State GOP chief: Our party lost, but I’m still the man
ALBANY — Despite calls for his resignation after New York Republicans last week lost three congressional seats and control of the state Senate, a defiant state GOP Chairman Ed Cox said he has no plans of going anywhere.
Cox (photo) told the Daily News that he will not only serve out his term that runs through September but plans to seek a new one.
The longtime chairman put the blame on the Republicans’ massive losses this year not on the party but on a blue wave that hit New York because of anger over President Trump.
Moving forward, he said, he envisions New York becoming like other blue states such as Massachusetts with Democratic legislatures but nonetheless elected Republican governors.
City Councilman Eric Ulrich (RQueens), in a Saturday opinion piece for The News, said New York Republicans have reached rock bottom and called on Cox to resign.
A number of county GOP chairmen agree with him.
“We have to do some legitimate evaluation of the organization, where we’re going and how we get off the ground,” said one prominent chairman.
Meanwhile, despite the Democrats last week flipping eight Republican seats to take strong control of the state Senate, current Republican Majority Leader John Flanagan, of Suffolk County, is said by insiders to be close to securing the votes needed to serve as minority leader for his now-diminished conference.
Flanagan and Sen. Catharine Young, the Cattaraugus County Republican who headed the Senate GOP campaign committee, have been contacting their Republican colleagues to seek support to lead the conference moving forward. “I firmly believe that John is the right person to lead us,” said Sen. Fred Akshar (R-Binghamton). “I don’t believe Cathy’s the right person to lead the conference. I just don’t think she possess the skills to bring people together.”
But one upstate GOP source said he believes Young will end up on top.
“There is a team of members who are working together to replace John Flanagan with Sen. Young,” the source said.