It’s 2013 and Brooklyn GOP Chairman Craig Eaton has shown very little interest in fielding a full slate of strong Republican candidates for this year’s City-wide, County-wide and Council District elections

Except for a few GUYS  “running” for mayor, and the even fewer talking about or thinking about running for City Council, Brooklyn Republicans haven’t been introduced to anybody who might be running on a GOP slate this year  —   of course, County Leader Craig Eaton probably prefers to have flexibility to make last minute Wilson-Pakula deals with certain Brooklyn Democrats.  But people need to ask  —  Mr. Eaton, what have you and your fellow NYC Republican County Chairmen accomplished with all your nonsensical meetings with/about prospective GOP mayoral candidates ?  Mr. Eaton, where are the Republican candidates in your Brooklyn  Republican Party Renaissance ?  Mr. Eaton, what kind of Republican Party are you running in Brooklyn ?

In the old days, ambitious candidates for an upcoming municipal election year made their rounds of the Republican Clubs’ and the County Organization’s Holiday parties  —   Cue Tony Bennet: “... Where did it go ? ... That was ‘Once upon a Time’ so very long ago ...”  This year there were a few mayoral candidates  —  that’s it.

There is a report (with video) that the five NYC GOP County Leaders had met (yet again, this time in Manhattan) at the Metropolitan Republican Club to speak to candidates and to see if they could “finally” settle upon a body with a name to run as their consensus Republican candidate for Mayor of the City of New York. Yet again, these five GUYS accomplished nothing, except putting on an “Evening at Improv” performance of  five clueless guys trying to convince somebody that they are okay with a GOP mayoral  primary this year ( See “Who's Going To Be The GOP's 2013 Nominee For Mayor Of NYC? Let's Go To The Videotape ” by Celeste Katz, 2-4-13, Daily Politics/Daily News [http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/node/135603 ]; next Eaton and the others plan to do a skit of five guys coming home and trying to explain to their significant others how their doctors just told them that a confirming medical diagnosis of their having a case of the wet-drippy-clap isn’t as bad as it sounds).

One of the things that they struck-out on was convincing any of the second-tier candidates for mayor (clearly, some of them are not top-shelf mayor material ) to accept lower spots on the city-wide GOP ticket. So far our computer searches and personal investigations have determined that there has been no expression of interest whatsoever in the GOP lines for Public Advocate or NYC Controller, either by the nominal mayoral candidates or anybody else.

At this stage, the Brooklyn county-wide races are even more problematic than the city-wides.  The Borough President line is always a problem slot in the Brooklyn GOP lineup. As usual, Eaton will probably name one of his loyal retainers as he did in 2009, when it was Marc L. D’Ottavio’s turn to take one for the team. The District Attorney slot presents a different, but far more interesting problem.

Since 1997 the Brooklyn GOP’s DA line has been “filled” by giving a Wilson-Pakula to the incumbent DA, Charles “Joe” Hynes, a Democrat, and filing sufficient Republican signatures on his behalf (in 1993 DA Hynes had been given a Wilson-Pakula for the Republican line and he had also filed sufficient signatures, but he agreed to the removal of his name from the Republican ballot along with the name of another GOP candidate-petitioner for DA; the GOP DA slot in 1993 was then filled by  the other candidate who “won” an opportunity to ballot write-in primary).  Except for 2005, a year when the machinations leading up to giving the Wilson-Pakula for the GOP line to Hynes have been hotly disputed, the GOP does not appear to have obtained any patronage or other apparent consideration for its giving the incumbent DA unchallenged access to the Republican line. That includes 2005 when the GOP line was very important to DA Hynes; it would have become especially important if he had lost in the tight Democratic Primary for that year.

So far, the only candidates that have announced for DA are the three Democrats running for that position on the Democratic Party ( and probably other lines):  the incumbent DA, Charles Hynes, is a former Marine, who has a reputation as a tough law and order kind of guy, and at this time and of these three, probably the only candidate worthy of consideration for the GOP Wilson-Pakula; Abe George, a former Manhattan prosecutor, is a social liberal with significant support from a top-shelf  Democrat lawyer David Boies; and Kenneth Thompson, a man with lots of national and international connections, and a very flashy resume. Rock Hackshaw, posting on Room Eight says that he supports the former Manhattan ADA, Abe George, but if it winds up that the two minority candidates continue in the race against the incumbent, the three-way would favor DA Hynes (See “Road to City Hall (Part Two)” by Rock Hackshaw, 2-4-13, Room Eight [http://www.r8ny.com/blog/rock_hackshaw/the_road_to_city_hall_part_two.html]). A very interesting comment points out that candidate Kenneth Thompson co-authored a “Whitewash” report of the government’s deadly assault on the “Branch Davidian” compound in Waco (See Comment, “I'll take Abe over Ken for Brooklyn D.A.” by Vincenzo, 2-5-13, Room Eight [same link as Hackshaw]; since a GOP congressional committee criticized the “internal Waco reports” by the ATF and FBI, and reached opposite conclusions, I’ll be researching the available sources on these subjects for a future analysis of the Hynes-George-Thompson DA candidacies  — unless of course, if the Brooklyn GOP actually fields its own DA candidate, which would render the exercise moot).

As for Republican City Council candidates in Brooklyn districts, only three names have made it “into the public arena”   —  actually that’s “into the public media”: Hardhat Andrew Sullivan, a 9-11 mosque opponent,  blogger and video journalist; John Quaglione, State Senator Martin Golden’s Vice Chief of Staff and neighborhood activist; and David Storobin, the former State Senator.

It’s a good thing that it’s starting to look like a  “September Primary” for all of these offices.  Eaton obviously needs the time to get his act together, before he goes to the district leaders and yells at them to get their acts together.