C. Scott Vanderhoef
“Ed’s not waiting for Scott to get out of the way anymore,” a source close to both men revealed to Left of the Hudson. “He thinks Scott has a lot of negatives.”
Day will announce his candidacy next Tuesday, according to the Journal News.
Locally, Republicans rarely run primaries. Instead, the party prefers to keep control centralized among party stalwarts through a process through secret balloting at a County Convention. This year’s convention will be held June 7 at Clarkstown Town Hall. Democratic Chairman Vincent J. Monte told Left of the Hudson Radio that this might work to Vanderhoef’s disadvantage.
“Scott has demonstrated that he has had enough of being County Executive,” said Monte. “But he may have a problem getting endorsed by the Republican Committee.”
Monte said that Vanderhoef’s many political appointees, more than 200 at the County level, might not want him to leave the Executive’s job.
“A lot of these people are party people who get rewarded for working for them [the Republicans].” Patronage is not a bad thing, but when it’s abused it becomes bad,” Monte said. “And what will happen is that those people, who are committeemen who vote…many of them may not want to see Scott leave as County Executive.”
For some time, it had been assumed in political circles, and reported here, that Day would seek the Senate Seat if Morahan chose not to run.
However, when it began to become clear that the Democratic Party intended to run a strong candidate—four are currently running—a rumor that Vanderhoef would run was leaked to the this blog and some statewide media outlets. Minutes after our report, Vandherhoef quickly denied he was running to Nyack News and Views.
After State Senator Thomas P. Morahan announced his retirement, Vanderhoef did confirm his interest in the State Senate seat. This came to nobody’s surprise as Vanderhoef has been a serial job seeker while in office. He announced in January—the very day after he was sworn in to a fifth term as Executive—that he was considering running for State Comptroller. Weeks later, Vanderhoef announced that he had begun an exploratory committee to look into a run against Kirsten Gillibrand for United States Senate only to drop the idea. While Executive, Vanderhoef has also run for Congress, Lieutenant Governor and sought the Presidency of Rockland Community College. Sources inside County government told Left of the Hudson that Vanderhoef also sought employment with Giuliani Partners in early 2009.
The salary of a State Senator is notably less than the $152,000 Vanderhoef makes as County Executive. But as the $79,500 a year Senate seat is only part time, sources have speculated that Vanderhoef would be set up with secondary employment with a local law firm to make up the difference. Some County Legislators are miffed that they recently voted Vanderhoef a hefty 12.5 percent raise, hoping that he would be focused on his duties as County Executive during dire times.
“We feel betrayed on both sides,” said one County Legislator talking about colleagues from both parties. “We gave him that raise in good faith, hoping that he would focus on Rockland County’s problems. Some of us are definitely not happy that he’s going to be spending his time campaigning…again.”
If Vanderhoef holds off Day at the Republican Convention, he may still face opposition from the right as some “Tea Party” conservative groups have talked about fielding a State Senate candidate.
[...] Vanderhoef running for State Senate, but so is another Republican … [...]