Suffolk Conservative Chairman Edward Walsh is bringing disloyalty charges aimed at drumming Smithtown Conservative Chairman Jimmy Tsunis out of the party.
A notice was mailed out over the weekend to the party’s 40-member county executive committee, setting a meeting for Nov. 26. The agenda includes discussion and action on the issues of disloyalty and removal from the party, though Tsunis is not mentioned by name.
While declining to divulge specifics, Walsh said, “He was disloyal... Jimmy was not behaving the way a party leader should act.”
When Walsh first became county chairman in spring 2006, he was allied with Tsunis, who was named co-leader. Since then....
Rick Brand
....things have soured badly with Tsunis, 79, continually grousing, even as Walsh united the party and made it more potent at the polls.
Tsunis heckled Walsh at a Brookhaven fundraiser in September — and Tsunis told his town executive committee to refrain from supporting a Walsh fundraiser last month, party sources said. The breaking point, they said, came when Tsunis tried to have Conservative town planning board member Ron Schule fired because he backs Walsh.
Sources said Tsunis maintains Walsh held his fundraiser too close to his own event and blames Walsh for his son Louis Tsunis losing a $40,000 a year job with state Sen. John Flanagan (R-E. Northport). Walsh backers say the party leader was actually trying to help Tsunis, who said his son needed more money, by arranging for a $60,000-a-year job with Babylon Industrial Development Agency, but the younger Tsunis turned down the job.
Jimmy Tsunis did not return calls for comment.
“Ed has been a much more patient man than I would have ever been,” said Richard Johannesen, Brookhaven Conservative chairman. “I would have acted much sooner.”
Comments (2)
Walsh has to go. He's a bully. It's his way or the highway.
Walsh is the best leader our county party has ever had. It is all about results and he has energized the electorate and the party. You must really miss the sad times, where it was individuals over the party.