I’m not sure I understand the disdain for Minarik. He’s not incompetent and not a screw-up– far from it. He has been very effective for them in this county and it is hard for me to understand how he takes the blame for their losses statewide– their convention pushed aside his hand picked candidates (Weld, Cox) in favor of hard right wingers who went on to monumental defeats.

I’m not saying I’m a fan of his– far from it. But they are making a huge mistake throwing him out– he was never given a fair chance to make them successful. I’m glad of that; I’d rather he not be allowed to do statewide what he has done here.

I don’t know that I fully understand how he has been as successful here as he has or whether there is a lesson for us to learn. My understanding is that he somehow uses a printing business to essentially slosh money between candidates– he makes large contributions (money, in kind services) to new candidates; in return, when they’re successful raising funds on their own, they purchase their printing services through him, which allows him to fund additional candidates, etc.

Again– I’m not sure that’s how he does it; does anyone else have a clearer picture?

I’m guessing that everything he does is legal; it doesn’t feel quite right to me ethically but I”m not even sure it’s unethical.

I don’t admire whom he backs and how he has seized the mechanics of county and town goverments– but I do respect him as our adversary. And I would suggest that anyone who doesn’t is likely to be taught a lesson by him.

My experience with those who work for the county is that he is a power-wielding dictator. He gives every Republican - from Brooks on down - their marching orders. They listen or they don’t get his backing in the races. And he has developed patronage to a fine art form. If a county department head balks at a decision he’s made, they’re looking at losing their job, or positions in their department. So incompetents find cushy jobs and demoralize the competent workers around them, and county offices wind up having to hire staff who can’t pull their own weight, but are quick to pull rank.

It’s not really disdain. Minarik’s direct mail tactics worked pretty well in Monroe County once upon a time. But you have to admit his efforts at candidate recruitment at the state level have been pathetic. Maybe it’s the fault of the rank-and-file for pushing candidates like Spencer and Faso. But what about his fixation with Pirro? Isn’t that odd? And stupid?

That’s what I’ve heard too, Toby. The bottom line is I think that his dictatorial and sleazy tactics are bad for local politics.

I don’t think local politics needs to be all scorched earth all the time. There’s no reason why Democrats and Republicans can’t work together on local issues. But everything I’ve heard suggests that Minarik makes that very difficult.

Daves: I don’t know the exact nature of Minarik’s scam. That’s something we’d love to dig into here now that we’ve got some free time.