Craig Eaton wins re-election as Chairman of the Kings County Republican Party – 442 to 330 – It’s Official

Eaton Vindicated   —   Many see a major setback for State Senator Martin Golden, which will have repercussions that will be felt for the remainder of Golden’s current term in the state senate

State Senator Golden threatens legal action against the Brooklyn GOP  –  Glenn Nocera, President of the Brooklyn Young Republican Club and Republican District Leader of the 44th AD holds a key piece of evidence for any lawsuit 

                      [ First of Two  Posts about the 2013 GOP County Convention  ]

Earlier today, after a long and tortuous 2013 Convention of the Brooklyn Republican County Committee, incumbent Chairman Craig Eaton was declared the winner over another nominee, Timothy Cochrane, by a score of 442 votes to 330. After tallying all of the votes, both present and by proxy, Mr. Gerry O’Brien declared that the incumbent had again been re-elected as Chairman of the Brooklyn GOP. O’Brien had been duly appointed as temporary chairman to conduct the convention for the purpose of the election for Kings County Republican Party Chairman for 2013 through the primary of 2015. Attorney Aaron Maslow was also named as Counsel to the Chairman

According to reports from many of my Baker Street Irregulars, things were not nearly so simple as the numbers above indicate.

It should have been obvious from the beginning that those “Republicans for Change” supporting Marty Golden’s flavor of the month choice for Brooklyn Republican Chairman, Timothy Cochrane, were going to have major problems getting the bulk of  their proxies to count for anything.

To start with, when it was getting close to the time for the cut-off of the submission of proxies to the credentials committee for review and certification, at about 10:00 AM Monday, none had been submitted by Golden’s “Republicans for Change.” It seems that the Golden-backed forces had turned over “all their proxies” to Party Secretary Diane Haslett Rudiano, who is aligned with the faction backing Cochrane, but she hadn't turned them over to the credentials committee in a timely fashion. Unfortunately, merely giving proxies to Diane Rudiano  isn’t the sufficient, necessary and proper procedure to submit proxies for review and certification by the credentials committee. After several bitter recriminations, the credentials committee and the temporary chairman of the convention agreed to accept the late-submitted proxies held by Ms. Rudiano. That wasn’t the end of it.

Several additional proxies were brought directly into the convention hall by Marty Golden operatives that had never been turned over to Rudiano. Several members of the credentials committee said that the newly turned in proxies were late and not within the concession and ruling about accepting the submission of the proxies held by the Party Secretary. In spite of the clear distinction between the categories of late-submitted proxies, the chair and the committee agreed to accept them for review as well.

It took hours for the credentials committee to go over the proxies that had been brought in at the 11th hour by the “Republicans for Change.”  However, it soon became obvious that the Golden faction was trying to slip in almost 250 invalid proxies. Ultimately, about 220 to 230 proxies submitted by the Golden forces were ruled invalid by the credentials committee.  (According to a comment below, " over 200 Golden proxies were invalidated because they predated the convention notice."  In addition, those proxies apparently were largely executed before the County Committee members had been certified by the Board of Elections [Information added on 10/1/13 after initial posting]). 

When the final vote on Eaton and Cochrane was being taken, it looked to many of those counting votes that Cochrane was apparently ahead in the count of about 330 to 323 for Eaton, however there remained a block of about 100  votes being held back by Lucretia Regina-Potter of the LaGuardia Club, by passing on its turn in the final vote. When the votes from the LaGuardia Club were cast for Craig Eaton, a former nemesis of that club, everybody in the hall knew that his election was locked in.

What had often been an indecorous gathering broke down into several shouts and threats of all manner and description ( Including threats of a lawsuit by State Senator Martin Golden, himself [Information added on 10/1/13 after initial posting]). Much of that action was recorded on a video-cam by Glenn Nocera.

When things calmed somewhat, Gerry O’Brien the temporary chairman of the convention returned the Chairmanship of the Brooklyn GOP to Craig Eaton as the duly elected Chairman of the Kings County Republican Party.