That’s the question everyone seems to be asking about Steve Minarik’s departure from the MCC. Some are saying he may be named interim president of MCC, others are saying he’s really being stripped of all power. Here’s Rachel Barnhart from Channel 13 on this:

The cynic in me says that Minarik wanted to leave anyway and that he allowed Brooks to make it look like she gave him his walking papers for being such a divisive figure. Brilliant, right?

However, I have since heard that the way it went down is pretty much the way Brooks said it went down.

This is more or less what I have heard as well. But I think the D&C goes way too far when they write:

Given the success that Minarik achieved, it was both surprising and encouraging to see Brooks say she was putting her foot down.

Even if Minarik has been stripped of all power, there’s nothing to be encouraged about until we see real changes in the way the Republican-dominated county government does business. Here are three things to keep an eye on:

• 1. Who gets named as MCC interim president on Monday? I doubt that it will actually be Minarik, for a variety of reasons, but we won’t know for sure til Monday. And even if it’s not Minarik, it will be interesting to see if it is someone seen as a party operative or not.
• 2. Who replaces Lori Van Dusen on the MCC Board of Trustees? Again it will be interesting to see if it’s a party operative or not.
• 3. Who replaces Minarik as head of the county GOP? The names I’ve heard floated are Clerk to the Legislature Kevin Barry and Deputy Executive Jim Smith. Remember: Minarik controls the County Lej completely, so Barry would be a continuation of Minarik’s reign. By contrast, there have been reports of conflict between Jim Smith and Minarik, with some saying Jim Smith engineered Minarik’s ouster.

In sum, it’s still too early to tell what Minarik’s resignation really means.

I’d also like to outline a few reasons why it makes sense for the county GOP to can Minarik:

• 1. The whole Minarik brand was badly tarnished by the catastrophic 2006 state elections. As chair of the state Republican party, Minarik presided over one of the worst political disasters in New York State history. Remember: his candidate for comptroller lost by double digits to Alan Heveis, even though it was clear that Hevesi would be removed from the post once he was reelected.
• 2. The 2007 county elections did not go well for Republicans. Yes, they held on to the exec, but an underfunded Working Families Party challenger (Patrick Christopher) took over 35% of the vote. And, yes, they held on to the county legislature, but they lost two seats and the way the lines are drawn — with small number of heavily Democratic districts near the city and a large number of marginally Republican ones farther out in the suburbs — the Republicans have a built-in advantage in the lej.
• 3. Minarik is widely disliked within the party. That was fine as long as he was winning big, but those days are over. You won’t hear much about this dislike publicly from county party members, but check out this reaction from a New York State College Republican to the news that Minarik was stepping down as state chair in fall of 2006.

To reiterate, none of this means that we’ll see real changes in the county GOP. But it *may* mean that Stephen Minarik’s reign of terror has come to an end. Only time will tell.