Posted on 08/28/2008 8:49:33 PM PDT by neverdem
The two candidates were once friends, with one crediting the other for bringing him into Republican Party leadership. But the competition for the Republican nomination for a Congressional seat on Staten Island has produced a level of rancor that has left the two candidates bitterly sparring and the party in disarray.
In the last week, Dr. Jamshad I. Wyne, the finance chairman of the Republican Party on Staten Island and a candidate for Congress, accused his rival in the primary, former Assemblyman Robert A. Straniere, of trying to persuade him to make illegal contributions to Mr. Straniere’s failed 2001 campaign for Staten Island borough president.
Mr. Straniere, while passionately denying the charges, pointed out that Dr. Wyne, a cardiologist, recently began using the name Jim in his campaign literature, rather than his legal first name, Jamshad, as he is listed on the ballot for the Sept. 9 primary. That change, Mr. Straniere said, is an attempt by Dr. Wyne to conceal his Pakistani and Muslim roots.
While Mr. Straniere acknowledged his onetime friendship with Dr. Wyne, he complained: “He’s not the Jamshad Wyne that I once knew. He has some kind of evil spirit on him these days.”
Some people in the 13th Congressional District have questioned whether some evil spirit might have fallen on the Republican Party in the 13th Congressional District, which includes portions of Brooklyn as well as all of Staten Island.
The troubles began in May, when the incumbent, Representative Vito J. Fossella, was arrested on drunken-driving charges. Later Mr. Fossella, the only Republican representing New York City in Congress, acknowledged that he had fathered a daughter out of wedlock and then announced that he would not run this year for election to a sixth term.
The Republican troubles continued when the most prominent elected officials...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The MSM always loves it when bad things happen to both the Republican Party at every level and to conservative candidates for political office at every level.
O Lord have mercy?
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Look for NYC to have an all-’Rat Congressional delagation next year.
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It ain’t over, yet.
Let’s just say that I’m happy that Pubbies have some chances elsewhere.
I agree, the NY-13 is by no means lost. Obama will get absolutely *spanked* by McCain in the district-—President Bush got 55% in 2004, and I think McCain will exceed 60% this November due to Catholic and Jewish voters’ aversion to Obama and to McCain’s popularity in Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn across the bridge. We just need a decent Republican to get the nomination (Stranieri would fit the bill) and we’ll have a good chance of winning.
What’s wrong with these fratricidal fools?
And I really hope the ‘Conservative’ party doesn’t unthinkably back the rat.
If only Fossella had been drinking Shirley Temples that night.
Republican primaries for Congress are very rare within NYC. This is about the only seat within the confines of NYC where the GOP has a decent chance, so there is some competition. Naturally, whenever there is any kind of dispute amongst local Republicans, you can bet the New York Slimes will grossly exaggerate the degree of the conflict, which seems to explain this article.
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