WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES OCTOBER 5, 2017 21
Holden gets GOP nod for City
Council race after losing
Democratic Primary
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
RPOZARYCKI@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@ROBBPOZ
Middle Village civic leader Robert
Holden offi cially secured
the Republican Party line last
week in his bid to unseat incumbent
Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley of
the 30th District, who had defeated
him in the Democratic primary.
The lifelong Democrat was offi cially
given the Queens County GOP’s support
as the party itself underwent a
shakeup on Sept. 28. Former Congressman
Robert Turner, who had led the
party for four years, was voted out of
his chairmanship post and replaced by
JoAnn Ariola, a Howard Beach civic
activist and Republican district leader
in the 23rd Assembly District.
Despite a decisive loss to Crowley
in the Sept. 12 primary, Holden had
already intended to go on to the
November general election on the
Conservative, Reform and “Dump de
Blasio” lines. Up until this week, the
Republican candidate for the Council
seat, attorney Joseph Kasper, had
been virtually nonexistent on the
campaign trail. He wasn’t listed in the
Campaign Finance Bureau’s “Follow
the Money” contribution database, had
no campaign website and doesn’t even
live with the 30th District’s confi nes,
which include Ridgewood, Glendale,
Maspeth, Middle Village and parts of
Woodhaven and Woodside.
But, as QNS fi rst reported, rumors
began circulating that Kasper would
drop out of the City Council race to
accept the nomination for a State
Supreme Court judgeship in the November
general election; he had unsuccessfully
campaigned for a seat last
year. That rumor came to fruition this
week aft er Kasper was nominated for
a judgeship on the Conservative line,
opening the door for Republicans to
nominate Holden, a Democrat known
to be friendly to and critical of members
of both parties at various times.
‘He really does lean to the right’
Ariola told QNS in a phone interview
on Thursday that the Queens County
GOP had approved a Wilson-Pakula
waiver permitting Holden — a registered
Democrat for more than four
decades — to replace Kasper on the
Republican ballot in the 30th Council
District race this November.
“He’s a lifelong moderate Democrat
and he really does lean to the right,
Robert Holden, a registered Democrat for more than 40 years, is now
running for City Council on the Republican line.
to the conservative part of the Democratic
Party,” she said. “I don’t have
any concern that he’s not going to do
the right thing with regards to the
people he represents and the parties
that endorsed him.”
When interviewed by QNS earlier
this month about the rumors that
Republicans were looking to recruit
him, Holden said that he was open to
the idea and would be willing to talk
with the party’s leadership. In a phone
interview Thursday, Holden said he
was thrilled to get the Republican
line, and believes it will help give him
an advantage in the general election
aft er a lopsided loss to Crowley in the
primary.
“It enhances my chances; it doesn’t
split the base vote,” Holden said. “We
have a lot of Reagan Democrats, conservative
Democrats in the district. I
think if they stay with me and if I get
Republicans, conservatives and independents,
I’ll be in very good shape.”
‘A very diff erent election,’ but same
jousting
The primary race between Crowley
and Holden — civic rivals who’ve
been going at each other for nearly a
decade — was one of the most heated
in the city. Both sides exchanged in a
mail war, sending vivid fl iers laced
with attacks at each other to voters
File photo/RIDGEWOOD TIMES
across the district. They also sparred
at a Ridgewood debate.
Aft er learning that the Republicans
officially named Holden their candidate,
Crowley blasted Holden in a
statement from her campaign over
what she called a bait-and-switch that
duped the district’s voters.
“He clearly always planned to run
as a Republican aft er the primary, but
lied to voters time and again these past
four months,” Crowley said. “What’s
worse, he used taxpayer money to
fund his campaign of lies and lay the
groundwork for this despicable baitand
switch. If we can’t trust Bob as
a candidate, then we certainly can’t
trust him in elected offi ce.”
Holden dismissed the allegation,
saying that he has secured his campaign
funds properly through the
city’s system, getting 80 percent of
his contributions from people in the
district. He also pledged to turn up the
heat on Crowley as they battle for the
district’s voters.
“This is going to be very diff erent
than the primary. I’m going to go toe-totoe
with her; I’ve got major lines now,”
he said. “It’s a very diff erent election,
and I’m going to beat her this time, and
I’m going to beat her at name-calling.”
Crowley and Holden will face off in
the Nov. 7 general election.
Queens
Republicans get
a new leader
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
The Queens County GOP’s
leadership also voted on
Wednesday, Sept. 28, to
make Joann Ariola its new chairman
to replace former Congressman
Robert Turner in what some
described as a surprising contest.
Ariola said that the majority of
district leaders were under the
impression that Turner wouldn’t
seek another term in offi ce, and a
number of them had approached
her about succeeding him.
Turner, as it turned out, announced
that he would seek another
term in offi ce, leading to a committee
vote that went in favor of Ariola.
“Bob Turner did a fi ne job as
county leader, and it was never my
intention for this to come to a vote,”
Ariola said. “It was my intention
for Bob to name his successor and
be treated with the respect that he
needed. He did decide to take it to
the vote, it was his decision to take
it to a vote. He had not reached out
to any of the leaders to say that he
was running. So they were left to
assume that he was not.”
One Republican source close to
the situation, however, charged
that Turner was taken aback,
and that he didn’t expect that his
chairmanship would be contested.
“Even some of the district leaders
who supported Turner had
no idea that there was even going
to be another nomination,” said
the source, who spoke to QNS on
the condition of anonymity. The
source indicated that the chairmanship
election left “a bad taste
in the mouths” of some and potentially
created a rift in a party that’s
fought internal divisions for years.
Ariola indicated that there was
no such rift , and the party was appreciative
of Turner’s leadership
in recent years.
“We really needed him. He
stepped up to the plate and he did
a fi ne job,” Ariola said. “It wasn’t
that any one found fault with his
running of the party.”
Queens’ lone elected offi cial in
city government, Councilman Eric
Ulrich, took to Twitter on Wednesday
night to congratulate Ariola
and thank Turner for his service.
“I am happy to announce my good
friend JoAnn Ariola has been elected
the new Chair of @QueensCountyGOP,”
he wrote. “Bob Turner was
a true champion for the Republican
Party and we are greatly appreciative
for his service.”
