Another round of defeats for GOP chairman Ed Cox

In the year since Ed Cox became state Republican Committee chairman, it has been awfully hard to list his triumphs, and awfully easy to find his critics.

GOP celebrities shunned his invitations to run. State Conservative Party chairman Michael Long challenged his choices. His recruit for governor, Suffolk Executive Steve Levy, was rejected at Cox's own convention. Relations frosted over between the Suffolk and Nassau organizations, and a perennial upstate-downstate GOP split reappeared.

After Levy foundered, Cox backed Rick Lazio. Tuesday, Lazio lost big in a primary to Carl Paladino - by no means a Cox fan.

In April, Cox's committee spokesman called Paladino's distribution of racist e-mails "disturbing to say the least."

In May, the two got into a widely reported closed-door confrontation. As of June, Cox didn't even want Paladino speaking at the convention.

Also, on Tuesday, came the defeat closest to home for the Westhampton-raised Cox, son-in-law of the late President Richard Nixon. His son Christopher lost his primary bid for the 1st Congressional District, to Randy Altschuler. Not only did young Cox lose, he landed third - with a disappointing 24 percent. That's the same vote share claimed by Democrat Gail Goode in an unfunded maverick primary run against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

There were other instances on Tuesday of party members choosing to override either Cox or the committee.

The convention endorsed Bruce Blakeman for Senate against Gillibrand. But voters chose Joseph DioGuardi - Long's preferred candidate.

For the other Senate seat, conservative Jay Townsend beat convention-backed Gary Berntsen of Suffolk County in the race to oppose Democrat Charles Schumer.

Will Republican ticket mates travel together for a bus tour? Even that question was difficult to answer Wednesday. There's such a clashing motif to this ticket that primary voters - with high numbers in western New York but lower turnout on Long Island - ended up grouping Lazio's man for lieutenant governor, Greg Edwards, with Paladino in the top spot. Do attorney general candidate Dan Donovan and comptroller candidate Harry Wilson want to throw in with the controversial Paladino?

And yet, for all that, Cox sounded so impressively - perhaps inexplicably - sunny and polite on the phone Wednesday that you might have wondered if you reached a wrong number.

Asked about his son's loss at the polls, he spoke of how Altschuler will snare one of several New York House seats from Democrats.

Asked about Paladino, he noted his experience as an entrepreneur and involvement in local civic improvements. Cox said he spoke the night before with Paladino and with his political advisers, including Roger Stone. "I've known Roger for some time," he said of the flamboyant Stone, who has also been working on that novelty independent run for governor by Kristin Davis, the madam in the Eliot Spitzer scandal.

Without hesitation in his voice, Cox called Paladino's victory speech "terrific" and "classy." He hailed its "passionate message."

He said he'd spoken with Long - but not about whether he'll stick with Lazio on the Conservative line. "That's in his court," Cox said.

And, he talked about how he believes DioGuardi, rejected at his own convention, can beat Gillibrand.

He expressed pride at every turn in the openness of the process he's presided over, and noted that unlike national races, the conventions came before the primaries.

Cox has a year left in his term as chairman.

Maybe on Nov. 3, he'll have triumphs to crow about. As you may guess, detractors in the state party - scattered from Nassau to Buffalo - aren't holding their breath.