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, called for Mrs. Pirro, the high profile district attorney of Westchester County, to give up her Senate candidacy and instead run for state attorney general. Other GOP luminaries have since sided with Mr. Bruno.


Mr. Bruno and others have also called on party leaders to postpone the vote until it is clear whether the billionaire businessman, Thomas Golisano, the three-time losing candidate for governor of the Independence Party, joins the race for the GOP nomination for governor. Mr. Bruno and others have encouraged Mr. Golisano to compete and he has said he is seriously considering doing so.


Mr. Weld and another GOP candidate for governor, the former state Assembly minority leader, John Faso, have called for Mr. Minarik to go ahead with the December 12 vote.


Mr. Pataki said yesterday that Mr. Minarik and the county chairmen “have long planned to meet on the 12th and I think it’s appropriate that they do.”


Nonetheless, the governor indicated there was no rush to select candidates.


“It’s up to the candidates to earn their own grass-roots support,” Mr. Pataki said. “Over the past months a number of strong candidates have stepped forward and are doing the hard work to win the support of voters. Ultimately, they will decide and I’m confident we will have a great candidate.”


While Mr. Minarik had pledged last month to have an endorsement vote taken at the December 12 meeting, he said yesterday that “if the county chairs get there on that day and say they want to vote – which I think is going to happen – then we’re going to vote. If they get there and say let’s wait for a month, then we’re going to wait for a month.”


In an interview with Rochester’s Democrat and Chronicle newspaper for its editions yesterday, Mr. Minarik had said: “The idea behind this is to arrange consensus, and consensus is sometimes reached in 30 minutes and sometimes in 30 days.”


Meanwhile, a former state senator, Alfonse D’Amato, who still wields considerable power within the state GOP, told the New York Post that he agreed with Mr. Bruno that the planned December 12 vote should be put off.


And, Representative John Sweeney, a former executive director of the state GOP, told the New York Times that Mrs. Pirro should consider switching to the attorney general’s race.


“I’m nudging her,” Mr. Sweeney told the Times.


Mr. Pataki and Mrs. Pirro planned to meet Friday in New York City, at her request, to discuss the state of her campaign. While word of the meeting had touched off a fresh round of speculation, an aide to Mrs. Pirro said last night that the district attorney did not plan to quit the race.


The New York GOP’s troubles have become increasingly evident since Mr. Pataki announced in late July that he would not seek a fourth, four-year term in 2006. Since then, forces loyal to the governor have been jockeying with Mr. Bruno and others for dominance within the state party.


The Pirro campaign, despite the backing of Messrs. Pataki and Minarik, has had teething problems since it began on August 8 and had trouble raising money. Also, the state Conservative Party has balked at her support for abortion and gay rights. No Republican running statewide in New York has won without Conservative Party backing since 1974.


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