SPARACO MAKES HIS CASE FOR ENDING AXELROD’S TENURE

Open letter from Legislator Frank Sparaco to Clarkstown GOPers,

As you may have heard I am currently participating in an organized effort to remove Robert Axlerod from the Clarkstown Republican Chairmanship. Please allow me to address some rumors:

1. I have no intention of taking the Chairmanship for myself- I only wish to replace Axlerod.

2. This is not a fight between Ed Day and myself. This is about Axlerod’s failed policies. He is making desperate attempts to ride on coattails. Former Receiver of Taxes and former town Chair Loretta Raimone, Former Clarkstown Chairman Athur Jackson, Highway Supt. Wayne Ballard, John Miele, NYS Senate Candidate Donna Held, Robert Sambevski, Ralph Riverso, County Chairman Vincent Reda, NYS Assembly Candidate Matthew Brennan, along with myself and hundreds of others are spearheading the effort to remove Axelrod. To classify us as insurgents is insane, and to imply that Ed Day is against these committeemen is probably untrue.

Mr. Axlerod has carried petitions for Jeanine Vachiarelli, a woman who just a few months ago was removed from the committee for disloyalty. She actively worked against Dr. Duncan Lee’s justice campaign in Upper Nyack. Michael Hirsch, a man who actively campaigned against almost all Republicans, and who just recently pled guilty to ripping off his workers for paying them below average wages, and Michael Hull, a man that Chairman Axlerod, Chairman Reda and myself are currently suing for slander. Hull is a man who has spent most of the last two years actively blogging against the Republican Party. Axlerod even went so far as to use Hull’s slanderous blog as a reference to attack me; the same blog he is currently in litigation over. Peter Bradley, a man who claims to lead the Preserve Clarkstown Group that actively campaigned against Wayne Ballard for Democrat Dennis Malone is also opposing our efforts. Is this an act of desperation? Would Axlerod rather burn down the house than hand over the keys? How can he refer to half of the elected officials and people that have been committeemen for decades as insurgents? The facts speak for themselves, and the facts are that Axlerod has teamed up with enemies of our party to protect himself.

I believe this says something about his character. This is a man who was chased out of the Democratic Party. He was a Democratic committeeman for over a decade, part of their liberal wing that led the party, and even ran for legislator as a Democrat against our own Tom Morahan. This is a man that we accepted into the GOP with open arms. I’m embarrassed and regret to say that I actively supported him for Chairman. I even invited this man to my children’s christenings. I honestly considered him a friend. I forgot the first rule of politics: There are no real friends. My friendship was repaid with a knife to the back. He brought me up on disloyalty charges and now actively writes and spreads lies about me in an attempt to hold on to the little power he has.

Under his tenure as chair our party has been bankrupted, lost our headquarters, and lost our phone number. He has caused divisiveness and dissension. He lacks the managerial skills or leadership qualities to be effective. Half of his own executive board is supporting our efforts to remove him. We cannot afford to keep him in this position. We are outnumbered by Democrats and we should not be fighting amongst ourselves.

I promise that after Axlerod’s removal at convention on Sept 17 I will do everything in my power to bring the divisive factions together for the good of the party. I am prepared to overlook all wrongs committed against me and look towards a brighter future. I commit to hold no grudges or animosities, but the Clarkstown Republican Party will fall into a funk it will not be able to recover from if Axlerod is elected. There will be constant primaries and the committee will lose all relevance. With us fractured and fighting with each other it will be almost impossible to win any new seats and probably hard to hold on to the incumbents we currently have. Under his leadership we have failed to pick up one new seat and struggled to find candidates, and this will only get worse if he’s reelected.

This is not personal for me- this is for the good of our Party. The future of the Republican Party in Clarkstown does not look bright. We must act now and change the disastrous course we find ourselves on. Please stand up and be counted for the future.

Sincerely,
Legislator Frank Sparaco