Mondello Says McCain Blew Off New York
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- November
- 7
State GOP Chairman Joseph Mondello had some strong words for the McCain campaign this afternoon, saying it blew off New York except for stopping in New York City to raise money.
Mondello said the state party got no help from McCain, saying “Every lawn sign, every bumper sticker, everything that had ‘McCain’ on it. We had to buy.”
Mondello said he repeatedly urged McCain or running mate Sarah Palin to at least campaign once outside of New York City to help rally the party’s base in the state, but to no avail.
Granted, New York was never in play for McCain, but Mondello said they could have at least helped some.
“They come here to get their money, and it would be nice if they came here and spent a little bit of it here in good old New York,” Mondello told Gannett News Service.
He said he tried to encourage McCain or Palin to visit Seneca Falls in the Finger Lakes last summer for the 160th anniversary of the first Women’s Rights Convention, but “the answer was flat out ‘No.’”
Democratic candidate Barack Obama didn’t campaign outside of New York City either, but Mondello said that a McCain presence in the state could have helped Republicans down the ticket, especially in critical state Senate races.
“I think it would have made a difference. I’m not saying it would or wouldn’t have made a difference in the presidential winning of the state. That I’m not going to say, but I am going to say that it would have done a hell of a lot for us in terms of the New York state Senate,” he said.
Mondello, who is often rumored as being replaced by such GOP leaders as John Faso or former Utica state Sen. Raymond Meier, said he has every intention of staying in office. His term runs until September 2009.
The state party played almost no role in the state or congressional races, and Mondello, also the chairman of the Nassau County GOP, said he came into office in 2006 with few resources and a struggling organization, which he has sought to rebuild.
He said the party needs to rebuild after the Election Day losses.
“It’s an opportunity to re-establish the party with a message that is clear, especially with young people,” he said.
This entry was posted
on Friday, November 7th, 2008 at 5:20 pm by Joseph Spector.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
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