Suffolk Conservatives ready for battle again

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo may have a primary against progressive Cynthia Nixon. And Suffolk Democratic Chairman Rich Schaffer may be stuck with a Democratic primary for county Surrogate’s judge in which Republican Tara Scully is trying to upend his candidate, Family Court Supervising Judge Theresa Bryant Whelan.

But for Suffolk’s 20,722 registered Conservative Party voters, the main event Thursday literally will be hundreds of head-to-head primary battles — each likely to be decided by a handful of votes — for the lowest elected positions in New York State politics: party committee seats.

Those elections will be crucial for Suffolk Conservatives to finally settle the issue of the minor party’s legitimate leader, disputed in courts here and in Brooklyn and Westchester for the last two years. State Supreme Curt Justice David C. Wood finally ruled six weeks ago that Frank Tinari narrowly won the party chairmanship by 34.5 weighted votes out of more than 9,000 cast in a disputed 2016 election.

It will be committee members elected in the primary who will decide at a party convention within 20 days, whether Tinari will continue to lead the party or will longtime rival Kenneth Auerbach, who maintains Tinari’s election was tainted.

In all, there are 454 contested races for Conservative Party committee spots — 227 of which are Opportunities to Ballot, in which any Conservative voter can write in the name of his or her choice for committee member in that election district.

Committee members are the foot soldiers of local politics. They gather signatures for nominating petitions to get party candidates on the ballot. But most important, committee members cast votes for party leader.

Each of Suffolk’s 1,046 election districts can have two committee members, though not all are filled. Votes for party leader are weighted based on the number of votes the district brought out for the Conservatives’ gubernatorial candidate in the most recent election.

Auerbach, who claimed victory after the last party convention, said he has a better chance this year. “There’s tremendous anger in the rank and file” because “our line is being given away to non-Conservatives” in cross-endorsement deals, he says.

Auerbach said committee candidates supporting him have twice the number of gubernatorial votes as Tinari in uncontested election districts. Nicholas LaLota, Suffolk’s Republican elections commissioner, said Auerbach has 5,623.5 gubernatorial votes to Tinari’s 2,775.5.

However, Tinari said many of those listed on Auerbach’s nominating petitions were not even aware they were candidates for committee posts.

“His petitions are a paper tiger,” said Tinari. “I got more than 70 calls from people who had no idea” their names had been included on Auerbach’s petitions.

Tinari said the party is more united now and many former Auerbach backers are supporting him. Two mailings have been sent out and activists are knocking on doors to solidify support, Tinari said.

Conservative Michael O’Donohoe, a former Suffolk County legislator whose name appeared on both committee slates two years ago, said he believes Tinari has the edge.

“There’s not fire in anyone‘s belly to remove Frank,” he said, noting he is more low-key than ex-leader Edward Walsh, who is in prison on federal corruption charges. Tinari has the advantage of “controlling the gavel” at the convention, O’Donohoe said. But he cautioned, “Of course, it also depends on who gets more supporters to show up at the convention.”