Lhota endorsed by the Brooklyn Young Republican Club with 75% in a “YES – NO” vote for Mayor — Burnett gets unanimous vote for NYC Comptroller — Complaints that Conservative Party Chairman Kassar tries to trash talk Republican candidate and YR Club member Joseph Hayon

Some report "Fireworks" After The Brooklyn Young Republican Club Endorsement of Joe Lhota for GOP Candidate for Mayor  —  Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar's attempted verbal mugging of a Republican Candidate was at an open meeting of a "Republican Club"  — Republican-Conservative Candidates Joseph Lhota and Wave Chan, Republican Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin were also present during attack by the Conservative Chairman on their fellow Republican  ---  Also there were Timothy Cochrane, the person being pushed for Republican Kings County Leader by Marty Golden’s “Republicans for Change” and Clorinda Annarummo, longtime leader in the 46th AD and key operative of “Republicans for Change” who is trying to hold onto her seat in a very different 46th AD 

YR Club President Glenn Nocera says everything was orderly, calm and everybody got along. The Kassar-Hayon back and forth  was very brief and hardly noticed by most of those in attendance. 

As a couple of YRs who were there might tell it, Young Republican Club President Glenn Nocera, newly designated as a  Member of the Republican State Committee and GOP leader from the 44th AD, is getting a notorious reputation for throwing meetings that pack a punch, and today's was no exception. The way things are going, it won't be long before there might actually be a punch or three flying this way or that at one of Nocera’s flashy gatherings.

Following an up-or-down vote that endorsed Republican Joseph Lhota, Kings County Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar, dressed in a casual checked shirt, got up in front of the Young Republicans meeting at Ceol in Downtown Brooklyn; and the Conservative party leader breached proper inter-party etiquette and protocol by delivering a strange speech attacking a Republican Party Candidate for City Council who is running against a Democrat supported by the Kassar and his Conservative Party.

Frankly, the gauntlet was hurled down earlier in the week by Kassar in two separate sets of testy texts from Jerry Kassar to Joseph Hayon who is running against Kassar's chosen candidate in the 44th Council District, Democratic Councilman David Greenfield. Kassar either was trying to warn Hayon not to come to the YR Club meeting, where it was widely expected that Hayon intended to oppose the Lhota endorsement, or Kassar was trying to goad Hayon into some kind of confrontation. Whatever Kassar's intent, Hayon did show up, openly opposed the Lhota endorsement and was actively engaged in a confrontation with Kassar. Whatever else he might have been trying to do, Kassar failed in his attempt to take Republican Candidate Joseph Hayon to the woodshed for a verbal tanning in front of the full house meeting of the Brooklyn YR Club.

Jerry Kassar got up in front of the crowd after a brief introduction by the YR Club President Nocera. Before long he was lambasting Hayon for things completely unrelated to the Lhota vote. Interestingly, Joseph Hayon, an Orthodox Jewish social conservative and registered Republican, had been quite comfortable and conversational discussing various social conservative issues with guest speakers McLaughlin and Chan before his measured defenses to the post-vote attacks by Kassar . Once Kassar had started with a face to face version of his earlier trash-texting, Hayon just swatted the Kassar barbs aside, one by one as they were launched.

The most interesting remark made by Kassar was what seemed to several there like a clear threat by the Conservative Party Chairman to continue to try to remove Republican candidate Hayon from the ballot, and deprive the Republican Party its rightful candidate in the 44th Council race by pursuing an appeal of the recent court decision restoring Hayon to the ballot after the Board of Elections removed Hayon for very technical reasons unrelated to the validity of Hayon’s Republican signatures. Hayon firmly pushed back that he’d defeated the Conservative Party the year before on a similar appeal.

With little left to say, Kassar finished by sarcastically saying, “Well, Good luck !”  To which Hayon promptly responded, “Why, thank you.”

Afterwards two Republicans who had participated in the vote at the meeting expressed shock that Kassar would openly attack a Republican candidate a their club's meeting in that way. One of them took special exception to the notion expressed by Kassar that The Brooklyn Young Republican Club is also a "Conservative" club, since he thought there were many libertarians in the group.

When asked about these complaints, Club President Glenn Nocera said that he thought the meeting went very smoothly. The Kassar-Hayon bit was very brief and hardly noticed by most of the 40 + people who were there to vote on the endorsement and hear the speakers McLaughlin and Chan. He pointed out that Lhota easily exceeded the 2/3 vote needed; and the two other items voted on were passed unanimously -- those being an endorsement of John Burnett for Comptroller and a vote for the Brooklyn Young Republican Club to endorse and support whatever Republican wins the GOP primary, be it Lhota, Catsimitidis or McDonald. When asked about Kassar's specific remarks, Nocera said that he was only one speaker and that he was just there to give a pep-talk. Glenn said he thought that most of what Kassar said had been well received by most of the attendees. When asked about the threatened appeal by Kassar, Nocera said that all he heard was that it was something Kassar said might be done.