With a little less than two months before election day, Onondaga County’s Republican Party is hoping to move forward with a united front. A potential challenger to Chair Tom Dadey’s leadership was brought into the fold after a weekend of intense discussions.
Tuesday night, as per election law, Republicans in Onondaga County will choose their leader. A week ago, it looked like it would be a fractious affair, with Onondaga County Legislator Dave Knapp declaring that he would challenge Dadey for the party leadership.
But that ended after a meeting of party leaders Sunday night. To hear Knapp tell it, the presence of Onondaga County Legislature Chairman Ryan McMahon’s newborn son tempered any bad blood.
“Ryan McMahon had his little two-month-old baby with him, and when things were getting heated -- not controversial, but heated a little bit -- it took us back to why we’re here, for our kids and for future generations.”
Neither Knapp nor Dadey would say what the divisions are within the party. However, there have been public spats between Onondaga County Comptroller Bob Antonacci and Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney. Party leaders have criticized Mahoney in the past for endorsing Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo. And Mahoney and Rep. John Katko have not endorsed GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump, while Dadey is co-chair of the Trump campaign in New York state.
Dadey, who’s been head of the party for six years, says the important thing now is defeating Democrats in November. And if the rank and file agree, it’ll be important to have Knapp at his side as the vice chair of the party moving forward.
“Going into 2017, we’ve got a mayor’s race, we’re looking for a candidate there. We’ve got to protect our supermajority in the county legislature and make sure we do that. We’ve got a county court judge race next year. We’ve got town elections. We’ve got a big year next year,” said Dadey.