It’s time to pull the Coach.
Bernie Iacovangelo, a part-time Florida resident and the chairman of the Monroe County Republican Committee, is late for his date with the showers.
He got his niece elected judge, he had his day in the sun, but he also crapped the bed, and the guy who blew 2021 can’t be allowed to blow 2022. Politics in the service of ego is never a good idea, even behind the scenes, and it’s time for Monroe County Republicans to show that they are better by being better.
Like Lincoln said, “Right makes might,” and the party he helped found must be based on principles, not personalities and personality conflicts. When a party leader divides people into teams, and chases out those with whom he has a conflict, his usefulness is ended. Not just to the party, but to the process of democracy which the party is theoretically intended to engage.
Absentee and affidavit ballots, counted almost two weeks after Election Day, show what most have long understood, that the Republicans have lost their decades-long hold on the Monroe County Legislature. That is, certainly, attributable to the 2-to-1 enrollment Democrats have in the county, and to that party’s intelligent and enthusiastic leadership. But it is just as true that the Republicans lost the Legislature through obstinance of leadership and incompetence of politics.
The Republican president of the Legislature seemed to antagonistically oppose the Democrat county executive for purely partisan reasons. The focus of the Legislature’s Republican leadership seemed to be getting into political pissing matches, instead of cooperating when possible and opposing only when required by principle.
That’s not good government, and it’s foolish politics.
And it’s even more foolish for the county party to mostly ignore crucial County Legislature races.
But the most foolish Iacovangelo move of all may have been his delay of the redistricting process that will determine district boundaries for the next decade. This being the year after a census, redistricting is on the agenda – all across the country. That shouldn’t take anyone by surprise.
Bernie Iacovangelo was advised to have the Republican Legislature majority introduce its redistricting map at its October regular meeting, pass the map at the November regular meeting, and use its supermajority with the Democratic Black and Asian Caucus to override an expected veto at the December regular meeting.
But he said no.
Because he’s the Coach and he doesn’t like any ideas that aren’t his own.
Well, that play didn’t work.
And the Republicans have passed nothing, and their veto-override majority disappears in seven weeks, during which there is just one regular meeting. Most readings of state municipal law conclude that’s one regular meeting too short to override a veto.
So the Democrats will draw the lines after the first of the year.
Which is great news if you’re a Democrat, but not so hot if you’re not. Growing Democrat enrollment in suburban Monroe County means that districts can be drawn outside the city which will virtually guarantee Democrat control of the Legislature for a very long time to come.
Given the ascendancy of the woke wing of the Democratic Party, that promises to bring angry progressive orthodoxy to every corner of the county. The revolution is on and Monroe County just joined the squad.
Because Bernie Iacovangelo mismanaged the campaign.
And he, for his part, held a ridiculous election night celebration, when everyone but him knew the Legislature was lost. And on the night absentee numbers were known, and the shortfall was proven in black and white, he called an emergency meeting to purge the Legislature majority leader who had dared to question him and his approach to redistricting.
Beyond that, that majority leader – Steve Brew – had dared to speak every now and then for moderation, and cooperation with Democrats.
And for that, the Coach wanted him benched.
This is the kind of unprincipled, dishonorable, juvenile behavior that shames a party and dispirits the electorate. We have low voter turnout because people believe the politicians are idiots, and the people believe that because sometimes it’s true.
Like right now.
The Coach lost the big game, and it’s time to get a new coach.
Because the self-serving, vindictive incompetence that distinguished the 2021 Republican campaign can’t be allowed to similarly distinguish the 2022 Republican campaign. There is an important governor’s race on tap, and an important congressional race, and neither of those can be jeopardized because the party’s county leadership is a clown circus.
Somehow, some way, soon, Iacovangelo’s got to go.
Or Monroe County Republicans will shrivel into the political extinction their Democrat neighbors think they deserve.