Veteran Congressman Says State GOP ‘Is in Trouble’ and Lacks ‘Vision’
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ALBANY – In the wake of a drubbing in a U.S. Senate race and other setbacks, a veteran GOP congressman said yesterday that New York’s Republican Party “is in trouble” and “has no overwhelming vision or course.”
Peter King of Long Island said party leaders should call a summit within the next month or so involving elected officials and county leaders to discuss the situation.
Mr. King’s comments came as GOP officials said a new state party chairman would be elected next week. Chairman Alexander Treadwell, who had been handpicked by Governor Pataki for the post almost four years ago, is expected to be given a national party committeeman’s seat at that November 15 meeting.
“Other than the governor there is no one of statewide stature and the party itself has no overwhelming vision or course,” Mr. King told the Associated Press in a telephone interview from his Nassau County district office.
“We have to come back as a cohesive unit,” Mr. King added. “I hate to use an old-fashioned word, but a team, instead of having everyone running around for themselves.”
Mr. King’s concerns echoed those raised by a fellow Republican congressman from the Albany area, John Sweeney, in an interview with the New York Post published Monday.
“The Republican Party in this state is in deep trouble. We’ve lost our way, and the election returns show it,” said Mr. Sweeney, who is based in Saratoga County. “We face a disaster in 2006 unless something is done, starting now,” said Mr. Sweeney, who has his eye on possibly running for governor if Mr. Pataki does not seek a fourth term then.
While Mr. King refused to assign blame for the party’s apparent problems, Mr. Sweeney was reported as saying, “the governor has to do a reassessment of how he’s been functioning as the leader of our party.”
“We used to be a party that stood for something, but we’re now headed in the direction of a party that doesn’t stand for anything anymore,” he added.
Mr. Treadwell was blunt in his rejection of the comments from Mr. King and Mr. Sweeney.
“The future of our Republican Party will be determined by the hard-working men and women at the grass-roots level, not the few naysayers who fail to appreciate the hard work of our committeemen and Republican activists,” Mr. Treadwell said.
“The governor knows that the party is strong and its future is bright because it will be determined by the thousands of men and women across New York who are heart and soul of the Republican Party,” said Kevin Quinn, a spokesman for Mr. Pataki, who is vacationing in Puerto Rico.
In last week’s election, Senator Schumer took 71% of the vote in a record-setting re-election win over Republican Howard Mills, a little-known state assemblyman from Orange County. Senator Kerry, a Democrat, easily beat President Bush in the state,58% to 40%.
Also, Democrats made gains in the Republican-led state Senate and added to their already hefty majority in the state Assembly.
In addition, the state Board of Elections reported just before the election that the number of enrolled Democrats had increased by almost 291,000 people since the 2000 presidential election while Republican enrollment had climbed by just 38,038 in New York state.
Late last week, Republican sources had told the AP that Mr. Treadwell, the state party chairman hand-picked by Mr. Pataki, would soon be leaving the post. Mr. Treadwell, denying he was being forced out, had said at the time that any departure would be voluntary and on his terms.
On Monday, officials said a new state chairman would be elected November 15 at a meeting in Albany of the Republican State Committee. The leading contender for the post is Monroe County Chairman Stephen Minarik. Mr. Treadwell is expected to replace Joseph Mondello, the Nassau County chairman, as a national committeeman.
A spokesman for Mr. Mondello said the county chairman was out of the country and unavailable to comment on the possible loss of his seat on the Republican National Committee.
Mr. Treadwell was picked by Mr. Pataki in early 2001 to take over the state party apparatus from the more independent William Powers, a Marine Corps veteran who had become chairman in late 1990 and was widely credited with rebuilding what was seen as a moribund organization.
“Bill Powers is the best [chairman] we ever had,” Mr. King said Monday. “I’d love to have him back.”
There was no immediate comment from Mr. Powers.
Mr. Sweeney was executive director of the state party under Mr. Powers and played a key role in the election of Mr. Pataki as governor in 1994 over Democratic incumbent Mario Cuomo. Mr. Sweeney later become Mr. Pataki’s state labor commissioner and was elected to Congress in 1998. Mr. King has been in the House since 1992.
Rumblings about GOP unrest have increased since Mr. Pataki moved sharply to the left to win re-election in 2002 in a state where there are 5 million Democrats and 3 million Republicans. That shift angered some of the governor’s more conservative supporters.
State Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long, normally an ally of Mr. Pataki’s, refused to back Mr. Mills’s Senate candidacy this year, citing the assemblyman’s support for abortion rights and civil unions for gays. Mr. Long instead got Conservative Party leaders to back the rival Senate candidacy of Dr. Marilyn O’Grady. She finished a distant third in the election.
Mr. Pataki is considered a potential 2008 candidate for president.