A New Hyde Park attorney who sought the GOP nomination for the 4th Congressional District seat in June has charged that Nassau County Republican leaders opposed his campaign out of fear it would jeopardize their business relationships in the county and its townships.
Frank Scaturro, who lost a June primary to former Nassau County Legislator Bruce Blakeman, penned a Nov. 13 editorial for the conservative online news outlet the Washington Examiner alleging the local GOP’s leadership “place[d] their own power ahead of the party’s health” by channeling resources into defeating him while largely ignoring Blakeman in the ensuing general election.
Blakeman, who raised approximately $2.5 million during his campaign against Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City), was defeated on Election Day by about 9,000 votes in a district that Scaturro wrote has more registered Republican voters than any other district in New York.
“Why would the bosses allow this? Simple: Their goal was to create a vacancy in the Nassau District Attorney’s office, which will soon be vacated by Kathleen Rice, the Democrat who just won the Fourth District race,” Scaturro wrote.
“After all,” he continued, “her current office comes with far more patronage than a mere congressional seat. And if that sounds conspiratorial, consider that as this was happening, [Nassau GOP committee chairman Joseph] Mondello’s allies were simultaneously helping Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo win re-election.”
Efforts to reach Blakeman campaign spokesman Matt Coleman and Mondello were unavailing.
Scaturro, who has run primary campaigns for the 4th Congressional District in the last three elections against candidates backed by the Republican Party, wrote that Mondello “fosters a clannish culture hostile toward outsiders” that opposes primaries “because having voters choose candidates undermines the party bosses’ control of government.”
“There is a lesson here,” Scaturro concluded. “When Republicans ignore the primary process and subordinate the people’s role in selecting a party’s candidates to that of the bosses, we lose.”
