"News Library
Wojtaszek eyes the state
Published on February 8, 2009
Author: Bob McCarthy - NEWS STAFF REPORTER
© The Buffalo News Inc.
North Tonawanda's Henry Wojtaszek loves to talk about the Republican Party,
and he'll have plenty of chances over the next few days.
The Niagara County GOP chairman hits Albany today to help kick off the big
meeting of the New York Conservative Party, an important stop for someone with
statewide ambitions.
On Tuesday he'll venture across the river to Troy and address the annual
Lincoln Day dinner of Rennsalaer County Republicans. Next week it's off to
Binghamton for the same routine in Broome County. Wojtaszek isn't visiting Troy to stock up on Hembold's hot dogs or
Binghamton for Lupo's spiedies (a little local color there). The 45-year-old
attorney and former Navy officer is laying the groundwork to become state
Republican chairman.
"I'll be talking about how we can get on the road back," he said a few days
ago. "There have been mistakes. But obviously we've got to get out there and
make things happen ourselves."
Indeed, Wojtaszek likes to make things happen. He's earned top-notch
reviews for running the Niagara County party. He made a gutsy but futile
congressional run against Louise Slaughter back in 2002, and was a serious
contender for the GOP nod to succeed Tom Reynolds in Congress last year.
So while he's just a young whippersnapper compared to the Old Guard that
runs the state GOP, he arrives with real credentials.
Wojtaszek is quick to talk about finding the right kind of candidate -- the
way that Erie County chief Jim Domagalski (a close Wojtaszek ally) has
recruited business types with an outside-of-politics view.
"I've learned from Tom Reynolds," he said. "You've got to find a candidate
who fits the area. And you can't have a party that almost 'brags' about
sending e-mails when you've got Obama out there owning the Internet."
So you can boil his message down to a few words -- modernize and recruit
good candidates.
The only problem with all of this is that the state GOP has a chairman --
Joe Mondello of Nassau County and a fixture of Republican politics in New York
State. By mastering the hardball ways of the Nassau County GOP for many years,
he ranks as an official survivor.
Mondello is oft-criticized for a laid back style that rarely sees him
venture beyond Long Island or Albany. And when you come right down to it,
state Republicans are not exactly basking in success.
The party lost its last bastion of Albany power -- the Senate -- in 2008.
And Democrats control the office of governor, comptroller, attorney general
and both senators -- as well as the Legislature.
Combine that with an almost 2.5 million Democratic edge in enrollment
across the state, and it doesn't get much worse.
So what does Wojtaszek say about Mondello? The guy who appointed him as
vice chairman for upstate affairs?
"There is certainly a belief that much more can be done," Wojtaszek deftly
answers. "And there's a good blueprint here in Western New York between Jim
Domagalski and myself."
Mondello will be up for re-election in September. And while many in the
party are grumbling, no Republicans have yet taken to the streets with torches
and pitchforks.
And Mondello has taken a number of proactive steps in recent weeks, like
appointing a commission to rejuvenate the party and welcoming new Republican
National Chairman Michael Steele to Albany last week.
But the Republican Party in New York and nationally seems to be crying for
a way out of the wilderness. Mondello may yet be one of those who provides the
answers, but it appears that up-and-comers like Wojtaszek will either pressure
the Old Guard for new ways -- or attempt to provide them themselves.
e-mail: rmccarthy@buffnews.com "
News you can use I'd say.