Hornak Launches Run,
Ready for Uphill Battle
No Opponent as of Yet
By Michael Oliva
February 7th, 2008
NOTE: If you are a candidate for public office and would like me to attend your fundraiser, kickoff party or other event, please email me at bison@nycivic.org, or call Michael Oliva @ 212 564-4441.
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On Monday night, Robert Hornak (pictured on our blog with his fiancee Angeleque), Republican candidate for a New York City Council seat, the 22nd District, in Astoria, Queens, held his campaign kickoff/fundraiser at the Women's National Republican Club in Midtown.
For over ten years Hornak was the president of the New York Young Republican Club, Inc., a group that under his leadership held events in conjunction with the better known DL21C (Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century), under the leadership of David Pollak, then at Paine Webber (now UBS), currently the Co-Chair of the Democratic State Party (with June O'Neill). That tradition of bipartisanship continues to this day (this week the two clubs hosted a "Super Tuesday" watch party). Hornak is well known as a Republican who enjoys Democratic events because they are "more fun." He is a fixture at many of the debate and primary night parties, a youth-driven phenomenon which has exploded amidst the unprecedented excitement of this increasingly dramatic election year. Several of these parties take place at bars and clubs around the city on any given debate or primary night. Whether or not these parties are actually any fun, their existence is encouraging.
Formed in 1911, the New York Young Republican Club, Inc., "sought a forum for expressing views which might on occasion be at variance with those of the party leaders. In order to work within and for the Republican Party, yet be free to criticize party policies and leaders and to champion candidates and causes independent of organization control." The guest of honor was the President of the United States, William Howard Taft, and the principal speaker was Senator William E. Borah, Republican of Idaho.
This independent New York Young Republican Club, Inc. should not be confused with the party-affiliated New York Young Republican Club, though the similar content on their websites does little to clarify the difference. They began as the same entity until a series of internal conflicts led to a split. The battles began with John Lindsay's successful reelection campaign in 1969. In 1965, Lindsay was elected Mayor of New York City as a Republican with the support of the Liberal Party and the New York Young Republican Club, Inc., in a three-way race. He defeated Democrat Abraham D. Beame, who was then City Comptroller and eight years later, in 1973, succeeded Lindsay as Mayor. Lindsay, a former president of the club, also ran against National Review founder William F. Buckley, Jr., the Conservative Party candidate.
Over the next several years Lindsay's relations with the Republican Party became increasingly strained. He nominated future V.P. Spiro Agnew, considered a Maryland "moderate" for Vice President in 1968 at the GOP Convention in Miami Beach. Lindsay then began to publicly oppose Nixon's policies as his own became more progressive. In 1969, a backlash against Lindsay's changing outlook cost him the Republican Mayoral Primary. He lost to State Senator John J. Marchi, who was supported by Buckley and other party conservatives. In the Democratic primary, the most conservative candidate, City Controller Mario Procaccino, beat out four more liberal candidates and won the nomination with just a plurality of votes. The Primary victory led to the adoption of a the runoff election, which is held when the leading candidate receives less than 40% of the vote.
At that time, internal struggles that went on for years within the club over whether to have allegiance to or independence from the state and county organizations culminated in a battle over whether or not to cross endorse Lindsay, who, despite losing the Republican nomination, ran in the general election on the Liberal line. The club decided to defy the party leaders and support Lindsay, while Republican organizations backed Marchi out of party loyalty. Many in the club, despite their conservative leanings, left the Republican party and switched to the Democratic Party more from their devotion to Lindsay than out of ideology. Because of this, and many leaving over the endorsement of Lindsay, club membership sharply declined.
You can read all about the long chain of subsequent events that contributed to the slow and steady split between the club and those who formed another Young Republican Club, affiliated directly with the State and County parties, here.
As the Republican Party increasingly became a minority in New York the party-affiliated club began to fade considerably, though they still maintain a website and operate as an organization. In 1997, Hornak became president of the faction that stuck with Lindsay and the original club, rebuilding from the bottom up, with a new philosophy built around traditional Republican issues. Today they are very active, holding weekly meetings with speakers.
Make no mistake; Hornak is no Republican Lite. In fact he is an advocate for Republicans being Republicans. In his day job Robert is an advisor to New York Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, who today launched a new blog. His agenda is one of economic conservativism, with a moderate bent on social issues. While he is a long-shot in a city with about a 5-1 Democrat to Republican enrollment ratio (depending on the area), he is running in a somewhat more conservative district by New York City standards.
The seat he covets has been held by a succession of Vallones over the past few decades, the first being Peter F. Vallone, Sr., the first Speaker of the City Council. Before that he was Council Majority Leader from 1986 to 1990. At that time there was a citywide elected position called President of the City Council, then occupied by Andrew Stein. The office was abolished under charter reform in 1992. As a result, the position was replaced by the office of NYC Public Advocate. Mark Green, who had been DCA (Department of Consumer Affairs) Commissioner from 1990-1993 under Mayor David N. Dinkins, was elected in a citywide race as the first Public Advocate in 1993, defeating current Lieutenant Governor David Paterson in a Democratic primary.
Like Vallone, Jr., Paterson is the scion of a political family, though from another borough. Green would later beat Vallone Sr. in a four way Democratic Primary for Mayor in 2001 (a primary delayed 2 weeks as a result of the WTC attacks happening on the primary morning of 9/11/01).
Green, who unsuccessfully ran for other offices both before and after his tenure as PA, narrowly beat former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer in a runoff and then lost the general election to current NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Four years earlier Ferrer dropped out of a primary race with then Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger, who narrowly avoided a runoff against Al Sharpton, only to lose to Rudy Giuliani in the general election.
Vallone originally won the role of speaker amidst the turbulence of an imperfect storm created by the now late Robert J. Dryfoos, who then represented the 7th Council District (roughly the area that Councilwoman Jessica Lappin currently occupies, District 5). The district numbers differ since in 1989 the council expanded the number of seats from 35 to 51 (the district numbered 7 is now held by Councilman Robert Jackson). In November 1980, Mr. Dryfoos won a special election to complete the term of Jane B. Trichter, who had resigned from the Council.
Dryfoos became infamous for a series of scandals where he had, according to the New York Times, "not filed Federal income-tax returns for three years and had accepted a $25,000 loan from a developer whose projects he had promoted...he raised $170,000 through an unusual fund, which he used for such everyday purchases as shirts and ties and from which there were large undocumented disbursements."
It was Dryfoos who cast the deciding vote for Vallone after publicly promising the Manhattan delegation that he was supporting Samuel Horwitz of what was then Brooklyn's 47th District in Coney Island (not to be confused with this Samuel Horwitz). Mr. Horwitz was involved in a bizarre scandal of his own when he was arrested at the age of 74 for attempting to enter a Brighton Beach public elementary-school auditorium for a kindergarten graduation without a ticket. Ironically, his former nemesis, Vallone, Sr., council staff members and former Councilman Herbert E. Berman, "dashed to the precinct station house" to remedy the situation. The charges were quickly dropped. The ruse, which pole vaulted Vallone over Horwitz to become Council Speaker, became known as the Dryfoos Betrayal, not to be confused with the Dreyfus Affair.
After twelve years in office Vallone was defeated by incumbent George Pataki when he ran for Governor in 1998 (in a general) and Mayor (in a democratic primary) in 2001. He has since become an adjunct professor of political science at Baruch College, and practices law with his son Peter F. Vallone, Jr., who now holds the Council seat. Peter, Jr., better known for rather unusual ideas such as a proposal for New York City to secede from New York State, and a recent effort to reduce the amount of homework kids take home in primary schools, is considered one of the more conservative members of the City Council. Today the New York Sun reports that Vallone is against the designs on Arizona's new NRG drink cans because they will promote vandalism. Still, no matter how you define Vallone's ideology, supporting any of these bizarre ideas must seem an odd stretch to voters across the political spectrum, even in a time when many of them seem much more willing to take a chance, which brings us back to Hornak.
The task of winning a seat as a Republican is undeniably a very difficult one. Hornak will eventually have to face a Democrat who will have a tremendous electoral advantage. The seat is open because of term limits, passed due to the efforts of another Republican, Ronald Lauder. The son of Estée Lauder and Joseph Lauder, founders of Estée Lauder Companies, Ronald was a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO policy at the Pentagon in 1986. After a year in that capacity, President Reagan named him US ambassador to Austria. In 1989 he, like Hornak, ran in New York City as a Republican. He lost the Republican Mayoral Primary to Rudy Giuliani, who in turn lost to Mayor Dinkins in the general election. Four years later, Giuliani unseated Dinkins.
Lauder then led a well financed campaign to introduce term limits for New York City elected officials, which were approved in a citywide referendum in 1993. It was thought by some that the Council, believing that the public would never pass such a law, did not fight the original referendum with much ferocity. Yet in 1996, voters solidified their position on the issue by rejecting a Council proposal to extend their own term limits. Between the two campaigns Lauder spent $4 million of his own money. Will the voters be as supportive of Hornak's own Republican ideas as they were for Lauder's term limits? One thing we know is that Hornak doesn't have Lauder's money.
Something Hornak does have in his favor is not having to compete with another Vallone. Paul Vallone, another son of Peter, Sr. and brother of Peter, Jr., has held a campaign kickoff of his own, and is running in Northeastern Queens, Council District 19 (Bayside, Whitestone and College Point), now held by Councilman Tony Avella. Like Vallone, Jr., the popular Avella is being forced out of office by term limits. He is running for Mayor.
Hornak is an advocate for electoral reform and easier ballot access. Though the Mayor's fiscal acrobatics have successfully kept the city in decent economic shape in the wake of the sub-prime loan and credit scandals, more tightening of the purse strings will soon be necessary. Perhaps Mr. Hornak will govern the way Republicans are supposed to, responsibly. We hope he will show much more spending restraint than his Republican cohorts in the federal government have. The election is in 19 months. Out of 51 Council Members three are currently Republicans, Dennis P. Gallagher from Queens, and James S. Oddo and Vincent Ignizio from Staten Island. Adding another with a different perspective may not be bad for the system.
Will voters be willing to go that far? Is it the concept of change that matters most to people now, or is it more about where the change is leading us? For Hornak, only time till tell.
#B4 2.7.2008 2061wds |