Chairman Reilich — Just What The Doctor Ordered
Maggie Brooks has made a great pick. Assemblyman Bill Reilich is the right person to replace Steve Minarik as Republican Chairman.
Reilich has been around for awhile and has experience — but he isn’t an old school politician. He knows county and state government. And unlike Minarik, he a consensus builder — all important attributes.
Reilich will be taking over at a critical time. Local Republicans have some very big challenges coming up. Keeping Jim Alesi and Joe Robach in the Senate are the first two to come to mind and it would be nice if could hang on to one or two of the three congressional seat that come into the Rochester area.
In order to accomplish this, the party needed to make a change. For most of Minarik’s tenure, he faced a local Democratic party that was in disarray. The Democrats were led by people like Molly Clifford, Ted O’Brien and Bob Cook. All of them nice people, but they were unable to build support and organize their resources. It’s easy to win races when you are outspending your opponents by huge sums of money.
But that all changed when the Cat Whisperer — Joe Morelle, took over the local Democratic Party. Suddenly, Democrats had resources to be competitive. If you take a look at the races that could be described as fair fights over the past couple of years, races where both sides had relatively equal resources, Minarik’s record wasn’t that impressive.
More than one source commented to us on the atmosphere within the local party structure. It has been well documented that Minarik was at odds with many people in the community. What hasn’t been talked about is that he was at odds with many of the political operatives that used to be part of the Republican campaign structure.
There are may talented people in the Republican party who didn’t feel welcome at Republican headquarters. Minarik had reached the point where he only talked to a small circle of advisors. Their inclusion in his circle was based on how close and loyal they were to Minarik — not necessisarily their talent or ability.
This needed to be turned around. Reilich’s background is well suited to do it. He comes from Greece and was a part of the rebuilding of the Greece Republican Committee. Before Supervisor John Auberger was elected in 1998, the Greece Republican committee was in disarray. Democrats had held numerous positions and Reilich was a part of the team that turned this around.
He is a former small business owner, so he should have no problem reaching out the business community. He is acceptable to the base of the Republican Party, but he should also be able to reach out to people Minarik made a habit of antagonizing.
All in all, Brooks’ choice is right on the mark.
2 Responses to “Chairman Reilich — Just What The Doctor Ordered”
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Great post Cinci. Bill Reilich will help turn things around for the GOP. Dems have to be aaalllllll ticked off right now!
Recommending Bill Reilich is another excellent move by Maggie Brooks. The difference between Reilich and Joe Morelle are already being made clear.
According to the annoucement, Reilich will seek out several Vice Chairs reflective of our community. That’s a good move. No more absolute power rule by any one person. Reilich is already showing his strength as someone who will bring people together.
Hopefully, Joe Morelle will take the cue and stop playing the cutsie games that caused Monroe County to lose $1 million because he blocked it for some reason no one seems to understand.
Maggie Brooks, Bob Duffy and Bill Reilich all want to work together for the benefit of our City and County.
Joe Morelle needs to get on board and start trying to help us instead of hurt us. If Maggie Brooks and Bob Duffy need to raise property taxes, it’ll be Joe Morelle’s fault.
But the decision is his to make.