On Sunday afternoon, Frank Russo's Brooklyn Tea Party was all business, adopting it's new by-laws; while Glenn Nocera's YR Club was all politics --- urging participation in the Republican Party's county and state committee races --- and finishing it's Republican mayoral candidate series with candidate George McDonald of "Doe Fund" fame
As a result of the overlapping scheduling, the Brooklyn Tea Party picked-up about four or five new members from young Republicans, who arrived early at Ceol to see what the Brooklyn Tea Party was all about. This month it was almost exclusively to hash-out the final draft of its proposed constitution and by-laws, which was kept simple and passed unanimously after substantial wrangling and compromises over specific language. TBTP President Frank Russo said that everything worked out very well, and he thought the overlapping meetings benefited both organizations, because about ten of his members stayed to hear George McDonald, even though everybody knew that he wasn't a Tea Party-style candidate. Russo asked McDonald almost the exact same question that he had asked John Catsimatidis; and according to Mr. Russo, George gave a much better answer, at least I know what his program is -- I don't agree with it -- but I know what it is.
Glenn Nocera opened the Brooklyn Young Republican Club meeting with a lengthy discussion of the Republican County and State Committees, as well as a discussion of the possibility of primaries in some areas or districts in Brooklyn. He also announced and passed out fliers for the "Republicans for Change" event this week at the Bay Ridge Manor, although he also mentioned that the YR Club was not formally backing that group or any other "side" in any GOP primaries that might happen throughout the county. He said that he encouraged participation of the Club's membership no matter what side each member might choose, and that for the early going, he was sitting on the fence even though he might run with a slate of other candidates in his district. Glenn, George McDonald and another speaker, Stephen Maresca, all discussed the need for petitioning and petitioners to get on the GOP ballot.
George McDonald was cordially received and those gathered seemed quite impressed by his personal history, which of demonstrated high principle and a commitment to private public service. After his personal background he discussed his "path to competitiveness and victory" which has largely been blocked by the NYC matching funds rules, which he called corrupt, undemocratic and counterproductive. In his brief speech, he stressed that even in a time when the economic circumstances in New York City are not at their worst, the City still has difficulty paying its bills and as a result, all of the gimmicks to keep the current system going also keeps stifling small businesses, new and not so new, and the level of overall employment keeps falling in most categories. When he got more specific, he emphasized the more conservative aspects of his program, stressing the need for a better business and employment climate, no new City taxes and contracts with City workers that include health insurance payments of 20% of the cost of the insurance. He also said that he favors an immigration fix with a path to citizenship for most immigrants, he absolutely opposes granting the vote for non-citizens in NYC elections.
McDonald got a laugh from the crowd when he opened the floor to questions and expressed his familiarity with the goings-on at the prior meeting with a casual remark, "I know that this club is famous for it's questioning of its guests..." This time there were no fireworks during the Q & A.
Glenn Nocera was content with the afternoon. Because of the overlap, we had a good crowd even though George McDonald isn't quite the draw of Catsimatidis or Lhota. We completed our club's Republican mayoral candidate series with candidate George McDonald. As a result, the Brooklyn Young Republican Club is the only Republican organization in Brooklyn to have sponsored all of the Republican candidates for mayor to appear and discuss their candidacies with the club's membership and the public. Nocera added that at this time the Brooklyn Young Republican Club was not planning to endorse any candidate for mayor, and would likely await the results of a GOP primary before it would do so.
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