Now, if the actions of the voters in this past primary/special election are any indication of the sentiments of Brooklyn Republicans, the desire for genuine improvement over stagnation and failure is the first order of business.  And while the ideological gap between the increasingly younger, anti-”cradle-to-grave” electorate and the party establishment is stark, it is not insurmountable.

Brooklyn Young Republican Club President Glenn Nocera signing into vote for himself and his sister Donna Nocera for the Republican County Committee race in the 44th AD 57th ED . Sept 13, 2011

After all, on Tuesday, September 13th, voters showed, once again, that not only are they maintaining an anti-establishment posture, but they are rebuffing hostile attempts by the party establishment to purge Brooklyn of its young, independent Republican reformers.

In the most talked about upset from that day, we know that businessman Republican Bob Turner beat Democrat David Weprin by an impressive margin in the contest to decide who was going to represent the 9th Congressional District, or the so-called “Anthony Weiner” seat.

Weprin, backed by just about every Democratic establishment figure–including the Brooklyn Republican Party’s best buddy, Brooklyn Democratic Chairman Vito Lopez, was clearly recognized as an unqualified supporter of the Obama and Washington Democrats’ agenda.  The people are fed up with their awkwardly executed and catastrophically unsuccessful agenda for years now.  And so, the voters made it resoundingly clear that they were not going to send more of the same to Congress anymore.

The Brooklyn Young Republican Club, having participated in and analyzed Turner’s performance in 2010, knew from the start that he was a solid candidate.  That’s why our organization was the first in Brooklyn to host a fundraiser for Turner’s special election, donating $1,000 in support of his candidacy, and devoting tremendous time and effort in support of his election.

However, while good Young Republicans and young Republican-leaning voters of all affiliations were helping to send one more voice of reason and reform to Washington, the Brooklyn Republican Party establishment dedicated itself, yet again, to its antiquated Republican-eat-Republican agenda.  In fact, key operatives linked to the Turner campaign had been internally bemoaning the severely underwhelming support from the Brooklyn Republican Party leadership throughout the campaign.

That’s because, as usual, resources were diverted instead to intraparty warfare, just like in the 13th Congressional District primary last year.  Fortunately, whenever the current Brooklyn Republican Party establishment undertakes just about any political initiative, they are about as successful as Obama’s Hope and Change agenda.

For instance, Brooklyn Young Republican Club President Glenn P. Nocera was challenged for his county committee seat in the 44th Assembly District of Kensington, Brooklyn by Republican Chairman Craig Eaton and his hack minions. His leadership as a Young Republican activist and reformer apparently warranted that the Republican Party spend a tremendous amount of donor money on hit-piece mailings against fellow Republican Nocera in favor of candidates who didn’t even live within the same district!

As a testament to well over a decade of dedication to Republican principles and promoting its message of limited government, the Republican voters of Glenn’s district sent a clear response of “Back off and shut up!” to the establishment with an astounding vote of 23-1!

Meanwhile, in the establishment’s favorite battleground district, the 49th Assembly District, which consists largely of Bensonhurst, Borough Park and Bath Beach, the establishment yet again failed to silence the independent Republican voices that have repeatedly called out for reform and improvement within our party.  This was despite multiple, vicious, and expensive hit-piece mailings as well as cadres of county minions on the ground.  In response to the establishment’s hate-filled invective against fellow Republicans, 49th AD Republicans broadly supported Lucretia Regina-Potter and running mate Michael Bennette for the State Committee Member/District Leader positions over their establishment-backed opponents.

Establishment figures like Eaton think they wield the power to summarily replace hard-working, known Republican activist leaders with individuals whose only qualification to serve is fealty to the Chairman (and usually under the threat of removal from a patronage job).  Not only, in fact, is his imprimatur a veritable political Do-Not-Resuscitate for most campaigns–at best, but it only goes to show what the priorities are of the Brooklyn Republican Party under its current administration: cartel-style eradication of all voices of reform from within.

Since 2007, the current administration of the party has solely devoted its resources to engaging in political fratricide.  In doing so, they have completely left stranded a public desperately searching for any refuge of integrity and ingenuity.  There are genuine but completely missed opportunities for real leadership and solutions to government’s financial problems, practical solutions for alleviating the burdens on our economy that stifle growth and prosperity, and providing real reforms to the crisis of the debt-saddled young professional trying to get their start that is plaguing our generation.

And yet, tonight, when the members of that truly august body of career poll workers, Board of Elections employees, and superannuated intraparty warlords convene, I regrettably can only expect the status quo to continue for another two years.

In that case, over the next two years, however, I also expect the gap will further deepen and widen between the handful of Republican oligarchs and the growing young electorate that–Republican or not–is siding more and more with policies that favor limited government, greater personal and economic freedom, and intelligent, pragmatic policies and reforms to get us back on track–just about everything the Republican Party in Brooklyn right now is not.

But just like the cases of Turner, Nocera, Regina-Potter and Bennette, the only ones with the power to bridge this gap are you, the young (and preferably Republican) voters of Brooklyn.

As we move forward, we must fight to put the right people in the leadership of the Republican Party and public office, and, more importantly, cultivate leaders amongst ourselves on the right social, economic and political principles.  Through these efforts, we, together, can build the bridges we need to close the gap that separates the public’s will from effective action in order to accomplish finally what those “leaders” who have fallen abysmally short in conviction and integrity cannot.

Jonathan J. Judge is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Brooklyn Young Republican Club.

Capital Tonight news is reporting that Republican Tom Kirwan has been officially declared the winner:

According to the MidHudsonNews.com Thomas Kirwan has been finally declared the winner in the 100th Assembly District. It was the last legislative race in the country to be called.

A Brooklyn appellate court voted 4-0 this morning, declaring him the winner over Democrat Frank Skartados, who actually defeated Kirwan back in 2008.

Kirwan’s victory gives Republicans 51 of the 150 seats in the Assembly, which means they would be able to sustain any veto by Governor Cuomo if they voted as an entire block.

Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb released the following statement on the announcement of the court’s decision:

“After a long legal process, the race is finally over and Tom Kirwan should immediately be certified the winner so taxpayers in the 100th District have a voice during the budget process.  I congratulate Tom and his family on this tremendous victory, which has increased the ranks of our Assembly Republican Conference to 51 Members and broken the Democratic ‘supermajority.’  Tom is a true public servant and brings with him a proven track record of reform that our state needs. Today’s victory is a terrific ending to a historic election cycle where Assembly Republicans won three out of four Special Elections last February, in addition to winning nine open seats, and picking up nine new seats in November’s elections.”

Source: Capital New York

By Mark Hay

On a rooftop just south of Park Slope, just after the last major salvo of July 4 fireworks over Manhattan petered out,  a lightly buzzed Jonathan Judge, president of the Brooklyn Young Republicans, stepped in front of the view of the skyline.

“We are gathered to celebrate our independence from foreign domination,” said Judge, a compact young man with bright orange hair and, like most of the men in attendance, a thick goatee. “And our independence from corruption and for reform.”

Judge and 15 club members and guests had gathered atop the roof of former congressional candidate and vice chair of the King’s County Republican Party Susan Cleary, simply to celebrate, they all said. Also in attendance were Lucretia Regina-Potter, the B.Y.R.-backed candidate running for State Assembly against Peter Abbate in the 49th district, and Joseph Hayon, a N.Y.-9 Congressional candidate running on religious values. (Hayon claims no affiliation with the B.Y.R. He said he got an e-mail about the event and just decided to make a prolonged appearance.)

With the view of the city’s major fireworks largely obscured by midtown’s skyscrapers, and the fireworks from the Gowanus and Prospect Park coming in irregular bursts, the night turned to drink and discussion of their core values.

“We’ve got all kinds of Republicans here—conservatives, libertarians, all kinds,” said communications director Roy Antoun, a Rutgers student and county committeeman and an enthusiastic admirer of Ron Paul. “But at our core, we all believe in two things: reform and some type of limited government.”

“Our club has matured into an individual, reform-thinking organization,” said Judge, seeking to distance his organization from the county Republican organization, and by implication, Brooklyn Republican chair Craig Eaton. He added, “We find flaws in both parties—the way that they support the status quo.”

Still, they spent most of the evening talking about the ineffectiveness of the local Republicans. They think the state party is fairly useless, they don’t like the county leadership, which they feel is insufficiently transparent, and they had complaints about sub-leadership party functionaries, too.

Antoun was unhappy with his first local organizer because she failed to tell him where to show up to be a Community Council delegate. Regina-Potter has it out for the organizers and low-level folks in the 49th Assembly district.

Mostly, they were angry at the whole existing New York Republican firmament, in a comprehensive, Tea Party kind of way: for them, the party is an edifice that needs to be destroyed and remade.

“It’s not a party, it’s just a messed-up institution,” said Yakkov Bard, who says he is still a registered Democrat but intends on changing his registration soon. “I don’t think they have a goal, really.”

It should be said here that it’s hard to know what the goal for the Brooklyn Republican Party ought to be, realistically.

Brooklyn Republicans exist in helpless, seething discontent in a very Democratic borough within a very Democratic city. In Brooklyn, the 900,000 enrolled Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly eight to one.

The only real Republican force in the borough is State Senator Marty Golden, who is a sort of hyperlocal powerhouse, but thoroughly actualized in his fiefdom as it currently exists, and certainly no threat to the city’s established political order.

A beleagured state party, led by Chariman Edward Cox, provides no succor to Brooklyn, seemingly resigned to putting the same brave, hopeless candidates up against incumbent Democrats in downticket races, and focusing what little energy and means it possesses on manufacturing enthusiasm for gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio and on boxing out Mike Long’s Conservative Party of New York from the party’s tactical decision-making processes.

“Party leaders don’t do anything to organize or consolidate the party,” said Antoun, claiming that the Republican leadership has gutted the civil society mechanisms that could help Republicans to take more of Brooklyn than ever before.

“When associations are made by organized clubs—outside the express will of the party boss,” added Judge, “they are attacked.”

He says that the local Republicans organization deliberately seeks to destroy grassroots movements, and that a number of candidates had been called and harassed by higher-ups in the party for expressing dissent. Judge, Antoun and Regina-Potter say that internal debate about the direction of the party has been all but eliminated in Brooklyn, if not the city and the state.

Asked for his observations on the party, Judge said, “It doesn’t exist to be observed.”

(Reached for response, Eaton suggested that the Brooklyn Young Republicans were long on talk on short on constructive action. “It’s all smoke and mirrors and blogs and e-mails and statements instead of rolling up their sleeves and getting out in the field for a candidate,” he said.)

The first goal of the Brooklyn Young Republicans is to establish a foothold somewhere by actually winning. They deplored the lack of more significant help from the party firmament for Regina-Potter, who looks like CJ Craig from The West Wing if you took a picture of Craig and compressed it in Photoshop. She’s matronly and very proud to be so, leading her child with her around the event, pushing food and drink on a guest-reporter and pivoting from political topics to talk about the dinner she had just cooked and how incredibly hot the stove was.

She was not unaware of the odds she faced. “How can any average person who’s involved in politics go up against dinosaurs with huge war chests?” she asked.

There was no answer.

The Brooklyn Young Republicans speak about substantive politics with the zeal of Tea Partiers (not accidentally), and considered themselves locked in a fight with a party leadership that is not only complacent but ideologically compromised. They believe they’re gaining traction: Judge claimed that the organization, as of last count, had some 100 paying members and another 1,000 on its mailing list.

“We provide a place where we can speak without being condemned and judged for what we believe in,” said Judge. He claimed that a lack of transparency, choice on their ballots, and discourse had led many to abandon the Brooklyn Republicans. “And we bring them back,” Judge said. “We stop a lot of bloodletting.”

“The challenge of Republicanism in Brooklyn is about enunciating the common sense to enough people so that they can see that they’re digging their own graves,” said David Testilbaum, who recently became a member.

There seemed to be a consensus among the attendees that Brooklyn is teeming with secret Republicans—immigrants who have not broken into civil society, outcasts disillusioned by the party, and even Democrats In Name Only who vote for their party only for the chance to participate in a real debate and see real change come from their vote.

“There are a lot of Democrats out there who are strongly sympathetic towards the Republican Party,” said Judge. “We have actually been converting Democrats!”

Bard presented himself as living proof of that. “I used to think that conservatives ate babies,” he said. Now, he said, he believes that “conservatives are the most character-assassinated group in history.”

He told me he believes in the Brooklyn Young Republicans and their power to overcome the no-hope Brooklyn old Republicans. And he said he believes in Judge’s vision of Brooklyn as “hopefully soon a formerly Democratic borough.”

The event, scheduled to end at midnight, broke up early, with most of the attendees leaving after the food and drink started to run out. Bard and Judge stayed on the rooftop to the very end.

If it looks like a party, and it sounds like a party, then it must be a party, right?

Well, no…

One of the most glaring dysfunctions in the operation of the New York State Republican Party that I’ve noticed over the past several years is that we are hardly an organized party.  It’s really sad to see this because in a year where so much could be gained from teamwork, we are still lacking in the fundamentals of a healthy, vibrant and successful organization, whether locally or statewide.  (As a note, this pre-dates current Republican Party Chairman Ed Cox, so it would not be fair to implicate him in this just yet.  However, he does have the power to decide whether the status quo stays or goes.)

Right now, the campaigning wing of the New York State GOP is made up of three major entities: the State Committee (the officially recognized governing body of the Republican Party in New York State), the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee (RACC), and the Senate Republican Campaign Committee (SRCC).

In my experience and that of many other candidates, none of them have anything to do with each other except for the fact that they share the word Republican in their names.

Essentially, the State Committee is the most pro-active in special elections and statewide races.  It otherwise rarely, if ever, provides hands-on operational assistance to make the party more competitive at the county level.

RACC only handles New York State Assembly campaigns.  SRCC only handles New York State Senate campaigns.  Essentially, with rare exception for a very select few of highly targeted races, it is every candidate for himself or herself anyway.

In fact, the reason why we have done so poorly as a party (and it remains to be seen whether we will actually maximize a return on our investments this year as part of the anti-incumbent wave) is that the Empire State GOP has no clothes.

If we were to compare the Republican Party in its current state to a period in history, it would be the Middle Ages.  In the absence of active communications, consistent, unified messaging of our principles, sharing of resources and mutual collaboration and support for fellow party members, the Party of Lincoln in our Great State has devolved into an unwieldy confederation of aging local feudal warlords, feeding their factions with whatever crumbs of patronage and cash are left before the other local Republican faction, or the local Democratic Emperor, wipes them out for good.

The Senate Republicans, for their own personal benefit, have long sold out to the Democrats the hope of regaining anything close to a majority in the State Assembly–or a Republican majority anywhere else but the State Senate.  In a few counties, I have heard that incumbent Senate Republican candidates are not even carrying petitions with any Republican Assembly candidates names on them.  In fact, the incumbent Republican Senators probably can’t even name all of the Assembly Candidates whose names would be sharing the same Republican ballot line in November.

Again, with very rare exception, I haven’t seen Senate Republican candidates and Assembly Republican candidates campaigning together at all.  More importantly, I have hardly–if ever–seen a statewide candidate campaign with and for a Senate or Assembly candidate.

What’s even more disconcerting is the fact that on the State Republican Party’s own website, among a list of statewide candidates, Congressional candidates and State Senate candidates, not a single Republican Assembly candidate is listed. Perhaps they don’t know who they are, as unfortunately is the case for most voters when they get into the booth for the General Election, or they don’t care, or worse yet, both.

The point is that without a clear and coherent statewide message, and the requisite teamwork for attracting as many votes on the Republican line for candidates up and down the ballot line, we are going to miss out on a tremendous opportunity this year to level the playing field of politics in New York and clean up the mess as professional, principled government reformers.

Again, Bill Hammond of the NY Daily News said it best:

But the stunning fact is, with five months to go before Election Day, voters like the GOP even less. Democrats hold solid double-digit leads in every statewide race, and not a single Republican has broken 30%.

Think about that. New York’s Democrats are the ones who brought you former Gov. Eliot Spitzer and his hooker habit, a massive pay-to-play scandal in the pension fund under former Controller Alan Hevesi, Gov. Paterson’s floundering, weak-kneed leadership, the month-long shutdown of the state Senate last summer and a seemingly endless parade of legislators in handcuffs.

Beating at least some of these guys should be like shooting fish in a barrel. But the Republicans are losing – and losing badly.

They have no one but themselves to blame. They don’t have a compelling message as a party. They haven’t managed to recruit A-list candidates. And they aren’t raising money.

In short, they’re failing to play the vital role of holding Democrats accountable for their many failures.

Democrats “are not paying a price because there’s no Republican Party,” says Republican consultant Ed Rollins. “If there was an opposition party in this state, if there was competition, they would pay a price.

The best reform we could seek for the party in this state is an imitation of the political dynamics we see nationally, and for the sake of illustration, I’ll use some of the candidates that we have now to demonstrate what I mean.

Rick Lazio, as the designated party candidate for Governor, should be making scheduled appearances with every Republican Assembly and Senate candidate in the state within their own districts, regardless of the anticipated Republican vote potential in that district.  That includes any mailings or literature that gets distributed (at shared costs between the campaigns, of course).  You can, and should, always be more selective with where to campaign right before the election, but not throughout the campaign.  Everyone must count if we are to make any headway.

The Lazio campaign, in consultation with the appropriate local and statewide campaign committees, should be cultivating talking points for all the candidates based on the best Republican solutions for the problems plaguging New York State government.  Most of these candidates are actually running to get elected, so they will do much of the leg work for you if you just try to coordinate and reach out.

Even if there is a Republican primary for a local race, in the absence of a gubernatorial primary, both candidates should profess their support for the message and platform that everyone has a hand in developing.  The central theme of such a primary contest should be, in fact, who is better able to execute that unified platform on behalf of the people of the district.  If there were a gubernatorial primary as well, then each candidate can and should choose who they want to work with if elected to public office, and run with that gubernatorial candidate.  After all, Congressional candidates, while campaigning on local issues of relevance to their particular districts, still frequently mention how they are running to support President ______’s agenda, or Speaker _______’s agenda, or Senate Leader ______’s agenda, especially if they are trying to elect that person to that particular office.  In marginal districts, the President or the de facto leader of the party always goes out to campaign in support of someone who will be supportive of his/her agenda in office.  Lazio should be doing the same thing, and not just for the State Senate.

If we cobbled together a strategy like this, even if we may be too late to make great headway this year, it would lay the foundation for a remarkable transformation by the next state legislature elections in 2012 and gubernatorial election in 2014.

After all, even more impressive for our party is not the prospect of a Governor Rick Lazio or Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, but an Assembly Speaker Brian Kolb.

If we are working together, it won’t just be an idea scribbed on a blog, but a palpable reality within our grasp.

Threats have been made against her, a sitting GOP chairman has targeted her for political destruction, and she’s challenging an incumbent that has been in office since the days of Ronald Reagan’s presidency.

But that hasn’t stopped Lucretia Regina-Potter from fighting back.

Now, in two recent web posts, the 49th AD candidate has been slamming Democratic dinosaur Peter Abbate for his unholy alliances with unions and sourcing media articles that have been critical of him.

This is the first of her posts from her website:

A recent article published in the Bay News/ Bay Ridge Courier entitled: “Our Official Field Guide To Defeating Incumbents”, listsPeter Abbate as the  Number One Incumbent to Beat.  The article states the obvious and what many constituents of the 49th Assembly District have experienced for the past several years. He has severely neglected his district.  Abatte  has a burgeoning war chest. The bulk of these funds consist of contributions from unions and special interest groups, thus making Abbate beholden to theminstead of the hard-working families of the 49th AD.

It is interesting to note that during the last financial disclosure report of January 2010, Abbate received a whopping fourdonations from individuals, with only two of those four actually from the 49th AD! He is completely apathetic to the needs of the immediate community and the people are well aware of it.

The article also points out that Abbate has been in office 24 years,almost a quarter of a century with the same elected official remaining in the same office! He is the poster boy for term limits.The President of the United States of American is not permitted to remain in office for more than eight years, what justifies Abbate remaining in office for so long? It is definitely not his hard work or his dedication to the betterment of the 49th AD. Instead, Abbate feels that he is entitled to be the Assemblyman.

Mr Abbate has forgotten that he is a public servant.

Mr Abbate has neglected the good, hard-working. well-deserving people of the beautiful 49th Assembly District.

Mr Abbate, the people of the 49th Assembly District have a very important message to send you on November 2, 2010…..

GOODBYE AND GOOD RIDDANCE!

***

We also noted a story from the City Room of The New York Times, which Mrs. Regina-Potter put onto her site:

A Bigger Pension Borrowing Plan

By DANNY HAKIM

ALBANY — The state’s plan to borrow from the pension fund is potentially growing by billions of dollars.

About two weeks ago, Gov. David A. Paterson and lawmakers reached a tentative agreement to allow the state and municipalities to borrow $6 billion from the state pension fund over the next three years. Now the Legislature, acting on its own, has scrapped that in favor of a more aggressive plan that would allow for borrowing from the pension fund in perpetuity. Each plan would help balance the budget this year.

The new plan, which would allow borrowing in the tens of billions of dollars over time, closely matches one proposed by Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. Mr. DiNapoli, however, has cooled to the whole idea in recent weeks after it was criticized by budget watchdogs, and Harry Wilson, a Republican challenging his re-election.

The comptroller’s office said in a statement: “The ability for local governments particularly to deal with volatility and spikes in pension fund contribution has become increasingly difficult.

“Comptroller DiNapoli’s plan would give local governments an option, just like with a homeowner’s home utility bill, to do balanced billing.”

The pension plan is included in the Legislature’s revenue bill — the portion of the budget in which new taxes, fees and other revenue-raising initiatives are laid out — and is expected to be taken up and passed by both houses on Tuesday. However, the bill would need Mr. Paterson’s signature.

The idea behind the plan is that it would allow the state and local governments outside of New York City to essentially borrow money from the pension fund to pay a portion of their required annual contributions to the pension fund.

This budgetary sleight of hand has been decried by fiscal conservatives.

“What you’re really saying is you don’t want people to see what these benefits really cost, because if you did, there would be pressure to reduce and reform them,” said Edmund J. McMahon, director of theEmpire Center for New York State Policy, a conservative-leaning research group.

“It’s basically the equivalent of rolling over debt in perpetuity, if the markets don’t cooperate with a return to double-digit annual returns,” he added.The plan would also force those governments that opt in to contribute more money to the system during bull markets; the money would then be set aside in a reserve fund to help during bear markets.

Assemblyman Peter J. Abbate Jr., the chairman of the Assembly’s Labor Committee, defended the measure.“The pension system is going to be fine if the market does fine,” Mr. Abbate said, adding, “The reason to do this is to help counties and the state out — not to enhance pensions, not to borrow to balance the budget. The main purpose of the legislation is to smooth out the amount people have to pay.”

***

Peter Abbate has come to represent what the problem is in Albany. He is hardly independent, sells out to special interests groups and is apparently oblivious to where our state is right now.

No one believes the “pension system is going to be fine.” Indeed, when I read that line, I began to wonder if either he or I had fallen down the rabbit hole.

Lewis Carroll, eat your heart out. How clueless is this man?

Peter Abbate is a relic of old New York politics, the product of a Democratic machine that idolizes politicians for their ethnicity above their duty to their constituents. Mr. Abbate has no major accomplishments that we can think of, and as for legislation tied to him, it seems like the man is a mystery.

At least with The Golden Prince (aka Marty Golden) you know when he takes up an issue as his own (however incompetent as he may do so) or when he flees the room from addressing an issue. I’ll give him that.

And the media gives Golden a high level of scrutiny.

But Abbate seems to get in just under the radar on so many of the things he does. He cuddles up with unions, makes deals with Republicans to maintain a stranglehold on elections, and has used questionable campaign tactics for years.

The voters must bring him to justice.

New Yorkers seeking change in government and reform in Albany look forward to his political demise.

Because that will mean this November was a success.