Brooklyn GOP factions submit competing leadership bids

The next king of the Brooklyn Republican Party may be crowned by the borough’s top court.

The Kings County Republican Committee held a tumultuous reorganization meeting Sept. 30, where outgoing chairman Craig Eaton announced he was stepping down and endorsed former Assemblyman Arnaldo Ferraro as his successor. Initial news reports noted that Ferraro secured the chairmanship.

But two competing leadership slates were submitted to the city Board of Elections. One listed Ferraro as chairman, Dany Esquilin as vice chairman and Assembly candidate Lucretia Regina-Potter as secretary. A rival slate named Bay Ridge attorney Theodore Ghorra chairman; Ferraro, vice chairman; and the city Board of Elections’ chief clerk in Brooklyn, Diane Haslett-Rudiano, secretary.

Ghorra and his supporters filed legal papers in Brooklyn Supreme Court Wednesday contending the party committee charged with determining the validity of proxy votes engaged in “little more than a mathematical exercise designed to calculate how many proxies had to be invalidated in order to give [their opponents] an artificial majority.” The submission requests that the court either declare Ghorra’s slate valid, or instruct the party to convene a new credentials committee to tally the results of the vote or hold a separate election under court supervision. The committee used a proxy vote system, where county committee members note their vote on proxy forms that are then tallied at the organizational meeting. If a member signs two proxies, the one with an earlier date is tossed out.

A source close to the Ferraro slate disputed the allegations and suggested the two tickets stemmed from two factions, one aligned with Eaton, who signed his proxies over to Ferraro as chairman, and the other linked to GOP state Sen. Martin Golden. When asked about this description, Golden would only say that a majority of Republican Brooklynites supported Ghorra because he was someone who could build many communities into a more robust party.

New York City Board of Elections Executive Director Michael Ryan announced at the board’s Tuesday meeting that the Brooklyn GOP submitted two conflicting leadership certificates. Ryan said the board would not take action unless guided by a court or the state GOP.

New York Republican State Committee spokeswoman Jessica Proud said the organization was “working towards a resolution that will ultimately result in a unified committee.”

In the meantime, it may fall on the Brooklyn Supreme Court to sort through what transpired at the Sept. 30 meeting.

In an interview, Ghorra described his team as a consensus slate aimed at cutting across factions. Ghorra was not previously involved in the county committee, but said he sat on a partisan vacancy committee and assisted campaigns. The bulk of Ghorra’s political contributions were directed to Golden’s campaign and Golden staffer John Quaglione’s City Council campaign committee.

Ghorra said he came to the organizational meeting at Remsen Hall with 438 proxy votes. Eaton submitted proxies at the meeting with Ferraro in the top spot.

The credentials committee deliberated in private for close to four hours, according to the court petition. Ghorra said the committee announced it had invalidated all but 17 of his proxies and counted 258 for Ferraro. He contends this total of 275 valid votes fell short of the 300 members needed for a quorum, and therefore, the results were not valid.

Ghorra said he was not given answers as to why so many proxies were disqualified. His camp proceeded to hold a second vote outside Remsen Hall, arguing they had the numbers to surpass the 300 members needed for a quorum. By the end of the day, two dueling petitions were en route to the BOE.

“This is not about me; it’s about little 'd' democracy,” Ghorra said. “It should be transparent. … If a regular election was held this way, people would be screaming from the rooftops, and rightfully so.”

Ferraro said he was shocked but honored when Eaton endorsed him as a successor. The retired assemblyman said he was not part of the credentials committee or aware of the vote tally details, but was confident his ticket won with a quorum present.

“Either way, I was elected,” Ferraro said. “I assume that that’s a recognition of the qualifications or whatever you need to be on top of this. It’s the largest county that we have in the state, and I take that as a great honor, to have been selected to be the chairman.”

Eaton could not immediately be reached for comment. A source close to him said Ferraro’s slate won with 327 votes; Ghorra’s received 46; and two abstentions were counted. Some of Ghorra’s proxies were disqualified because they were submitted by people not registered with the party and because identical handwriting on the date section suggested one individual may have dated proxy forms filled out by multiple members, the source said. This individual said similar tactics were seen two years ago by another candidate “handpicked” by Golden.