New York Republicans

[dazzleman]

Interesting article about the collapse of the Republican Party in New York State:

NY GOP WIPEOUT

By FREDRIC U. DICKER
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November 11, 2005 -- NEW York politics moved into the final stage of a profound transformation Tuesday night as statewide election returns showed the ongoing collapse of the Republican Party — which began in 1997 — has now gathered terminal velocity.
From Montauk to Buffalo, from Ulster County to Syracuse — and, most dramatically, in Rensselaer County, the home base of Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno — the GOP rout was palpable .

Democrats captured the Suffolk County Legislature and took major posts in the important, patronage-rich town of Brookhaven, both longtime bases of GOP control.

Nassau County Democrats held onto the county executive's post as well as the county legislature in what had previously been the suburban GOP redoubt, and ousting longtime DA Denis Dillon for good measure.

Democrats grabbed the Ulster County Legislature for the first time in 25 years, kept the hotly contested Syracuse mayor's seat and easily held onto the Buffalo mayoralty, despite Republican predictions the race would be close.

In Irondequoit, a Monroe County town adjacent to the home of state GOP Chairman Steve Minarik, the incumbent Republican supervisor went down to defeat for what's said to be the first time in history.

And Democrats repeatedly beat Bruno — the state's second-most-powerful Republican — in his own, once-GOP friendly, back yard. A little-known Democrat swamped Bruno's handpicked candidate for county judge, Rensselaer County DA Patricia DeAngelis. The incumbent GOP mayor in Rensselaer (just miles from Bruno's Brunswick farm) lost, too. In Saratoga Springs, Democrats swept every office for the first time in history.

Some of the state's most powerful GOP leaders now believe that all the remnants of significant Republican strength — from the governor's office to key Congressional seats to the all-important control of the state Senate — will be lost by this time next year.

"We're all just scared to death," was how one of the state's best-known elected Republicans put it yesterday.

Some were seeking to blame President Bush and the war in Iraq for Tuesday's disastrous losses. But such efforts at deflection ignore the obvious fact that the election-night results were the culmination of a long string of GOP defeats directly attributable to the anemic leadership of the state's most important Republican, Gov. George Pataki.

The New York GOP reached the apex of its success with Pataki's stunning victory over Mario Cuomo in 1994. It began its decline in 1997, when Pataki — under pressure from such key advisers as then-U.S. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, Arthur Finkelstein and Kieran Mahoney — entered into a Faustian pact to transform himself from the tough-talking, Newt Gingrich-like conservative who defeated Cuomo into what is often called a RINO — Republican in name only — in order to guarantee his own, and D'Amato's, re-election in 1998.

In the process, Pataki stunned many of his fellow Republicans and double-crossed Bruno, by embracing the retention of New York City rent control, pushing steep new spending increases (especially for Medicaid) and endorsing a range of other Democrat-friendly issues.

The results became clear right away. D'Amato and then-Attorney General Dennis Vacco — whose campaign was being advised by Mahoney — went down to defeat in 1998, as New York's heavily Democratic electorate refused to respond to the political makeover. Rep. Rick Lazio, an ideological carbon copy of Pataki, was swamped by Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2000 Senate race.

And while Pataki won a third term in 2002, he did so with less than 50 percent of the vote and only after selling out state taxpayers to Dennis Rivera and the hospital-workers union — and by embracing a powerful gay-rights law and championing even tougher gun-control restrictions, thereby alienating core Republican constituencies and producing a behind-the-scenes GOP revolt.

By this year, Pataki didn't even have a choice when he announced he wouldn't seek re-election: He'd have been clobbered had he tried.

One staggering set of findings: Every opinion poll made public this year showed Pataki being trounced by Democratic Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in the race for governor — among traditionally Republican upstate voters alone.

Pataki and GOP Chairman Minarik are now claiming that Mayor Bloomberg's landslide win over the hapless Freddy Ferrer somehow counts as an important Republican victory. City GOP leaders know that's not the case. They had hoped Bloomberg would carry at least one Republican City Council candidate on the wave of his win — but the mayor's coattails were nonexistent. Tuesday's voting left city GOP leaders bitter and empty-handed.

Now, Republicans contemplate next November with a combination of fear and anger.

They're afraid that what awaits them in 2006 is the loss of the state Senate, a significant number of congressional seats, the governorship, and every other statewide office. And they're probably right.

They're angry because they know — especially those lucky enough to have been present in 1994 — that it wasn't inevitable that they'd find themselves on the brink of catastrophe.

They're right there, too.

But the seeds of disaster were planted years ago and the growing season is almost at an end. Next year, Republicans will reap the bitter harvest their opportunism has sown.

[WalterMitty]

what is a county legislature?

[dazzleman]

what is a county legislature?

It's like the congress, only at the county level.  The county is divided into districts, and each district elects a representative.  The county legislature passes county legislatures, budgets, etc. and the county executive passes on them.

Truth be told, I hate county government.  It's just another hand out for tax money.  I think it's great that Connecticut got rid of county government in 1960.

[WalterMitty]

what is the average size of these county legislatures?

im assuming they are larger than your typical county board of supervisors.

[dazzleman]

what is the average size of these county legislatures?

im assuming they are larger than your typical county board of supervisors.

I think about 25-30 members.  They are definitely larger than a board or supervisors.

[Dave from Michigan]

we have county government here, called  a county commission (15 members) I guess it's similar.  They don't do much it seems like a waste and also to make things worse  I live in Wayne county.

[dazzleman]

we have county government here, called  a county commission (15 members) I guess it's similar.  They don't do much it seems like a waste and also to make things worse  I live in Wayne county.

I agree with your assessment.

Wally is from the south, where the county is the primary level of local government.  The structure in the north is more municipality based, which makes the county level superfluous.

Connecticut got rid of county government in 1960.  In this state, county is only a geographical term.  I like it that way.  Liberals sometimes push for the return of county government here, but nobody seems to be taking it very seriously.

[KEmperor]

what is the average size of these county legislatures?

im assuming they are larger than your typical county board of supervisors.

http://www.co.suffolk.ny.us/legis/

I am in the 6th Legislative District which is located in the northeast portion of the Town of Brookhaven.  It consists of fifty-three election districts with approximately 50,010 registered voters.

[WalterMitty]

what is the average size of these county legislatures?

im assuming they are larger than your typical county board of supervisors.

http://www.co.suffolk.ny.us/legis/

I am in the 6th Legislative District which is located in the northeast portion of the Town of Brookhaven.  It consists of fifty-three election districts with approximately 50,010 registered voters.

so you pay taxes to your town AND county?

[dazzleman]

what is the average size of these county legislatures?

im assuming they are larger than your typical county board of supervisors.

http://www.co.suffolk.ny.us/legis/

I am in the 6th Legislative District which is located in the northeast portion of the Town of Brookhaven.  It consists of fifty-three election districts with approximately 50,010 registered voters.

so you pay taxes to your town AND county?

That's right.  County taxes are added on top of local property taxes.  These areas have very high taxes.

[WalterMitty]

what is the average size of these county legislatures?

im assuming they are larger than your typical county board of supervisors.

http://www.co.suffolk.ny.us/legis/

I am in the 6th Legislative District which is located in the northeast portion of the Town of Brookhaven.  It consists of fifty-three election districts with approximately 50,010 registered voters.

so you pay taxes to your town AND county?

That's right.  County taxes are added on top of local property taxes.  These areas have very high taxes.

it's like that down south too.

however, in the south a lot of folks live in unincorporated rural areas thererfore they only owe taxes to the county,