Bring It On in the 46th AD --- After early setbacks in petitioning and in the courts, Annarummo and Sarta need a big rally for a comeback

Both sides are in and out of court and there is going to be a full-on body-slammin' MMA cage bout between the LaGuardias and the Seergies for the GOP leadership in the 46th AD  ---  Right now the Nussbaum and Potter team are on top and about to launch their GROUND AND POUND campaign

The State Committee candidates Marcus A. Nussbum and Lucretia Regina-Potter came through the court battle on top with about a 40 member advantage of uncontested Republican County Committee candidates, who are now designated members of the 2013-2014 GOP County Committee. This was the result of a superior petitioning effort to the one put forward by a combined crew from the Seergy Club and its candidates for the GOP district leadership spots, Dominic Sarta and Clorinda Annarummo, with a significant assist from State Senator Martin Golden's  so-called "Republicans for Change" and the Lhota campaign.

Although the total number of signatures of the two campaigns were about equal, the LaGuardias showed far better strategy and organization fielding a virtually complete slate of County Committee candidates, compared to the Seergies that put up a much smaller slate. In addition, the quality of the collective petition submitted by the La Guardia Club was far superior. As a result, almost fifty (50) of the Seergy Club's candidates were removed by the Board of Election (where Seergy Club leader Simon Shamoun was rendered powerless because of the mini-scandal over the shredded petition from the Eaton County Organization ) and/or by the Court. No doubt, additional Seergy Club candidates would have bitten the dust if the Court had been allowed to follow older precedents involving candidate and/or petitioner fraud, but changes in the Election Law have limited that remedy in recent years.

Now everybody is aiming toward the primaries --- for the two GOP State Committee positions and for the contested County Committee slots. In spite of their early victories with the County Committee candidiates, the Fiorello LaGuardia Republican Club expects a very tough primary campaign going forward, especially in Annarummo's and Sarta's Dyker Heights and upper Bay Ridge strongholds. The campaign is likely to be complicated by State Senator Golden's attempt to take over the GOP county organization, since Clorinda Annarummo and her Seergy Club County Committee candidates are a key cog in that operation. Any disappointment by Golden's "Republicans for Change" operatives at Annarummo's early efforts is being kept tightly under raps, but the strain is showing more every day. Whether this pops out into the open before  the primary and then the County Convention remains to be seen.

I've spoken to Lucretia Regina-Potter several times during the petitioning and the objection process. She has said that as far a she's concerned, this whole process is all about showing everybody who has the best Republican leadership team inside the current boundaries of the 46th AD in 2013 and going forward. "We've shown what we can do, and as soon as all the Republican voters see that, they'll be with us. Whatever anybody outside the 46th leadership race thinks is their business, but everybody's going to do what they're going to do. Then we'll do what we've got to do. We ain't going anywhere...." Right now the military-minded Mr. Nussbaum is checking fire on any elected Republicans, GOP candidates from outside the 46th AD and various other "interested"  activists, some Republican, some not --- but the second ANYBODY gets involved in the leadership fight in the 46th AD, they'll find out what it is like to be in a free-fire zone.