Move To The Right Being Urged In Local GOP
Young Turks Seeking Harder Line in N.Y.C.
GOLUB: 'WE SHOULD BE PROUD'
By BENJAMIN SMITH
November 22, 2002 -- There are two contradictory theories about why Republican candidates for local office keep getting shellacked in Manhattan: they're too right wing - or not right wing enough.
After their humiliation at the polls this November, when Republican candidates for the state legislature lost even in their Upper East Side stronghold, the latter theory is gaining strength.
The move to bring local Republicans back to their ideological roots is led by Jay Golub, an intent 34-year old dentist who ran for City Council on the Lower East Side in 2001, and Robert Hornak, president of one faction of New York's Young Republicans.
They say they plan to run a slate of council candidates this year on issues like opposing taxes and rent control, a more Republican platform than the city has seen in years.
"We should be proud to be Republicans," said Dr. Golub, who plans to run again next year. "It's the issues where we disagree with Democrats that need to be the focus of our campaigns."
The attempt to change the party's course is a local mirror image of the national Democrats' travails. Even as House Democrats picked San Francisco liberal Nancy Pelosi to lead them, some New York Republicans are looking to move right, away from a liberal tradition long led by Senator Roy Goodman, now out of office.
"This is an appeal to our party base," Dr. Golub said.
Dr. Golub met yesterday with the chairman of the Manhattan County Republican Party, John Ravitz, to present a five-point platform for Republican candidates who will run for the 10 council seats in Manhattan next year.
The points include support for a strong police force and reform in education and government. They are also pushing to cut taxes and spending, " fundamentally chang[ing] how the government views the taxpayers," and guaranteeing that new buildings go up without rent regulation. Mr. Golub says he wants to end rent control altogether.
The duo's platform has some in the Republican establishment raising their eyebrows. Rent control, for example, has been held sacred by East Side Republicans; sometimes they have even attacked Democrats for being soft on landloards.
"If they want to commit total suicide, that's a very convenient way to accomplish it," said Roy Goodman, a former State Senator and the elder statesman of moderate, East Side Republicanism, of the opposition to rent control.
The Party's current chairman was more diplomatic.
"He's put together some ideas for the future that I think are very good, that I think can be implemented," Mr. Ravitz said of Dr. Golub. "But if they want to run somebody on the East Side who's pro-life, anti-tenant, anti-gun control, they can run somebody, but they'll get 10% of the vote."
Mr. Ravitz, whose bookshelf at the venerable Metropolitan Republican Club recently held a book called "Executive Job-Changing," did not run for reelection to the State Assembly this year.
His resignation, and the failure of the Republicans to keep his seat, means there are no Republicans in local office in Manhattan for the first time since the Civil War. That's despite the party's dominating mayoral and gubernatorial elections for a decade.
While Mr. Ravitz says he's "not concerned about a coup," Mr. Hornak and Dr. Golub have written something that looks a lot like a manifesto, and Mr. Hornak has long been at odds with the county party, which at one point accused him of stealing the name of their Young Republican club.
Their manifesto, titled "the Urban Republican Platform," promises to "sweep away" the Democrats' attempts to stereotype Republicans as anti-gay and anti-minority.
Mr. Hornak and Dr. Golub point to the fact that New Yorkers are used to voting for Republican mayors and a Republican governor, and they hope to win Mayor Bloomberg's support.
But Mr. Bloomberg - until recently a liberal Democrat - is no Republican ideologue. He takes his political advice from a Democrat, William Cunningham, and a Republican, Vincent La Padula.
"There's no Democratic or Republican way to pick up the trash," said one mayoral advisor. "But the fact that this guy is bringing up these issues is good for the party."
A Manhattan Republican strategist, Joseph Mercurio, was more blunt.
"The notion that we lost because we were too Democratic is crap," he said. " The reason the governor did better in New York is that he out-Democrated the Democrats."
Dr. Golub and Mr. Hornak, however, plan to put their theory to the test. They hope to announce their slate of council candidates in January, and to hit the streets soon thereafter.
"The goal is to create a real opposition party in the city," Dr. Golub said.
Posted by admin at November 22, 2002 12:00 AM
