Hard Hat Andrew Sullivan shined like a star among a crowd of speakers that included several mayoral candidates, a nationally prominent honoree and even "local hero," Mike Long
Liam McCabe trotted out almost as many speakers at the Brooklyn South Conservative Club’s inaugural fund raising event as the Westminster Kennel Club runs out dogs and owners. McCabe's guests included the honorees, New York State Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long and Long Island Congressional Chairman Peter King (R-C), several of the GOP mayoral hopefuls, local elected officials, speakers from the Brooklyn Conservative Party and both of the candidates now vying for the Republican and Conservative Party lines to run against Democrat City Councilman Vincent Gentile. In a lineup like that it would be easy to lose an outsider running for the City Council in the shuffle and the kerfuffle. That didn’t happen to Bay Ridge’s most unconventional candidate Andrew Sullivan.
If anybody thought that the hard-headed hardhat could be stifled by burying him at the bottom of the pile, with warnings to keep his remarks short and to the point, they would have been disabused of that notion when Sullivan’s speech was interrupted by applause the first time. Speaking at the end of the program caused Andy to be even more folksy and down-home Bay Ridge than usual and it worked right from the start.
He began with anecdotal material about being a new kid in town, who had to take on all comers at OLA and soon worked that into his career as a NYC building tradesman working on big jobs from Yankee Stadium down to the Battery. He worked that into his being a 9/11 survivor and then a long-term responder to and on “The Pile” — he finished the biographical part of his presentation by describing his personal quest against the “Ground Zero Victory Mosque” which was a virtual “done deal.” Starting with his “Hard Hat Pledge” and finishing with the hold-up and then the end of that project, Andy Sullivan had showed the cheering crowd of Conservative party members and guests that one man could fight City Hall, and with the help of others — WIN .
He then turned to his present candidacy for the City Council and described a Bay Ridge that he remembered well, which had once been “a jewel of New York City neighborhoods,” but now was looking like a jewel that was losing its luster. He said that the typical Bay Ridge “man in the street” no longer feels that anybody in government or public office is looking out for them or “has their back.” In particular, as a former small Bay Ridge businessman himself, Andy Sullivan said that nobody had taken the individual small business owner to heart; and that he would make “Taking Care of Business” into one of the hallmarks of his tenure as Councilman.
The measure of the success of Andy Sullivan’s evening with the Conservatives at the Dyker Golf Club was not just that his speech received such obvious crowd-pleasing favor, being interrupted by applause multiple times, it was that several local news reporters rushed up to him with individual questions even though the room was full of political luminaries and candidates for higher office.
The other Republican candidate for the Council, John Quaglione also spoke, however his speech was a mere polite thank you to all the others in attendance, which garnered an appropriately measured polite response.
Judged by last night alone, Andy Sullivan was a big winner; and he showed that he was ready for prime time exposure.
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SIDEBAR STORY: Colin Campbell chose to go with what Joe Lhota, Mike Long and Adolfo Carrion had to say at the Brooklyn South Conservatives’ Presidents’ Dinner (See “BORROWING PHRASES — Joe Lhota Channels Jimmy McMillan in Front of Brooklyn Conservatives” by Colin Campbell, 2/22/13, Politicker/Observer.com [http://politicker.com/2013/02/joe-lhota-channels-jimmy-mcmillan-in-front-of-brooklyn-conservatives/]
Campbell was right about this: “Of course, the Conservative Party is not where they’d like to be in New York State right now....” (to that I would specifically add Kassar's Brooklyn CP). Unfortunately, Mike Long is the last guy that should be quoted analyzing what’s wrong and/or what’s right with the contemporary Conservative Party. The long and the short of it is that after George Pataki’s election to governor of New York, as a practical matter the NY State Conservative Party has not been run as a true conservative party at all, but on the Ray Harding model of a third party in New York State. That aspect of the Conservative Party is particularly the handiwork and craftsmanship of Mike Long.
As far as conservative philosophy and principle, on issue after issue after issue, Mike Long has piloted the New York State Conservatives like a commander directing kamikaze pilots to make their last landings on the U.S.S. Intrepid, or the Bunker Hill, the Essex or the Randolph. However misguided the dead-end suicide tactic, and the overall defense strategy behind it, the Japanese flyers of those floating/falling chrysanthemums were even more beloved and revered than the venerable head of the CP.
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