Suffolk Conservatives continue to struggle over leadership

Suffolk Conservative chairman Frank Tinari called a meeting of party committee members last week to try to outflank dissidents, who recently won several court decisions over the party convention that elected Tinari leader in 2016.

But the meeting, held at the Radisson Hotel in Hauppauge, went nowhere. While nearly 400 showed up, only 320 were committee members, about 20 short of the 25 percent of total committee membership needed for a quorum.

Tinari’s effort came after the Appellate Division last month ruled that the Conservative executive committee in 2016 improperly filled 250 committee vacancies between the September primary and the convention, which drew about 1,000 party members.

Tinari said he called last week’s meeting — the first general committee meeting not connected to a convention — to fill about 100 committee vacancies in a way the court ruled was proper. “The court decision said you have to call a meeting of the county committee to fill vacancies, so that’s what we did,” in trying to call the meeting, he said.

But Kenneth Auerbach, Tinari’s leadership foe, said the new move to fill the vacancies was just the latest attempt “to stuff the ballot box” and to keep Tinari in power. “Right now there’s a political monopoly by the political kings and we have to undo it,” said Auerbach.

The meeting that couldn’t go forward was held as the latest Appellate Division ruling has sent the convention fight back to the State Supreme Court, where Westchester Justice Charles D. Woods will hold a new hearing in Central Islip on April 16, and April 17 and 18 if need be. Woods took over the case because original Westchester judge on the case, J. Emmett Murphy, who originally dismissed Auerbach’s suit, has retired.

Auerbach claims Tinari was never legally elected, had no right to call a special meeting and gave only minimal notice for last week’s meeting. The only way to resolve the dispute, Auerbach added, is to hold another convention in which there is a roll-call vote of committee members, based on the party’s weighted gubernatorial vote in each election district.

“The average person is frustrated that the entire political process is polluted,” said Auerbach. “If there’s no roll call, there’s no reason to come. It’s something out of a socialist country.”

While last week’s meeting did not go forward, Tinari expressed confidence he’ll stay leader and said the turnout shows “we have a terrific and motivated base. I’m surprised no one from the dissident faction even tried to show up. To me, it strongly suggests a lack of drive to do the work in this election cycle.”

The outcome of the legal war has major impact on both major parties because the Conservative ballot line, which can draw as much as 10 percent of the vote, is seen as crucial. Key races include county comptroller and clerk and eight countywide judgeships, including the patronage-rich surrogate judgeship, where Tinari’s wife, Marian, has been mentioned as a potential contender, though she has not declared.

Michael O’Donohoe, a former Conservative county lawmaker, said he favors a roll call on leadership votes, but Tinari’s low-key personality is likely to help him survive. “Frank doesn’t seem to upset anyone and I don’t see any passion to knock him out,” he said.

Michael Dawidziak, a political consultant who works largely for Republicans, said the legal battle has lasted so long that he doubts the court will order a new convention, when Tinari is up for re-election again in September. “Courts are reluctant to get involved in intraparty matter,” he said. “My guess is that they say, ‘Fight it out in a primary.’”