State GOP Tense As Gubernatorial Decision Nears
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

With two weeks to go before Republican county chairmen gather at an Albany hotel to try to settle on a 2006 nominee for governor, tensions have grown between potential Republican candidates for New York governor and the state’s party leader.
Prospective Republican candidates John Faso and Patrick Manning yesterday rebuked the chairman of the state Republican Party, Stephen Minarik, for comments he made last week accusing them and one other likely challenger, Randy Daniels, of being “insiders” who “knife” their opponents.
Mr. Minarik yesterday said he wouldn’t apologize for his comments, which he made to the Times Union in Albany, and said he has overseen the “most open process for the selection of statewide candidates probably in the history of the New York Republican State Committee.”
The party chairman, a Monroe County party leader since 1992 and a partner in a political consulting firm, Impact Communications, has a lot riding on the December 12 meeting. As county chairman, he has endorsed William Weld, a New York native who is a for mer governor of Massachusetts, and he is trying to avoid factional strife.
Mr. Minarik, eager for Republicans to get moving against the likely Democratic nominee, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, said that once county leaders have settled on a candidate, he would urge other challengers to exit from the race. He also vowed that Republicans in the state convention in May will nominate the same candidate who is unofficially anointed at the December 12 meeting.
One possible complication is the candidacy of Thomas Golisano, a billionaire businessman from Rochester who recently changed his party registration to Republican after running unsuccessfully for governor three times.
Another is Mr. Daniels, a Bronx resident who served as New York’s secretary of state from April 2001 to September 2005. He signaled that he would not drop out of the race even if Republican county leaders support another candidate when they meet next month.
The longtime Livingston County Republican Party chairman, Lowell Conrad, said in an interview that he has some doubts as to whether political differences will be resolved in Albany next month. “A lot of things can happen between now” and the convention, he said. “I’m not sure we’ll come to a consensus on December 12.”
Asked about Mr. Minarik’s handling of the process for selecting a candidate for governor, he said, “I believe that a consensus should come from the coun ties up to Albany instead of Albany down to the counties.”
In an interview with the Times Union, Mr. Minarik said, “Anybody who criticizes the party at this time is ridiculous. It doesn’t achieve anything. It doesn’t work. It’s getting sickening.”
He then said, “Albany insiders like Faso and Manning and Daniels, because that’s what they are, insiders, all they do is snipe. It’s all about who you can knife next.” Earlier, on NY1, Mr. Minarik, doubting Mr. Faso’s chances, accused him of living in “la-la land.”
His harsh comments prompted Governor Pataki last week, in an apparent effort to heal the rift between the candidates and Mr. Minarik, to praise Mr. Faso and Mr. Daniels as “outstanding public servants” and said it was good for the party to have more potential candidates, the New York Times reported.
Of Mr. Minarik’s comments, Mr. Faso, a former Assembly minority leader who narrowly lost a race for state comptroller in 2002, said, “It’s really unfortunate when your own party chairman resorts to name-calling. I think that was out of character. I don’t think it reflects his true thinking.” Mr. Faso also denied that he has criticized the party leadership. “Maybe some people are upset at the amount of support I’m getting,” he said.
Mr. Faso said he “can raise $40 to $50 million that is necessary for this campaign,” and said he has already raised $1 million.
Mr. Manning, an assemblyman from Hopewell Junction, said Mr. Minarik “just lashed out. It’s disappointing he did so to the only three individuals in the race that have ever did anything for the New York State Republican Party.”
Mr. Manning, who has criticized Mr. Minarik for pushing for an abbreviated nomination process, suggested that Mr. Minarik targeted Mr. Manning and other candidates out of frustration that high-ranking party leaders failed to settle on a candidate when they met last week. Mr. Minarik said choosing a nom inee was not the purpose of last Monday’s meeting of regional vice chairmen.
Speaking to the Sun, Mr. Minarik said he “has no reason” to apologize for his comments and said, “My interest is to have everybody working together, which is why we have gone through a painstakingly long process.” He said there have been eight interview sessions in regional meetings across the state, a process, he said, that has given county leaders enough information to make a decision on a candidate.
As Republicans attempt to mend their differences, some are hopeful that Democrats will have to deal with their own primary battle and would like Democrat Thomas Suozzi, the Nassau County executive, to enter the race and oppose Mr. Spitzer, the Associated Press reported.
Mr. Suozzi, speaking to the Sun, would not comment about whether he plans to run for governor and said repeatedly, “I have nothing bad to say about Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.”