Wyne resigns from GOP finance chair position

via the NY Times;

“Honestly, I cannot serve effectively under the current leadership who instead of denouncing, supports a racist candidate Robert Straniere for Congress who attacked my race and religion to become a congressman,” the letter states. “And I believe I was not given the nomination of the Republican Party because of my religion and ethnic background.”

Republicans to end their headache Tuesday, start a new one Wednesday

The Wall Street Journal is taking a look at the Republican primary this Tuesday;

Mr. Straniere's big plus is that he's a known quantity. He is a former state assemblyman; he has the endorsement of his local newspaper and of Peter King, a Republican congressman from nearby Long Island; and he's working donors at the Republican National Convention like an old pro.

Mr. Straniere's big minus is that he's a known quantity – he seems to have made some enemies in his own party and he lost his statehouse job by being ousted in a primary. What's more, he used a Manhattan address on his campaign petitions. That's perfectly legal, but there are voters who prefer to be represented by someone who sets down roots in their district. Guy Molinari, a former congressman and Staten Island borough president who is still influential in local politics, told the New York Times: "We threw him out of office and got him off of Staten Island. And we don't want him back."

The article talks about how the Republican Party will catch a break after Tuesday. It humorously ends the piece "After Tuesday, their 13th District nomination nightmare will be over." That is true since they will have a nominee who won the primary and at least this whole primary nightmare (Fossella, Powers, son of Powers, Wyne, Straniere, Atanasio, that DA guy...) for the party will finally be over. It is a small victory considering their general election headache will only be worse as they will have either Bob from Manhattan or Jim Wyne officially as their candidate.

note: fixed formatting

Pre-primary FEC filings

Here is where we stand with pre-primary filings (July 1 - August 20). Raised is money raised over that six week period, spent is money spent in that time period, CoH is cash on hand they still have and total raised is how much they have raised during the entire cycle;

McMahon (D)
raised - $218,000
spent - $276,000
CoH - $413,000
total raised - $717,000

Harrison (D)
raised - $17,000
spent - $35,000
CoH - $45,000
total raised - $201,000

Straniere (R)
raised - $15,000
spent - $3,000
CoH - $12,000
raised total - $15,000

Wyne (R)
raised - $9,000
spent - $98,000
CoH - $203,000
raised total - $9,000

* McMahon is running away with his fundraising numbers, outraising Harrison, Straniere and Wyne combined many times over.
* The Democratic candidates both outraised each Republican candidate
* Straniere who is the odds on favorite to win his primary is sitting on only $12,000, and he will spend much of that between now and September 9 leaving him almost completely broke to go into the general election should he win.
* Wyne loaned himself $290,000


h/t to Swing State Project

update: cash on hand numbers have been updated in the right column

Republicans are the ones divided, Democrats ready to retake seat

While 'news' stories try to claim the Democrats are divided because we actually have two legitimate candidates with enthusiastic supporters the reality is the Republican Party is fractured and just a shell of what they were merely months ago. Swing State Project beats me to some recent news on Straniere/Wyne attacks, from the Village Voice;

According to the Advance, Straniere has accused Wyne, formerly and professional known as Jamshad Wyne, of "trying to hide his Pakistani and Muslim heritage by 'changing his name'" for this race to Jim -- a provocative claim in the culturally conservative borough. He also called Wyne, whom the state Health Department had put on probation for professional misconduct in 2003, "ethically challenged."

Wyne accuses Straniere of trying to solicit from him an "illegal" contribution to Straniere's 2001 Beep race -- a crime for which "two politicians, one running for Queens borough president and the other for public advocate, were jailed" previously, the Advance says.

Meanwhile the Democrats are debating issues like Iraq and health care. We can also see how the debate will look after September 9th. The Democratic candidate will talk about bringing our troops home and the Republican will rely on asking voters to just vote Republican 'because.' The good news is the media can only push this fake Democrats divided story for about another week, then the focus will turn to how pathetic the Republican nominee is on real issues.

Correction: Wyne's site is live

A commenter in a previous post has pointed out that Jamshad Wyne has in fact had a webiste up and running long before Straniere finally got around to putting up his content free page.

DrWyneforCongress.com

Wyne raises money, breaks some laws, gives it back, self funds

Republican candidate and outsider candidate Jamshad Wyne has his first FEC filing up online. He has loaned himself $35,000 and spent $25,437 of that, leaving him a little over $9,000 cash on hand for his primary. The sad thing for this party is he is leading the cash on hand as Straniere had not yet started raising money.

The story takes an odd though at this point expected turn as Tom tells us;

Dr. Wyne said he raised $119,000 from 50 to 60 people at the fundraiser, which was held on May 20 at Lee's Tavern in Dongan Hills.

But Dr. Wyne said this week he'd returned all that money to donors. He said that he'd been advised not to deposit the money because he hadn't yet officially registered as a candidate with the FEC.

But the man is determined, after all his candidacy has been ignored and disrespected by his own party. He has promised to now self finance his primary run up to the amount of $500,000.

update
I have added Wyne to both the cash on hand totals and the maplight widget on the right hand column. Straniere will be added once he has an official FEC report.

Left over updates

The cash on hand totals and the maplight widget (on the right) which tracks total contributions have both been updated to reflect the latest FEC filings.

Robert Straniere and Jamshad Wyne appear to have not yet filed with the FEC. Once they do I will add them as well.

Domenic Recchia has contributed $2,300 from his Recchia for Congress committee to McMahon.

July 10th is here

So petitions to get on the primary ballot are due today. Let's quickly recap where our Republican friends are;

Bob Straniere, former Assemblyman who was primaried and sent home from Albany by the powers that be in his own party lives in Manhattan. He promises to actually move into the district should he win. How thoughtful.

Paul Atanasio, Brooklyn Conservative Party nominee who might be cross endorsed is not a registered Republican. How are his prospects;

“Our people have been out there working hard in gathering petitions day and night for Paul Atanasio,” said Brooklyn GOP leader Eaton. “It’s a difficult process with the holiday weekend, the heat and the rain, but we’re working hard to get him on the ballot.” He could not specify the number of signatures collected, hinting it could be close.

And that leaves us with Jamshad Wyne, the GOP Finance Chair, who the GOP so dislike as a candidate they actually are looking at the two guys above as alternatives.

Here is hoping one of them actually makes the ballot to keep us entertained through November. Happy July 10th!

5 days left

via the Brooklyn Paper;

Brooklyn’s Republican organization has rallied behind Paul Atanasio, a retired investment banker and registered Conservative, but county chairman Craig Eaton is livid that his Staten Island counterparts have not supported Atanasio — or anyone else — in the race to hold onto the party’s only congressional seat in New York City. [emphasis mine]

“The failure of the Staten Island GOP to put all their resources and effort behind Paul Atanasio is going to give the Democrats a significant edge,” Eaton said. “If we lose, it’s going to be their fault.”

The Republicans are under the gun to get a name — any name — on the ballot. To qualify, candidates must submit 1,250 valid signatures of registered voters by July 10. Typically, twice as many signatures are needed in order to survive the inevitable challenges.

At this point it is unlikely anyone else will be getting into the race because of the immense difficulty that gathering signatures would pose. It looks like with all the attempts to find bad news in the Democratic primary that we likely will be heading into a Republican as well; Wyne vs. Straniere (possibly with a third taking over Powers's spot). Needless to say I am feeling confident with where our party is going.

8 days left

It is all about the signatures on the ballot petitions. There is still no Republican endorsement but there is some news.

Frank Powers does not have 2,000;

Republican leaders say that Mr. Powers campaign had collected about 1,500 signatures on Mr. Powers's petitions.

1,250 are needed and 1,500 isn't likely to hold up against challenges.

Wyne has 2,000.

Bob Straniere is collecting signatures for the Republican line;

Multiple sources confirm that former Assemblyman Bob Staniere [sp], who has long desired to run for Congress, no longer lives in the district (not a requirement in this case; one must only live in the state) and is on the outs with the GOP powers-that-be on Staten Island, is indeed circulating petitions to run.

Carmine Morano is collecting signatures for both the Independence and Republican lines;

Frank Morano, a state Independence Party official, confirms his father, Carmine, is circulating petitions in an effort to get both the Indy and GOP lines (he'll need a Wilson Pakula for the latter).

Republicans dislike of Powers might mean a primary

Dr. Jamshad Wyne (R), GOP Finance Chair in Staten Island has entered the race;

The Todt Hill resident, who has gone back and forth on the race over the last two weeks, announced yesterday he would challenge Frank Powers, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority board member and retired Wall Street executive, for the GOP congressional nod.

The Finance Chair for the GOP Party in the Staten Island, the party that just endorsed Frank Powers, is now running against Powers. Looks like Wyne is filled with enthusiasm for his party's chances.

Republicans don't support their own nominee

From the GOP Finance Chair;

But Dr. Jamshad Wyne, who interviewed with the party last night even though he'd said he was pulling out of the race last weekend, objected to the Powers pick.

He left the convention before the final vote was taken, saying he would support McMahon in the race.

"I like Frank Powers," he said. "But I think Mike is a better candidate. We should be willing to cross party lines to support the best candidate."

Dr. Wyne said he did not know how his support of McMahon would affect his position as borough GOP finance chair.

"I'm still a GOP party member," he said.

From the Brooklyn GOP Chairman;

Brooklyn GOP Chairman Craig Eaton is not at all pleased by the 11th-hour entry into the 13th CD race by MTA board member Frank Powers and his subsequent endorsement by the Staten Island Republican Party.

snip

The Democrats' pick, Councilman Mike McMahon, is "formidable," Eaton said, and he's not sure about Powers because the two have never met. That is part of the problem.
"I'm getting a lot of calls from district leaders who are very, very upset," Eaton said. "I'm upset and digusted. Until yesterday at 3 p.m., I had never heard (of Powers).