Five days after being elected chairman of the Onondaga County Republican Committee, Tom Dadey found himself in a particularly sour political pickle. On Oct. 1, the former state Senate candidate had prevailed over Salina GOP leader Bill Tassone at the DoubleTree Hotel in DeWitt to take over the county GOP from Tassone’s pal, incumbent chairman John DeSpirito. Then on Oct. 6 Dadey’s benefactor, County Executive Joanie Mahoney – a renegade Republican who had backed Dadey’s campaign for the chairmanship – unexpectedly endorsed Democrat gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo. What would Dadey do?
The county’s top elected official, a Republican, had refused to back Carl Paladino, a fellow Upstater and the GOP’s primary victor in the campaign for governor. Not only did Mahoney reject her party’s candidate, she publicly embraced Cuomo, a prominent downstate Democrat and a liberal to boot. What could Dadey do?
He did what politicians usually do. He called a press conference.
With a “Paladino for the People” poster gracing the podium, Dadey insisted that Mahoney’s decision to cross party lines “in no way reflects the spirit of the Republican Party, nor does it signal that our party will just stand by and let another Cuomo assume the governor’s mansion.” Now her critics are calling Mahoney a “RINO” – Republican In Name Only.
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Some of those name-callers are in the County Legislature’s Republican majority which remains at odds with Mahoney over her proposed 2011 county budget. In fact, they’re boiling mad! To curtail anticipated tax hikes, the Legislature’s Ways & Means Committee recommended $46 million in changes to Mahoney’s $1.2 billion budget, including a $12 million infusion of fund balance bucks. Money for the sheriff’s Air One helicopter, libraries and arts groups will also end up eliminated. Mahoney claims that, with their $46 million adjustment, Republican legislators are “pretending” to have money they don’t by falsely estimating projected property tax revenues, for instance. Tax collectors know there’s a percentage of property owners who will neglect to pay their taxes, Mahoney said, but legislators are counting every tax bill as though they’re already in the bank. —
Conservative talk show host Glenn Beck is taking a few days off this week to have medical tests conducted on his hands and feet. It seems that the teary-eyed blabbermouth is having trouble feeling his extremities. That’s odd because Beck certainly has no problem communicating his extremist feelings to his listeners. —
Sheriff’s candidate Joe Price, a Democrat, learned the hard way the high price of posting puerile opinions on a public Internet forum. He’s now a man without a party. The Post-Standard, the institution which runs the cyber-soap box, made a fool of Price with its front-page expos on Sept. 24. That afternoon the county Democratic Committee promptly disowned Price because of his racist and homophobic computer comments. Democratic Chairwoman Diane Dwire announced that her party was pulling all support – financial and otherwise – from the Price campaign. His name will still appear on the Democratic line on the Nov. 3 ballot. Looks like it’ll be a cakewalk, if not a landslide, for incumbent Republican Sheriff Kevin Walsh. —
Retired General Motors tool-and-die maker Sam Roberts proved that – when it comes to local elections at least – unions still carry clout. The 54-year-old former Onondaga County legislator upset Democratic Party designee Phil LaTessa and another challenger, Jane Fahey-Suddaby, in the Sept. 14 primary election for the 119th state Assembly seat. LaTessa, the longtime Syracuse city auditor, had amassed a huge campaign war chest, but Roberts’ support from his own United Auto Workers and the Greater Syracuse AFL-CIO carried the day over the money man. Now Roberts is practically a shoo-in for the seat being vacated by Assemblywoman Joan Christensen because Democratic voters in the 119th outnumber Republicans 44 to 27 percent.