Republican Renaissance

As the 2004 Republican State Assembly candidate from the Upper West Side’s 69th District, I have a message for “Mr. X,” whose opinion piece, “Living in a Closet,” was printed in The New York Sun on September 8, 2004: You don’t need to live in a closet any more.While it is no secret that we live in one of the most famously liberal districts in the country, I am here to enlighten you: Things are looking up, and there is an embryonic surge in Upper West Side Republicanism. While the rest of the country has moved toward the right in the past 25 years, so too has the once impenetrable Upper West Side.This is a special year for New York City Republicans. For the first time in history, the Republican National Convention was staged in our great city – and was an enormous success. Democrat-friendly Boston could not do for Senator Kerry what the supposedly Republican-unfriendly New York did for President Bush. This year also marks a decade that a Republican has been in charge at City Hall, largely explaining the city’s renaissance in that time. And for one of the first times in history, a Republican is on the ballot in every one of the city’s contested election districts.Here on the Upper West Side, having met a portion of my district’s 4,820 registered Republicans, I can attest to the fact that as the city becomes ever nicer, and the streets grow safer, more and more Republicans are moving farther and farther uptown. These new voters are crying out for more Republican representation. And while the Morrison Parker Republican Club meeting in the 67th Assembly District to the south – which has double the number of registered Republicans – has been a staple of the community since before World War II, the newly formed Upper West Side Republican Club was born the week of the convention, and is the first such club above 96th Street in more than 30 years.In my drive toward putting myself on the ballot, I canvassed the area for the 241 required signatures, or 5% of the district’s registered Republicans. No, there was no primary challenge – a rarity in New York city for Republicans. And no, I was not always treated especially well: I was thrown out of one apartment building and threatened with arrest should I return – not because I was a Republican, but because I was technically trespassing. We do have to be aggressive sometimes.For three weeks, I pounded the pavement – holding my list of registered Republicans in hand and hiding my clipboard in my shoulder bag so that the doormen wouldn’t see me coming – and yielded about six signatures each evening as well as many surprises. Some of the Republicans I contacted, most of whom I cold called on the telephone prior to my visit to their door, would do a double-check to make sure that I was really there to gather signatures for the Republican candidates and not the Democrats, or some other third or splinter party on the left I’m sure they’ve encountered. But many of the Republicans I did encounter were not just surprised and pleased to see me – they really treated me like family. I was given sodas at one stop, fed an Italian feast at another, blessed by a rabbi at another, and shown the entire gun collection of an avid hunter and National Rifle Association member at another.Although enjoyable, the canvassing method of gathering signatures was still painstakingly slow and would not have produced for me the required amount as the deadline rapidly approached. Still a one-man-band, I turned to my District Leader, Lolita Ferrin, and she proposed the idea of setting up a table at a busily traveled corner and attracting streetwalking Republicans to sign our petitions.Choosing the corner of Broadway and West 110th Street in the heart of the district, we set up shop and proudly displayed our hand-written signs, “Uptown Republicans.” Joining forces with aides from the campaign for senatorial candidate Jose Goris of Washington Heights and with Ronald Perry, District Leader of the 71st Assembly District of upper Harlem, the more than 20 of us earned a lot of signatures and a lot of attention.Of course, we weren’t without derision as some of the less “progressive” constituents chastised us and jeered Mr. Bush. But the majority who approached us were elated to see us there. In the words of one street peddler who has been working that corner for years, and predating Mayor Giuliani’s remarks a few weeks later at Madison Square Garden, “I never seen so many Republicans in my life.” In the words of one registered Republican and petition signer, “It’s about time there’s some Republicans around here.”The day was fruitful and elicited the outstanding amount of signatures needed to put me on the ballot, and announced to area Republicans that there are candidates out there for them. And we attracted the assistance of Prabal Saxena, the young executive director of the College Republicans of Columbia University, which boasts a few hundred members. On a visit to the famously liberal campus, which is also in my district, one will see Republican campaign signs in a dorm room window conspicuously overlooking the entrance to the journalism school – my alma mater.So “Mr. X,” while the Upper West Side will probably be Democratic territory for another 100 years or so, the landscape may not be as barren as you say. Visit a diner on Broadway and talk politics at the counter. You will be surprised to see just as many patrons taking the conservative point of view as the liberal one.Walk proudly down West 96th Street wearing a Republican National Committee shirt adorned with a red, white, and blue elephant – as acting co-District Leader Robert Josman does – and see that nobody spits on you. Hold a candlelight vigil honoring Ronald Reagan in the park across from the Dakota, and see how many on-lookers volunteer to join you. Run for State Assembly on the Republican line, and see that there are no demonstrations outside your window, and that your neighbors still respect you.Just as gay students at Columbia have an annual “Coming Out [of the closet] Day,” we too may have one for Republicans every year on the corner of Broadway and West 110th Street.Mr. Lanzillotti, the 2004 Republican State Assembly candidate from the Upper West Side’s 69th District, is also a freelance journalist and an independent film producer.

Republican Renaissance

Republican Renaissance

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