Many Republican officials and their family members serve on GOP committees, keeping themselves in power

Editor:

There have been some pretty good letters lately from Charles Hartway, Gary Deiboldt and Jeanne Crane. I am sure many others feel the same way.

Our local Governments from the county down have gotten out of control. Taxing, spending, regulating, below-board backroom deals, controlling, continuously growing government and just plain out of touch self-serving.

I think the folks are at the breaking point. Who politically is to blame for this? Well to be honest it’s not the local Democrats. I can’t speak for them, although I believe they really need to step up their game.

It’s not the local Conservative Party. We are at odds with the party that we are supposed to be in with like bread and butter because of the reasons listed above. We do our best not endorse that kind of candidate and have never endorsed any of the county legislators. They have strayed way too far to the left of the Republican principles that they are supposed to govern by as well as many of the towns in this county.

The Democrats and the Conservatives to be honest don’t wield much power in this county other than giving a candidate that isn’t in the Republicans’ game a line to be on the ballot.

So who is responsible for this taxing, spending, regulating, backroom dealing, out-of-touch local government municipalities? Anyone reading this past sentence, if you didn’t know the make up of Orleans County at first would think this has to Democrats. Right? No, the county is totally controlled by Republicans.

So how do these same politicians keep getting on the ballot election cycle after election cycle? Which leads into why I’m writing this letter. They are picked by the Republican committees. Every two years or even years the committees have to reorganize. 2024 is a reorganization year. These are elected positions.

The chairman of each of the 10 towns hopefully with the help of some of the committee goes out to get signatures for each of the committee members in the towns’ election districts. These committee people are supposed to represent you in each of those election districts.

There are 40 election districts in the county and two people can be elected to each district. You do not have to live in the same town and you can run for any election district within the 139th Assembly district. These are the people that endorse these same local candidates every time.

I’ll bet many of you did not know that the committee position is an elected position. You can run for this position if you are not happy with the people they are picking. The people on these committees are usually hand-picked, put on the committee and will vote the way the party tells them. Not all of them, but look what you keep getting from the candidates they endorse.

So who’s on these committees? Who is it than does the endorsing and why would any Republican endorse these taxers and spenders every time?

Here’s why. Many of the town committees have elected officials on them or their family members. So they pretty much endorse themselves. County Legislators sit on them. Highway superintendents, councilman, town supervisors, clerks, people that hold high jobs in the county, family members of elected officials, ex-elected law enforcement. You get the picture?

It can be very lucrative and beneficial for one and one’s family to be on these committees with jobs and appointments from the higher ups, to go along to get along. This one-party rule for so long is corrupted now. My opinion, many of Republican leaders are not governing with Republican principles. By changing the committees you can change the candidates.

So, I agree principled political outsiders need to run for the committees and to run for public office In our county. Contact the Orleans County Board of Elections Mike.Mele@orleanscountyny.gov or Janice.Grabowski@orleanscounty.gov and ask them for a petition pack to run for the Republican, Democrat , or Conservative Committee in your town. The Conservative Party would love more fire-breathing constitutional conservatives in our committee, so run. The petitions will start Circulating on Feb. 29 and need to be turned in around April 1. You would be on the ballot for the June 25 Primary.

If you don’t run these people are all back in again and no one would even know it. Complaining does nothing. Time for action. This is not going to stop unless good people step up. You won’t get a chance for another two years.

Below you can see the committee people from the three parties. You connect the dots. Good luck.

Republican Committee members: Albion – Peter Hendrickson Jr., James White, Deborah Zicari, Richard DeCarlo Jr., Marc O’Hearn, Sabrina DeCarlo, Jeffrey Ashbery, Robin Riemer, Dawn Allen, Sarah Basinait, Justin Oosterling and Adam Hazel; Barre – Jason Spencer, Lynn Hill, Bert Mathes and Kelly Dudley; Carlton – John Fitzak, Chris Bourke, Jeff Gifaldi, Tracy Cliff, Gayle Ashbery and Lynda Woolston; Clarendon – Megan Rombaut, Chris Caufield, James Patt, Tracy Chalker and Kevin Rombaut; Gaines – Michael DelBasso, Susan Heard, Kenneth Rush, Brett Boring, Lisa Mannella, Donald Allport, Robert Engle and Sharon Harding; Kendall – Nadine Hanlon, Michael Schultz, Lisa Stenshorn, ALeta Martin, Walter Christ and John Becker; Murray – Michael Mele, Shannon Megna, Gerald Rightmyer, Michael Christopher, Kathleen Case, Louise Passarell, Joe Sidonio, Dirk Lammes Jr., Cynthia Oliver, Lynn Wood, Kellie Gregoire and Adam Moore; Ridgeway – Charlie Smith, Kenneth Baker, Ayesha Kreutz, Dawn Meland, Gary Lawton, Matthew Kreutz, Michael Snyder, Melody Parker, Laura Bentley, Kevin Bogan, Amanda Kroening, Stephen Songer and Nancy Traxler; Shelby – James Zelazny, Dale Root, Tom Wilnas, Christopher Woodruff, Steven Seitz Sr., Christine Park and Benjamin Flansburg; Yates – Roger Wolfe, Russell martino, Lynne Johnson and Terry Chaffee; Executive Committee – Skip Draper as chairman, Gayle Ashbery and Mike Mele as co-chairs, Kim DeFrank as treasurer, and Mary Woodruff as secretary.

Orleans County Democratic Committee members include: Albion – Cynthia Turner, Michael Schmackpfeffer, Darlene Benton, Larry Harvey, Patricia Cammarata, Sandra Walter, Philip McKenna and Gary Kent; Barre – Maureen Beach, Janice Grabowski, Kriss Sniffen and Elizabeth Wood; Carlton – Jeffrey Lewis, Robert Golden, Eileen Aina and Jeanne Crane; Clarendon – James Renfrew, Donna Peterson-Spence and Christine White; Gaines – Bill Lattin Theodore Swiercznski and Ann Consler; Kendall – Catherine Renko, Kathryne Wahl, Jonathan Gillman and Lynn Szozda; Ridgeway – Jessica Marciano; Shelby – Darlene Rich and Dan Nogle; and Yates – Agnes Recco.

Orleans County Conservative Committee members include: Albion – Alan Rosenbaum; Barre – Allen Lofthouse and Kerri Richardson; Carlton – Heather Stone, Michele George and Catherine Appleton Logan; Clarendon – John Lusk and Robert Hills; Gaines – David Thom and Adolf Genter; Kendall – Beverly Lofthouse and Joshua Brusso; Murray – Vangie Behrend; Ridgeway – Lauren Sullivan, James Dix, James Wachob and Andrew JT Bresett; Shelby – Kim Tonas and Mark Wambach; and Yates – Sandra Lauricella, Stacey Freas, Paul Lauricella Jr. and Vanessa Lauricella.

Paul Lauricella

Yates

Conservative Party Chairman in Orleans County