GOP Chairman John DeSpirito III has 3 challengers.
Onondaga County Republican Committee Chairman John DeSpirito III checks primary election results in this file photo from September 2009. Syracuse, NY - Less than three months before Election Day, the Onondaga County Republican Committee is nearly broke and deeply divided.
Three Republicans are vying to unseat county Republican Chairman John DeSpirito III, and County Executive Joanie Mahoney is cheering them on.
“By almost any measure, the current chair has not been successful,” Mahoney said Sunday. “I’m going to back someone new for the position.”
The 700-member GOP committee decides which Republican candidates to endorse, but it has no money to help candidates get out the vote.
As of July 15, the committee had minus $14.52 in the account it uses to fund campaigns. It had not received any contributions for that account in six months. The committee had $1,547 in a separate account for paying its office rent and other housekeeping expenses.
In comparison, the Onondaga County Democratic Committee had $13,359.
Former state Senate candidate Tom Dadey, former county Legislator Jim DiBlasi, and Republican committee vice president Leonard Manfrates said Sunday they will run against DeSpirito for the chairman’s job in part because of the fundraising failures, which they blamed on DeSpirito.
Manfrates said the GOP committee has never been this poor in the 30 years he has served on it.
The committee is required to elect a chair every two years, within 20 days of the Sept. 14 primary election. No date has been set.
Onondaga County Republicans have done well under his watch, DeSpirito said, and hold 88 percent of the elected town and village posts.
He declined to talk about the dispute between himself and Mahoney. But he alluded to the split when asked about the committee’s fundraising problems.
“It’s an internal matter in the party,” he said. “I don’t want to go there.”
DeSpirito predicted the GOP committee will raise more than $15,000 for its candidates at its annual clambake, Sept. 8 at Hinerwadel’s Grove.
Four years of infighting between DeSpirito’s supporters and Mahoney’s team have prompted past contributors to the county Republican organization to sit on their wallets, DiBlasi said.
Mahoney, who bucked Republican leaders in 2007 by beating their endorsed candidate in a primary for the county executive job, said she has not had a substantive conversation with DeSpirito since she was elected.
Although she holds the highest elected county office, Mahoney said she has no relationship with county Republican party leaders.
“Our relationship is non-existent. It’s not acrimonious. It’s just non-existent,” she said.
Mahoney said she has not decided which of DeSpirito’s challengers to back, but said she will be more active in her party’s politics if DeSpirito is ousted.
Meanwhile, Dadey may have to mend fences with some Republican committee members to become their chair.
In 2006, when the Republican committee endorsed Jeff Brown over Dadey as its candidate for the 49th Senate District, Dadey cursed the committee from a podium in front of several hundred people, city Republican committee chairman Kristen Rounds alleged.
Dadey said he blasted the committee’s endorsement process, but did not use vulgarity.
He pointed to his fundraising abilities, his experience as a candidate and his good relationship with Mahoney as his strengths.
Contact Mike McAndrew at mmcandrew@syracuse.com or 470-3016.