NY-9

In Break with Conservatives, GOP Leaning Toward Giuliani Alum Juan Reyes

By Azi Paybarah 7/07/11 12:25pm

Republicans may be heading for a split with Conservatives in the special election to replace Anthony Weiner, backing a Manhattan lawyer with ties to Rudy Giuliani and Bob Dole, and not with the political neophyte who did surprisingly well in the race two years ago.

Juan Reyes has emerged as “the number one candidate” for the Republican nomination, said a Republican source, speaking on condition of anonymity because the decision was not finalized yet.

Reyes interned in Bob Dole’s office, worked on the Bush-Cheney campaign, and was a member of Rudy Giuliani’s administration, serving as Counsel to the Loft Board and as general counsel of New York City Office of Standards and Appeals.

Reyes is now a partner as Reed Smith, a major Manhattan law firm.

“He can raise a million dollars…the guy’s Rolodex is phenomenal,” said the Republican source.

Conservatives have said Bob Turner, who ran for the seat in 2010, “is our candidate.” Turner told the Politicker he’d run “if the party asked me.”

The Republican source characterized Turner as a sacrificial lamb, whereas Reyes is someone who could win. Turner, who is Irish, is a “bad geographic match” with the district, this source said.

Democrats nominated Assemblyman David Weprin, who is Jewish, as are most of the voters in the district, which covers parts of eastern Queens and northern Brooklyn. But Reyes is Hispanic and Italian, as are the second- and third-largest voting blocs in the 9th Congressional District, this source noted.

The fourth-largest ethnic voting bloc there is Asians. Republican City Councilman Peter Koo, of Flushing, could serve as Reye’s ambassador, according to the source.

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topics: NY-9
  • http://twitter.com/RussonPolitics Russell Schaffer

    Oh geesh! Let nobody say again that the GOP doesn’t play ethnic politics. What a crock.

  • Anonymous

    fair point. think it’ll work?

  • http://www.politickerny.com/2011/07/07/conservative-candidate-turner-on-new-gop-favorite-get-real/ Conservative Candidate Turner On New GOP Favorite: ‘Get Real’ | PolitickerNY

    [...] “Get real,” Turner muttered during a phone interview just now, when I asked him about Juan Reyes, the former Giuliani aide Republicans in Queens are looking to back. [...]

  • livebymyheart

    TO: AZI PAYBARAH     Listen and learn:  POLITICS 101 

     
    The ignorance of Republican Party leaders from the National on down to County Chairs is truly amazing, although it is easily explained. For politics is like war, where it is the commanders in the field who truly know what is going on–and can and should react as battle conditions change– as opposed to those at ‘headquarters’ who give outdated or ill-advised orders such as that to “capture XYZ town’ regardless of the cost. Only very wise–and ego-less–Kings, Commander-in-Chiefs, stay at home Generals, etc. give their commanders  the flexibility to react as the situation changes.
    Having worked in the front-lines for close to a year AGAINST the re-election of Anthony Weiner, it was quite clear that the Republican Party had no clue that a combination of factors made Weiner ripe for the taking in 2010, and so gave Bob Turner ZERO support. Yet now some anonymous ‘Republican source’ is insensitive enough–and dumber still–to tell you that Turner is a “sacrificial lamb.” Aside from an undeserved and erroneous insult, if Reyes cannot or does not run and Turner is the candidate , it will be hard to repair the damage done by telling the world the Republicans themselves have no faith in their candidate. And if Reyes does run, why would anyone associated with the party treat a man, who having run, has connections, experience and money to contribute, in such an offhand, dismissive manner. If anything, Republicans should be grateful to Bob Turner for taking up the call when no one else could, not to mention spending several hundred thousand dollars of his own funds doing so. And in fact, he came within an eyelash of winning.
    For in fact, all across District 9, regardless of race, economic class, white collar or blue collar, the number of individuals who expressed a strong dislike for Anthony Weiner was truly astounding and they were willing and did go out to work against his re-election. And polls a month or so before election day confirmed that Turner trailed by only 6-8 percentage points.
    We will never know for sure, but I am believe Turner would have won if not for the Paladino fiasco. And to be clear, what I am referring to is Palidino’s RECANTING of the strong remarks he made against gay marriage that put him on the front pages of the DAILY NEWS and NY  POST.  For contrary to what the gay community would lead one to believe, most NYers are decisively AGAINST gay marriage. (My own private polling made that clear and in fact, when asked. “Would you want your son or grandson to marry a male?   Yes   No  Don’t Care” almost 95 percent replied NO)  Palidino was gaining on Cuomo and his strong stance would have been POSITIVE for his campaign. but his recanting was a terrible blunder which embarrassed him, and demonstrated to voters he was indecisive and lacked toughness–not what NYers needed to govern them.  As a result, he was slaughtered in  NYC where he barely received 16 percent of the vote.  That more than anything did Turner in, since a large segment of voters simply vote the party line–thus Weiner literally got re-elected on Cuomo’s coattails.  While Palidino probably would have lost anyway, the margin would have been much narrower and it is reasonable to think Turner would have won by a small margin.  
     For someone who had no political connections, never run before, had ZERO Republican support to have garnered almost 42 percent of the vote against an extremely well-known candidate is mind-boggling and deserves praise not condemnation.
    Consider the following results in NYC other than Staten Island. 
    16th CD   DEM 58,000+     REP  2,000+
    15th CD   DEM  63.000+    REP 10,000
    14th CD   DEM 98,000+     REP 32,000
    12th CD   NO REP Candidate
    11th CD   DEM 104,000+    REP  9,000
    10th CD  DEM 95,000+      REP  7,000
      8th CD  DEM  88,000+     REP 29,000
      7th CD  DEM  71,000+      REP 16,000
            ETC…..
     
    (Republican brass would do well to ferret out the “source” and have him/her do penance by calling Turner  to apologize.) 
    By the way, to say ‘most’ of the voters in the district are Jewish is very poor reporting–having carefully analyzed the data base of the 300,000+ registered voters, I can state with reasonable confidence Jews total between 65,000-75,000–although not including the substantial Russian population of whom most are Jewish. The Republican brass also–and still–fail to comprehend that while most Jews are registered Democrats, that is extremely misleading, since RELIGIOUS Jews generally vote Republican but are told–foolishly–by their rabbis to REGISTER as Democrats so that they can have a say in picking candidates by being able to vote in Democratic primaries. But that only cooks their own goose since the numbers are so skewed in favor of Democrats that Republicans believe they cannot win in the district and don’t even try. Were the 20,000+ Religious Jews who are registered as Democrats switch registration to the party which best represents their point of view, the gap between the two parties would be closed considerably and given the number of Independent voters, a strong Republican candidate–with strong support from the party–would do well.
    As for Weiner’s replacement, Cuomo made a big POLITICAL blunder–given that he would want a Democrat to retain the seat–by calling for a special election. In the first place, that essentially brings to town a ONE ring circus–pardon the analogy–in which everyone’s attention will be focused on that race–more so because of Weiner’s “celebrity” status–and ANY candidate, Republican or Democrat, unknown as the case may be, will garner so much publicity that the parties can let go their press agents and save thousands on PR. 
    Secondly, because only a fraction of voters come to the polls in special elections, regardless of  enrollment statistics, any candidate who is smart and courageous enough to articulate the issues THAT REALLY MATTER will gain passionate supporters who will come to the polls and thus win. And those issues are almost always MORAL, PERSONAL, and EMOTIONAL. Talking about the economy, taxes, foreign policy {except when it comes to Israel…strong and DEMONSTRATED support is important in the 9th CD] even health care, is basically useless as most voters realize an individual congressman can do little to effect these macrocosmic policies. Rather it is a strong and unequivocal position on gay marriage, the mosque at the WTC, vouchers for Parochial schools, holding the 911 terrorist trial in NYC, etc. that will resonate with voters in the 9th CD and get them to come out.   
    As for the notion that the district may be reorganized and so the winner might be out of a job in 2012, I have seldom heard more foolishness. Any candidate considering running except for that shows lack of sophistication. While trite, it is absolutely true that ‘a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.’ Why is it not obvious that anyone running  for Weiner’s seat–win or lose–will have so much exposure that he/she will be able to write her/his own career ticket–provided he/she gives a good account of him/herself during the campaign.  
    Finally, Mr. Paybarah, you could be a little more discrete in what you print. There was no need to repeat what the “source’ stated about Turner being a sacrificial lamb. As a journalist please keep in mind that honesty is not a hunting license.
    END OF TODAY’S POLITICAL LESSON
    I can be reached temporarily at election2010@optonline.net
     
       
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

        
     
     
     
     

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    [...] NY-09: Ah, the New York Republican Party. They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. After [...]

  • http://www.politickerny.com/2011/07/11/gop-chairmen-are-starting-to-agree/ GOP Chairmen Are Starting to Agree | PolitickerNY

    [...] some disagreement about whom to back in the special election for the Ninth Congressional District, Brooklyn G.O.P. [...]

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