Expressing outrage at what he said is the use of Republican Party resources to help reconstitute the Liberal Party, a candidate for mayor, Thomas Ognibene, called yesterday for the resignation of the chairman of the New York County Republican Committee, James Ortenzio. Mr. Ognibene charged that Mr. Ortenzio is failing in his fiduciary responsibilities.

Mr. Ognibene cited, in particular, an operation to collect petition signatures for Mayor Bloomberg on the Liberal Party line that he said is being run out of the Manhattan committee’s offices. Mr. Bloomberg, who is all but certain to appear on the ballot as the candidate of the Republican and Independence parties, also seeks to collect 7,500 signatures before August 23 to become the Liberal Party’s nominee.

For its part, the Liberal Party is seeking a boost from Mr. Bloomberg. Because the party failed to receive 50,000 votes in the last election, it is now technically an independent organization rather than an official political party, but it hopes to regain its former status.

As such, Mr. Ognibene said yesterday that assistance offered to people circulating Liberal Party nominating petitions by official organs of the Republican Party “is an absolute outrage.”

“The Republican Party is assisting the Liberal Party in reorganizing, to the detriment of the Republican Party,” Mr. Ognibene, a former leader of the City Council’s Republican minority, said. Some officially chartered Republican clubs in the city have asked their members to carry Liberal petitions for Mr. Bloomberg. In addition, an effort to collect Liberal Party signatures for the mayor and a Republican candidate for the East Side City Council seat that Eva Moskowitz is vacating, Patrick Murphy, is run out of the basement of the building occupied by the New York County Republican Party.

Skeptics of Mr. Ognibene’s claims said yesterday the Liberal Party petition distribution was not necessarily the work of the New York County Republican Committee. The brownstone at 122 E.83rd St. is owned by the Metropolitan Republican Club, an official party organization that periodically rents space in its building to campaigns and has as a tenant the GOP county committee, which occupies space on the second floor.

Mr. Ognibene took issue yesterday not only with the apparent Republican-Liberal cooperation, but also with Mr. Bloomberg’s pursuit of the Liberal line in the first place. According to election law, a candidate cannot run on more than two ballot lines. Mr. Bloomberg, who has already secured the nominations of the Republican and Independence Parties, would thus need to add to one of them the Liberal line. Observers said the mayor is keen on running as a Republican-Liberal to mitigate the disadvantage a Republican candidate faces in a city where enrolled Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than five to one.

Since the effort to secure the Liberal Party nomination for Mr. Bloomberg was purportedly connected to the New York County Republican Committee, whose resources are supposed to accrue only to the benefit of the Republican Party, Mr. Ognibene charged, Mr. Ortenzio, in his capacity as county chairman, was using the party’s resources irresponsibly and failing in his fiduciary duties.

Mr. Ortenzio could not be reached for comment last night. A spokesman for the Bloomberg campaign, Stuart Loeser, responded to Mr. Ognibene’s charges by saying that in 2005, the candidate “is whining about Republicans working with the Liberal Party,” but “In three previous races, he was thrilled with Republicans who worked with the Liberal Party.”

“Either Tom Ognibene thinks we don’t remember his old stances, or he himself doesn’t remember his old stances,” Mr. Loeser said. “You be the judge.”

Mr. Ognibene was a supporter of Mayor Giuliani, who ran on the Liberal line in 1993 and 1997.

Mr. Ognibene will himself appear as a third-party candidate on the ballot in November, after having failed to secure the requisite petition signatures to force a Republican primary in September. The chairman of the New York State Conservative Party, Michael Long, said yesterday that since most New York Republicans are far more conservative than Mr. Bloomberg, he hoped the alliance between the Republicans and the Liberals would prompt conservative Republicans to support Mr. Ognibene’s candidacy on the Conservative line.