THE crucial battle to pick a new state GOP chairman pits the forces that de stroyed a once-ascendant party against a grassroots movement that mirrors the efforts that produced the Republican Renaissance of the early ’90s.
Ironically, the forces of destruction appear to be led by most of the leaders of the original Renaissance — a string of “ex”-es who now have vested interests in the status quo: ex-Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, ex-Gov. George Pataki, ex-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, ex-Attorney General Dennis Vacco, ex-Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and soon-to-be-ex-state Chairman Joseph Mondello.
Those who’ve watched the disintegration of the state GOP over the past decade know that the common denominator among these six is that they all became rich after achieving public office, in large part because of their continuing ties to the Republican Party.
That’s why, according to GOP insiders, this Gang of Six and their allies have rallied behind Henry Wojtaszek — the little-known, little-accomplished Niagara County Republican chairman who is widely described as the Gang’s vehicle for retaining power, no matter what the consequences for their party’s future.
“The explanation for the support of Wojtaszek by these former elected officials is simple,” said former state GOP Executive Director Brendan Quinn: “They would rather control and keep losing elections than lose control over the party.”
Two high-profile names missing from Wojtaszek’s list of supporters are the most telling of all.
Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos — the state’s one remaining powerful Republican. whose only priority is recapturing control of the Senate next year — has endorsed Wojtaszek’s opponent. And former state GOP Chairman William Powers, the now-legendary grass-roots mechanic who rebuilt the party in the early ’90s so that D’Amato (1992) Giuliani (1993) and Pataki (1994) could win has repeatedly refused to endorse Wojtaszek.
Powers once helped liberate the state GOP from a Rockefeller-era WASP elite that was more interested in Manhattan receptions and Westchester golf outings than the blue-collar barbecues of the Southern Tier.
Which brings up a second irony: the fact that Wojtaszek and the Gang of Six appear to be losing to a latter-day Powers — who at first appears right out of the Rockefeller-era mold.
That would be super-wealthy Manhattan lawyer Edward Ridley Finch Cox, a classic WASP (Princeton, Harvard) blue blood with homes in the Hamptons and just off Fifth Avenue, a top corporate lawyer and onetime presidential adviser famously married to Tricia Nixon, daughter of the former president.
To say that Cox is an unlikely leader of a grassroots rebellion against the state GOP hierarchy would be one of the great understatements of New York politics. But that’s what he is.
Like the ex-Marine Powers, Cox has a common man’s touch, which he showed during months of travel around the state as he convinced large numbers of local GOP leaders that he has the focus and personality to head what they themselves describe as a nearly dead political party.
“He’s a Wall Street guy with a Main Street personality, a downstate guy with an upstate personality,” was how one Cox backer put it.
One of upstate’s most prominent GOP officials readily agreed, noting, “Ed spent a lot of time with local Republican leaders and he listened. He understands their problems and he’s formulated ideas to respond to them.
“Many of the leaders told him that it will be over very soon for the Republicans unless something is done to turn things quickly around.
“They’re losing races to the Democrats they would have easily won just a few years ago and they know that something dramatic must be done — and they see Ed as their last hope for survival.”
Cox laid out a 10-point program that includes a commitment to be a full-time chairman, and to do so without taking a salary from the cash-strapped party.
The pledge provided a sharp contrast from the widely resented Mondello — the current, part-time state chairman who draws some $80,000-a- year from the GOP treasury while receiving other paychecks as chairman of the Nassau County GOP and as a practicing lawyer — and who has proven utterly ineffective.
Cox also pledged to fill the party’s treasury with over $1 million from his personal network of GOP loyalists, and then said he’ll share the money with party leaders in time for November’s local elections.
He also committed to using his four decades’ of state and national GOP connections to “re-establish New York’s credibility with our party’s national leadership through high level contacts . . . that can lead to additional resources for our state party and candidates.”
Wojtaszek, by contrast, has offered little in the way of a platform, except to say he’ll rely on the advice and guidance of the very same GOP “leaders” responsible for his party’s current catastrophic condition.
“Those former elected officials can be blamed for creating the current problems, so when party activists are seeking a new leader relying on the former officials, as Wojtaszek has done, it is not exactly a winning strategy,” observed former GOP leader Quinn.
Given that Cox has already won the backing of 44 of the state’s 62 Republican county chairmen, that certainly appears to be the case.
Post State Editor Fredric U. Dicker has covered state politics for over 30 years.