| With Joe Mondello stepping down from his post as chairman of the New York State Republican Committee, Ed Cox has been considered the front-runner for the post. Cox is a lawyer from Suffolk County who is also best known for being Richard Nixon's son-in-law.
Since Cox starting campaigning for the post, he has received 36 endorsements from county chairs across the state.
But there is another man seeking the seat. Henry Wojtaszek, the current chair of the Niagara County Republican Committee, has started to campaign and has already netted five endorsements from Western New York counties. He also sent a letter to all 62 county Republican committees outlining his plan that he would use as chair.
There are a few ways to look at the Republicans' tug-of-war for the chair. There is an obvious old guard versus new guard feel. Wojtaszek is more of the new guard, although he still has plenty of connections to the old guard. One of Wojtaszek's commitments is to develop a new media plan for the state GOP, which has lagged behind the efforts of the Democrats (and progressives) in New York. We have the blogs. We know how to use Twitter, Facebook and other social networking mediums. The Republicans? They might have some people that know, but the party as a whole? It's hit-and-miss at best.
There is also a clear upstate-downstate divide here. For a party that has pushed such a divide, they sure haven't tried to dodge the bullet themselves. The Republicans have strong forces upstate and are particularly weak downstate. For those reasons, Wojtaszek would look like the obvious choice. But since Cox might have the bigger name and comes from a larger county (Suffolk and Niagara counties don't compare), the Republicans will probably go with Cox.
Why talk about the Republicans? Because they recycle the same talking points here in New York to try and run against us. The Republicans are always upset about the high taxation in this state, yet from 1995 to 2007 when they held the Governor's mansion and the New York State Senate, they did nothing to remedy the problem. Wojtaszek wrote in his letter that the citizens of New York are "crying out" for conservatism. Nothing could be further from reality, which is why no matter who becomes chair, the Republicans will lose.
A friend pointed out to me last night that it was the Democrats, not the Republicans, who had a smooth power shift. That is surprising considering all of the usual battles we have with primaries or issue-based debates. The Republicans are now in a bit of a power grab. Cox is grabbing up as many endorsements as he can while Wojtaszek tries to persuade some of those endorsers to change their minds.
If Cox becomes chair, it won't be any different than what we saw under Mondello. If Wojtaszek becomes chair, the same will be true. If the best the Republicans have is Rudy Giuliani, they are in trouble. |
