Free Republic

ASSOCIATED PRESS The former head of the state Republican Party has filed papers to run for Congress in the upper Hudson Valley in 2008 against the incumbent Democrat, Kirsten Gillibrand. The Republican, Alexander F. Treadwell, known as Sandy, is a close ally of former Gov. George E. Pataki.

Some of the most interesting and energetic Republicans in New York won't be in Madison Square Garden this week. They're young party outsiders who have been running spirited campaigns in politically hostile districts for the last few years, only to be thwarted at every turn - primarily by leaders of their own party. The dispute appears to be based on ideology. The young, self-styled urban Republicans call themselves conservative in the tradition of Ronald Reagan: devoted to low taxes, less government, school vouchers and a no-nonsense approach to crime and national security. The chieftains of the New York GOP often...