Attention New Yorkers: There are Republicans other than President Bush on this year’s ballot – and not where you’d expect to find them. The next time you’re riding the no. 9 train and a man steps into your car talking loudly, it may not be a panhandler but Peter Hort, the Republican campaigning for Congress on Manhattan’s West Side.

The fact that a well-spoken young candidate in a city and state with a Republican mayor and governor has to resort to such shoestring retail politics illustrates more than Peter Hort’s moxie. It speaks volumes about the local Republican Party’s inability to field and support serious candidates for Congress. This weakness in the nation’s biggest, wealthiest and most talent-rich city is inexcusable.

The party’s rationalization is that New York City is too liberal to vote Republican. But with this awkwardly defeatist attitude, Republicans ignore the fact that New York has voted for back-to-back Republican mayors in Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg. They ignore the strong Republican tradition that has defined our city’s politics for the better since the days of Theodore Roosevelt and the congressman-turned-mayor Fiorello La Guardia.

Indeed, Republicans do not have to go so far back to find reasons for confidence about their electoral chances here on the island of Manhattan. Until 1992, New York’s East Side had an effective and popular Republican congressman, the now almost-forgotten Bill Green. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, this so-called “silk stocking” district was represented by a dynamic young Republican named John Lindsay. This year, for the second time, the party is fielding a 39-year old analyst from Citigroup named Anton Srdanovic.

Both Mr. Hort and Mr. Srdanovic realize they are waging uphill battles that most observers consider unwinnable. Even in the first presidential election after September 11 when the Republican Convention was held in New York, they have been unable to gain much enthusiasm for their candidacies.

Politicians come to New York from across the country to raise money, but these two local candidates have been left thirsty at their own hometown well – Mr. Srdanovic has raised just $40,000 and Mr. Hort has raised $130,000. Still, this is an improvement over the past. Four years ago, Marian S. Henry, the Republican challenger to Rep. Jerrold Nadler, failed to raise the necessary $5,000 to qualify for federal matching funds. She received 15% of the vote.

As a city, we’ve become numb to the fact that many districts don’t offer a general election alternative to the Democratic incumbent. Many New Yorkers might be surprised to hear that there is a race for Congress going on at all. Mr. Nadler and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who represents Manhattan’s East Side, are considered inevitable and invulnerable. Mr. Hort and Mr. Srdanovic would like to change that. With little press attention, they soldier on, confident that there are unrecognized opportunities for Republicans in Midtown Manhattan’s congressional districts.

“I think New York is changing,” asserts Mr. Hort. “Of the 600 new registered voters in the Riverside South Towers on the Upper West Side, 400 are Republican…Young families are staying in New York. These families are more conservative – not so much on abortion and other issues like that – but they’re more concerned about the quality of education, about taxes, about making this a livable city.”

“Demographically, one of the challenges we’re facing is a consequence of high state and local taxes,” adds Mr. Srdanovic. “The 14th Congressional District supposedly lost 50,000 residents, according to the census. Any casual ob server of the district can see that 5-story walkups are getting knocked down for very large buildings…Apartments have increased, vacancy rates stay the same…People are not listing New York as their primary residence because of taxes. So we lose on representation, we lose on federal dollars.”

There is no question that redistricting has stacked the deck in favor of the Democrats. It was after redistricting added larger portions of Queens to the 14th Congressional District that Ms. Maloney was able to beat Mr. Green in 1992 by gaining just over 50% of the vote. Her most competitive challenge came two years later when a former City Council member, Charles Millard, earned more than 52,000 votes and 36% of the vote. Since that race, no Republican candidate has polled more than 25%.

At the same time, however, Mr. Giuliani won close to 60% of the vote in his 1997 re-election, cutting the Democrats’ 5-to-1 registration advantage by appealing across party lines. New Yorkers have proven time and again that they will vote for a high-profile Republican who takes strong stands but is not held hostage to the far right. Mr. Hort understands this: “I don’t like to focus on issues like abortion,” he says, “but on the Upper West Side, I would say that among women age 18 to 35 that’s probably their number one issue. I need to peel them off from the Democratic Party in order to win this race. And I happen to be a Pataki Republican. I am pro-choice and I’m unashamed to say that.”

Looking forward, Republicans should no longer be satisfied to concede New York City’s congressional seats without a strong fight and New Yorkers should have the self-respect to insist on competitive elections in what is otherwise this most competitive of cities. But fearless foot-soldiers like Mr. Hort and Mr. Srdanovic cannot be expected to do it alone.