REPUBLICANS are about to snare the top position at the city’s Board of Elections after convincing Bronx Democratic boss José Rivera to support their candidate, former GOP Assemblyman John Ravitz.
But an intense intra-party fight has erupted over the No. 2 spot, with Rivera going up against his Manhattan Democratic counterpart, Denny Farrell.
The behind-the-scenes maneuvering began when Danny DeFrancesco, the board’s veteran director, disclosed last month he’d be stepping down after a 35-year career.
The board’s five Republican commissioners quickly united behind Ravitz, the well-liked Republican Party chairman of Manhattan. But they couldn’t put him in office without snaring at least one of the five Democratic commissioners.
Enter Rivera, who ordered his appointee to go with Ravitz.
That might have ended the matter except that Democratic commissioners from Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island boycotted the board meeting last week, leaving it without the quorum needed to install Ravitz.
Rivera’s opponents charge that he collaborated with the Republicans as part of a deal to get the No. 2 position for George Gonzalez, a longtime DeFrancesco aide.
Farrell has been pushing Pam Perkins, wife of Manhattan City Councilman Bill Perkins, who currently serves in the board’s No. 3 post of administrative manager.
“This has nothing to do with Ravitz,” insisted one Rivera ally. “This is about when do Latinos enter the picture?”
Perkins’ supporters counter that if the Republicans control the director, the deputy director has to be someone with more political heft than Gonzalez.
“With no disrespect to anyone else, clearly she’s the most qualified – not to mention the sixth sense of political savvy important for this job,” Bill Perkins said of his wife. “Clearly, qualifications don’t count.”
The dispute might be resolved at the board meeting next week.
Then again, it might not. Under the rules, at least three Democratic commissioners have to be present during the vote for a new director.
“Who says they’ll be there?” asked one insider.
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Rudy Giuliani makes a return foray into local politics next month when he joins a fund-raiser for Rosemarie O’Keefe, who’s running for City Council in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
O’Keefe had served as commissioner in Giuliani’s Community Assistance Unit.
The Feb. 25 special election is nonpartisan, allowing O’Keefe to run on the party label of her choosing. She picked the “No New Taxes” line, a sentiment shared by other contenders in the six-person field.
“You have a lot of homeowners here,” explained one campaign official.