Some former Suffolk Republican leaders, at breakfast on Friday, chewed over how to revive the county’s moribund GOP — and replace current chairman Harry Withers. Former Southampton chairman George Mathys confirmed he called a meeting of nearly a dozen past high-level party officials. He declined to name them, or the Patchogue restaurant where they ate, but said they met to lay the groundwork to find someone who can lead the party, raise money, and groom candidates.
“This is not about Harry personally. He’s a nice guy, but he hasn’t been an effective leader,” said Mathys, who led the Southampton GOP for six years ending in 1992. “He hasn’t been able to motivate or unify the commitee. There are lots of empty committee spots, and the party is so weak we could not even find a candidate for county executive, which is unheard of. We’ve reached rock bottom.”
Mathys admitted it may be difficult to dislodge Withers since six of the 10 town leaders have patronage jobs controlled by the county chairman. In a slap at current leadership, Mathys said any successor “has to be someone who wants to do something for the Republican Party — not someone who wants the Republican party to do something for me.”
Withers, elected to a new two-year term last September, dismissed the dissidents as having “no standing in the Republican Party... comprised of retired gentlemen who meet and drink during the day and talk about how things were done in the past.”
Rick Brand