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Senator Dean Skelos is now the new Majority Leader. He is currently introducing himself to the leaders of the state and we can only hope he sets a course for the party now that the 2008 state elections are upon us. The New York Republican Party will need a platform that our elected officials and candidates can distinguish themselves from Democratic opponents. All too often, our candidates have had a history of sounding like Democrat-alternates and in a state with more registered democrats than republicans, it would be silly to try and convince Democrats to vote Republican when you sound exactly like the candidate of their party. It also alienates Republican voters who won't bother voting for a Republican who sounds like a Democrat.

Here are a few issues that I believe the Republican Party needs to stand for in both the Senate and Assembly, so they can win some seats:

2. Responsible Spending. Our budget is extremely large and spending appears out of control. NY is the second largest state budget (behind California) and far ahead of the third largest state budget. Our elected officials and candidates should champion transparency with where allocated district funding is put. Spending should benefit the community and also be no larger than it has to be. Our Party should advocate shrinking the size of State Government and privatize where possible.

3. Term Limits. A vote for the Republican Party should be a vote for supporting term limits on elected officials. The desire to perform public service should not be a career decision. The statewide offices of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Comptroller and Attorney General, should be limited to consecutive elections of two four-year terms, with no statewide official exceeding ten consecutive years (or 120 months) in office. Assembly & Senate seats should be limited to serving no more than twelve consecutive years, and limited to serving a leadership position for no more than eight consecutive years.

4. Crime. The Republican Party must reinvent the wheel on being the Party that fights crime. The 1990s saw Mayor Giuliani, Mayor Spencer, Governor Pataki and a number of other Republican leaders flex their muscle on fighting crime. With the success of reducing crime and making our streets safe, the Democrats have co-opted the tough-guy image of being crime fighters as well. This is great to see, but it has hurt Republicans, because they have not been able to adapt to taking the issue to the next level.

5. Education. The Republican Party needs to promote a more competitive and effective educational policy that can resonate combat failed union-driven policies and reach the voter who wants to see change. Repealing laws that prevent a voucher program and promoting tax credit incentives will help level the playing field in education, but the message that these changes will not cut funding in public schools needs to be emphasized.

6. Environmentalism. Theodore Roosevelt was a strong supporter of protecting wildlife and promoting parks. He believed in a safe and clean environment for New Yorkers. He was also a Republican. This was a progressive position that was started by the Republican Party and it should still be a key component of the GOP. We must continue to be the conservatives for conservation. Whether or not you believe man is responsible for some kind of "global warming" is irrelevant. We must balance the need to support environmentally friendly policies that are based on science and fact, as well as policies that open doors to the free markets and allow the economy to grow.

7. Government Reform. Some issues are not meant for the politician. They are meant for the People of the State. Republican candidates should support ballot referendums on issues that determine the progressive stature of New York. Our elected officials and candidates should return government back to the People. We must not support decisions made by the few and support the actions of the voters. When the People of the State support change, then it is the duty of our elected officials, both Republicans and Democrats, to come up with a policy that meets the desires of a referendum.

These are just some key points that our elected officials and candidates need to focus on during this election cycle. And our candidates need to remember that they must emphasize differences, not similarities, when distinguishing one's self from the Democratic opponent. You cannot win by saying why you are like your opponent. It'll have Republican voters question why they need to vote for you and it'll simply confirm the decision for Democratic voters to vote democrat.

At the meeting Thursday meeting, tenants in attendance screamed and caused a raucous once the new rates were announced. Signs were held, whistles were blown, voices were raised and arguments ensued as tenants associations and their representatives disapproved of such an "unfair" burden on "middle income" renters. The irony is, "those who are complaining about the RGB increases imposed under the rules of rent stabilization are the same people who argue for keeping rent stabilization!"

It is clear that this form of government regulation on housing, which was at one time labeled as "temporary," is so broken, that the best solution is to simply toss it out. Why else would someone complain about a government program one minute and then argue for keeping it the next? By keeping rent control laws on the books in New York, politicians are playing an unfair con-job with the voting public.

Manhattan"s housing market is becoming more and more a buyers market. Those choosing to rent are renting market rate apartments and not government controlled housing. These buyers and renters are voters too and when you argue for rent regulation, you are arguing against these voters. They aren't going to make the case of arguing for a government program if they know they aren’t entitled to it.

Recently, city officials led by Speaker Christine Quinn, have voiced their desires to repeal the Erstadt Laws that took the housing control away from the city. We cannot let the city take back control of a program they couldn't run in the first place. It is important that our elected officials and candidates, especially those outside of the five boroughs, argue the case against returning control of rent regulation to New York City.

Our Republican leaders, Assemblyman James Tedisco and Senator Dean Skelos, must begin a fight for the buyer and market rate renter demanding New York State abolish rent regulation. Our elected officials must draft this policy initiative with clear and concise wording on how New York will benefit from removing such regulations. Every other state that has removed the program increased its housing stock and has made rentals more affordable.

Dr. Betsy McCaughey is an Adjunct Fellow with the Hudson Institute. Her areas of expertise are Health Care Policy, American Politics and Constitutional Law. She is founder and Chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths (RID) – a national campaign to support greater infection control in hospitals and other health care institutions. Her research on how to prevent infection deaths has been featured on ABC's Good Morning America, the CBS Morning Show, 20/20, Dateline NBC, and many other national television and radio programs. And her steps that patients can take to help protect themselves from infection was featured recently in the Wall Street Journal."

In 1994 Betsy McCaughey wrote an influential piece in the New Republic, which helped end the Democrat's nationalization of Healthcare. In 1994, she was elected Lieutenant Governor of New York alongside George Pataki on the Republican and Conservative lines. In 1998 McCaughey-Ross ran for governor on the Liberal Party line.

Ice Cream Summer Social

...more details to follow soon.

Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld is the Director of the American Center for Democracy and an author who writes on terrorism and corruption-related topics. She has lectured on these issues in many countries, and has advised banking communities, law enforcement agencies, and governments, including the U.S. Defense Department's Threat Reduction Agency. She testified before the European Parliament on how the Palestinian Authority uses aid money to fund its terror activities, provided evidence to the British Parliament on the corruption of the PA, and testified before the U.S. Congress on terrorism related issues. She currently works on issues related to the Financial and Economic Jihad against America and the West. Dr. Ehrenfeld's writings also appear in the New York Sun as well as many other news publications.

Dr. Ehrenfeld is author of the book, Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed - and How to Stop It. The controversy surrounding a lawsuit brought by one of the alleged terror financiers, Khalid Salim A Bin Mahfouz again Dr. Ehrenfeld in a British court, sparked New York State's, nicknamed "Rachel's Law", which protects American journalists and writers against having local courts enforce malicious foreign prosecution. The Libel Terrorism Protection Act of 2008 empowers New York courts to assert jurisdiction over anyone who obtains a foreign libel judgment against a New York publisher or writer and limits enforcement only to those judgments that satisfy "the freedom of speech and press protections guaranteed by both the United States and New York Constitutions."

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Mardi Gras Street Fairs is the largest street for organization in America and this year will be our sixth year sponsoring one.

The Street Fair runs from 11 AM to 5 PM.

The New York Young Republican Club would like dedicated Republicans (members or non-members) to help us represent our party, support our candidates and get new young conservative minded individuals to register to vote!

All we need is a few people to join us for an hour or two during the six hours of the street fair, while we try to accomplish our goals.

Please RSVP letting us know you'll help us out on June 21. Tell us when you think you can join us so we can schedule the time slots.

During the Reagan Administration, she was an economist on the staff of Reagan's Council of Economic Advisors from 1986 to 1987. She served as Deputy Executive Director of the Domestic Policy Council and Associate Director of the Office of Policy Planning in the White House under President George H.W. Bush. She is co-authored Women’s Figures: An Illustrated Guide to the Economics of Women in America and The Feminist Dilemma: When Success Is Not Enough and she was editor to the Overcoming Barriers to Entrepeneurship in the United States, now available in paperback. She has a weekly syndicated column on economics that appears in the New York Sun on Wednesday.

Dick Morris is an American political author, newspaper columnist, and commentator who previously worked as a pollster, political campaign consultant, and general political consultant.

Morris became an adviser to the Bill Clinton administration after Clinton was elected president in 1992. As a shrewd expert on polls and trends, Morris encouraged Clinton to pursue so-called third way policies of triangulation that merged traditional Republican and Democratic proposals, rhetoric, and issues to achieve maximum political gain and popularity.

Today, Morris has emerged as a harsh critic of the Clintons and has written several books that criticize them, including Rewriting History, a rebuttal to Senator Hillary Clinton's Living History.

Due to a last minute schedule change, Ms. Rachel Ehrenfeld will be unable to make it. We hope to reschedule her in the upcoming months.

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* * * SPECIAL EARLY TIME * * *

Meeting Location

ZANZIBAR
645 9th Ave
corner of 45th St
8 PM

The NY Young Republican Club invites you to join us at our Spring Social. Zanzibar is located along Manhattan's premier hot spots for food, wine and a little theater.

Members and Non-Members welcome!

Bring a friend or two or three!

You can let us know you'll be coming by visiting our Facebook Event Page or by using our standard RSVP link.

Our Guests

John P. Avlon was chief speechwriter and deputy policy director for the Rudy Giuliani campaign. Mr. Avlon has appeared on Fox News, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, CNN, MSNBC and PBS to discuss presidential politics. He is the author of Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics [2005].

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Blue Skies, No Fences

For Lynne Cheney, who has always had a deep interest in history, the past becomes personal in this special program. In Blue Skies, No Fences, Mrs. Cheney paints a vivid picture of the 1940s and 50s in her hometown, Casper Wyoming, a place where the future seemed as bright as the blue sky overhead. She interweaves into her coming-of-age memoir stories of the westward-moving men and women whose journeys brought her family to the high Wyoming plains. People of great optimism, these pioneers persisted through sickness, war, grievous accident and financial calamity, certain that they would find a better life.

The New York Young Republican Club has a limited number of tickets to this event.
If you wish to attend this event for FREE, you must be a current 2008 member.

Please RSVP and we will let you know if tickets are still available.

I've watched the news showing 3rd Avenue or Times Square during rush hour. What do I see? Cabs. Buses. Trucks. Occasionally, what appears to be a privately owned car heads down the Avenue. Congestion pricing is supposed to deter people from driving on the streets of Manhattan. Well, if it appears all the vehicles are cabs buses, and trucks, which cars are coming off the roads?

If people realized they had to pay $8 a day or twice a day, they'd think long and hard about driving into Manhattan. OK. True. But how will they get here and how will they get around? Cabs? I see cabby fares going up because of this, so I can't imagine an uptick on fare rides. Buses? Subways? OK, this is a problem, because these modes of transportation are already overcrowded, how will more commuters squeeze on these transports?

When someone asks me if I like Mayor Bloomberg, I reply, "I don't dislike him as a person." I'm sure if I met him at a political function or saw him on the subway or in a restaurant, I'd say hello and respect that he was elected twice as our chief executive. As a politician though, I feel he is a control freak looking to make New York City the Nanny Capital of the World. Our next candidate needs to possess a libertarian streak in his blood. If not our next mayor, then a handful of councilman and our public advocate.

I recently blogged about the L train at the 1st Avenue stop. The L train is extremely packed during rush hour. Forget the 7 train, it is the most congested subway train in the entire system. All trains are extremely congested and now the mayor wants to put more people on these trains, just to clear the roads. This doesn't really sit well with me and many other New Yorkers. Let's hope our council and state reject this congestion pricing money grab.

One can also argue that 90% of our legislative body is "unelected." Many run unopposed every two years and the ones that get a challenger are usually re-elected by a significant margin. The leaders of both Legislative bodies fit this predicament. Speaker Sheldon Silver of the Assembly and Majority Leader Joseph Bruno the Senate never face serious opposition and are re-elected by default.

Right now, a State Budget is due on April 1 and some serious work needs to be done to create a balanced budget. Proposals of tax increases are being made to cover the spending increases. Little is being done about spending cuts. Governor Paterson has some real work cut out for him. Most New Yorkers should be worried, because he comes from the liberal belief of raising taxes and fees to cover spending shortfalls. Liberals never stop to think that if you raise taxes on the highest earners, these residents may simply move across the river to avoid the tax. Also, raising taxes doesn't help in the property tax issue that burdens the upstate economy. What business wants to move into Elmira or Syracuse, Buffalo or Rochester, if the business climate is unfriendly to your business?

The GOP Assembly Caucus has to pick up a bunch of seats. Ten would be nice. Just to get a little more than the necessary 50 that are required to block a veto override. It's just hard to pick ten competitive districts that will switch and vote Republican this November. Qualified candidates are required and an aggressive and strong campaign is a necessity. A 95 – 55 Assembly chamber would be help the State of New York immensely.

The GOP Senate is at risk of losing its majority, holding on by a 32 – 30 lead. What is first and foremost, is holding on to the 32 seats already held by Republicans. Then, it would require the GOP to run strong campaigns in about a dozen districts just to win eight seats and bring the majority up to a 40 – 22 lead. Having the State Republican Party pick up some seats would send a clear message to the Democratic legislatures that the People of New York are not as liberal as some of its elected officials.

So what kind of message should these Republican have in their campaigns?

Well, lower taxes and less spending should be the first message. Fiscal discipline and transparency on where tax revenue is allocated in a budget is the second issue. Also, anti-business laws need to be repealed and pro-growth policies need to be put in place. The size of government needs to be slashed and some agencies should be privatized. Regulations need to be reduced or completely obliterated. These are key points that have to resonate with voters in a way that will relate to them on an every day basis.

We have a State Comptroller elected by the Assembly, but not by the People of this State. We have a new governor who was elected on a ticket, but was never expected to assume the role of governor. Though they both hold their position due to the constitutional process, the People of this State have to realize that men and women are running this State who were not put into their position of power by the voting public. The Republican Party needs to start bringing change and reform to the process. By running credible candidates and picking up legislative seats, we will begin to bring positive change for all.

Our Guests

Assemblyman Greg Ball represents New York's 99th Assembly district which is comprised of the towns Patterson, Mahopac, Carmel, Southeast, Putna Lake and Brewster in Putnam County; Yorktown, Mohegan Lake, Somers, and North Salem in Westchester County; and Pawling in Duchess County.

Assemblyman Ball is a business executive, former active duty Air Force officer and has risen to prominence for his stance on illegal immigration, and has been named a Chairman of Lawmakers for Legal Immigration, an immigration reform group.

Lenore Skenazy

Lenore Skenazy is a columnist and features reporter for The New York Sun. She previously worked for the New York Daily News, NPR, and Mad Magazine. She was featured in the second episode of Bravo's series Tabloid Wars.

Lenore Skenazy has recently has received added attention for writting an article in which she admitted allowing her 9-year old commute home all by himself, walking the streets and riding the subway.
Ms. Skenazy will discuss parenting and ask whether we as a society have become overly protective and how the dangers today, if any, are real.

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