NOTEBOOK

Queens GOP lacks consensus

Some sticking with Bloomberg, some going with Ognibene and some just trying to get their voice heard

BY WILLIAM MURPHY
STAFF WRITER

May 20, 2005

Queens Republicans are split on whom they support for mayor, and there's even a split within the split.

Republicans in the north favor Mayor Michael Bloomberg, while the south and the county organization are backing former Councilman Thomas Ognibene.

And on issues having little to do with the mayoral race, an upstart Republican faction in the Rockaways is at odds with the leadership in the south and is fighting for its own base on the peninsula.

What is now the Rockaway Republicans began in December 2003 in a garage. The air was filled with cigar smoke and gripes about the inertia of the local party, according to organizers.

The garage get-together produced another meeting in March 2004, when about 25 people turned out. Monthly meetings and turnout grew until the group! had 140 people by July for a public show of support for President George W. Bush.

"We were trying to establish a club with a broad base," said Stuart Mirsky, one of the organizers. "We have some former Democrats, some libertarians, fiscal moderates. ... What hurts the Republican Party is its narrow way of thinking."

What followed was a series of vain attempts to gain recognition for their club from the state or city party.

Eventually, they got a meeting with party leaders and asked for a charter for a new club.

"They told us this would be contingent on our good behavior," Rockaway leader Thomas Lynch said. "We were dumbfounded, since we had never given anyone reason to question our behavior in the first place."

The club voted last August to formally request a charter, and it sent an application to Queens party headquarters.

"We never heard back," he said.

State Sen. Serphin Maltese (R-Glendale), the head of the Queens GOP, s! ees the situation differently. He has met with the Rockaway people, he says, and their demands are not unreasonable, just premature.

Some of them are Democrats who switched to the GOP in recent years, Maltese noted.

"If you're the new guy on the block, you have to serve your time," he said.

But Maltese scoffed at the notion that he was demanding obedience, and he said he has asked veteran Whitestone GOP leader Phil Ragusa to head a committee to work things out.

Meanwhile, two people close to the Rockaway Republicans, Eric Ulrich and Rosemary Duffy, are running for Queens County party posts now held by Maltese allies Terri Ariola and Ed O'Hare.

To add to the confusion, Ariola and O'Hare are backing Bloomberg, while Maltese is backing Ognibene.

Ragusa, who is supposed to be working this out for Maltese, is a Bloomberg supporter, also.

Another Republican from the north of Queens, Peter Boudouvas, showed up at a Bloomberg event the night Ognibene was picked by the party organization.

Boudouva! s, who is close to another Bloomberg ally, State Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose), nonetheless gave $50 to the Ognibene campaign, according to the latest filings.

Some split.

Targeting Jennings. Former Councilman Thomas White of Jamaica has raised $22,641 in his bid to oust incumbent Councilman Allen Jennings (D-Jamaica.)

White, also a Democrat, has gotten more than 10 percent of his contributions from people who work for J-CAP, a drug treatment program, and other South Queens social service agencies to which he is connected.

Jennings, censured recently by his colleagues and facing problems from prior campaigns, is not currently registered with the Campaign Finance Board.

The leading fund-raiser in the district right now is attorney Albert Baldeo, another Democrat running for the seat, who reported $48,595 in contributions in this week's filing.

The money game. Democrat Rene Lobo is the top fund-raiser so far among c! hallengers to Queens members of the City Council. She has raised $50,4 46 for her race against Councilman James Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows).

Second to Lobo is Democrat Bryan Pu-Folkes, who has raised $49,944 for his race against Councilwoman Helen Sears (D-Jackson Heights).

Except for Baldeo, no challengers in Queens are even close to those numbers. Of course, most of the incumbents are into six figures in fund-raising.

Pot shot at Pataki. City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria) welcomed - with a dollop of sarcasm - the news that Gov. George Pataki was making a major push to get the World Trade Center redevelopment on track.

"I'm not sure Pataki realizes that he has actually been in charge of the site for the last three-and-a-half years," Vallone said. "I guess he really shook things up, appointing his own chief of staff [as head of redevelopment]. As The Who said, 'Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.'"