On August 12, 2013 – at the end of the Republican Caucus – David O’Halloran announced his resignation as Chair of the Rochester Republican Committee, effective immediately.
A bunch of recent articles by Hugh Reynolds still identify David O’Halloran as Chairman of the Rochester Republican Committee. Is Hugh Reynolds ignorant of what’s happening in Rochester, or is he informed strictly by David O’Halloran? I’m putting the question also because a few weeks back David ask me to abstain from using the word “former.”
So, did David O’Halloran resign or not? For once, I decided to follow Terry Bernardo‘s precious advice: It’s not what you expect, but what you inspect!
While in Kingston last Monday, I went to the Board of Elections and FOILed David O’Halloran’s resignation letter. Yesterday – during a call from Commissioner of Elections Tom Turco – I was informed that the Board of Elections doesn’t have any such resignation on file. It turns out that Election Law does not care how a vacancy is born. It only cares how a vacancy is filled:
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NYS ELECTION LAW
§ 2–112.
Committees; organization
1. Every state committee shall within fifteen days after its election, every county committee shall within twenty days after its election, and all other committees shall within the time specified by party rules, meet and organize by electing a chairman, a secretary, a treasurer and such other officers as they may by their rules provide.
Within three days after their meetings all state and county committees shall file in the office of the state board of elections a certificate stating the names and post office addresses of such officers. County committees and any other committee contained therein shall file a copy of such statement with their county board of elections.
Leon Smith was elected Chairman of the Rochester Republican Committee on September 26, 2013 but, as of yesterday, November 19, no certificate was filed with the Ulster County Board of Elections.
One more time, did David O’Halloran resign or not? Either way he’s sending out curious messages. He’s trying to resuscitate his chairmanship of the practically non-existing Republican Club, which didn’t have a meeting – mandated by its by-laws – in years. He hosted a rally at Pinegrove the Sunday before election, rally to which only about 20 people participated – a few candidates and their families, rally at which he did not show up.
O’Halloran’s need to control elected officials is made obvious by his efforts to get elected people who can be manipulated. He got burned by Terry Bernardo, while Rochester got burned by both of them.
O’Halloran wants to distance himself from Terry Bernardo, but it’s too late for that.
It’s time for David to take five, and I mean years. Let the good people do the right thing.
– Jon Dogar-Marinesco
Rochester Smoke Out 
What a sneaky dirt bag ! The Republican Party in the Town of Rochester is so screwed up because of this jerk. I hope that you will notify Leon Smith that he needs to file the appropiate papers with the board of elections verifying that he was elected as chairman of the Committee.
As far as the Republican club, David has done so much damage that he will NEVER get the club up and running again. Republicans are fed up with his deals and lies.
Dave loves the word FORMER, why else would he hoard more “former” titles than anybody else I know? Somehow he takes the helm, accumulates power, helps himself first, sucks all the air in the room, then resigns.