Queens GOP plans effort to recruit 2008 contenders
Queens GOP plans effort to recruit 2008 contenders
Queens GOP plans effort to recruit 2008 contenders
By John Tozzi
03/22/2007
The Queens GOP wants Republicans to go back to school!
Candidate school, that is!
Queens Republican Chairman Phil Ragusa announced this week that the party will offer workshops in May to recruit potential candidates and campaign workers. The event is part of a broader effort to grow the GOP's presence before the 2008 state-level elections and the 2009 cycle, when all but one of the 14 City Council seats in Queens will be open because of term limits.
"I believe in taking baby steps," said Robert Hornak, the GOP consultant who is leading the county party's new recruitment and development committee. "I don't think we're going have a full slate."
Queens has only three local Republican elected officials: City Councilman Dennis Gallagher (R-Middle Village), and state Sens. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose) and Serphin Maltese (R-Glendale), the former party chairman who stepped down in February. The lack of candidates, particularly running against incumbent Democrats, has long been a sore point for the borough's Republicans.
In 2006, only five of the borough's 18 Assembly seats had candidates on the GOP line, according to state Board of Elections records. One of those was Democratic Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio (D-Richmond Hill), who ran on both lines, and another was Morshed Alam, who challenged Rory Lancman, now the Assemblyman representing Fresh Meadows, in the Democratic primary.
Aside from Padavan and Maltese, only one other Senate candidate, Jereline Hunter, ran on the Republican line in 2006 for the open seat now occupied by Sen. Shirley Huntley (D-Jamaica). Of the 57,105 votes cast in Queens Assembly and Senate races on the GOP ballot line that year, 38,145 were cast for Padavan and Maltese.
Ragusa and Hornak want to tell a different story in 2008. One way to recruit solid candidates, Hornak said, is to look outside the usual Republican clubs.
"I think we need to look at other avenues, such as local civic organizations, business groups, the chamber of commerce," he said.
Both say it is important to start small, but have serious candidates in districts where they can compete against incumbents.
"It's a little difficult to run candidates in every single district," Ragusa said. "Wherever we can, we're going to try to run someone."
Hornak said he hopes to have potential candidates lined up by this fall, so they will have plenty of time to raise money and get organized before they need to get petitions for the ballot in the spring.
Reach reporter John Tozzi by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300 Ext. 174.
Posted by URC at March 22, 2007 06:59 PM
