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Schneiderman's defection weakens limping Suffolk GOP

Rick Brand

July 6, 2008

Republican Suffolk Legis. Jay Schneiderman celebrated the Fourth of July in his own way Friday, filling out a new voter registration form to change parties and become a member of the Independence Party.

Becoming an Independence Party member on Independence Day was, Schneiderman said, not because he's unhappy with local Republicans, but disenchanted with the national GOP and its ties to the religious right.

His exit, rumored for nearly a year, leaves an already hobbled Republican minority with only six members, one of those, John M. Kennedy, who also won last year with Democratic backing.

"It's just another confirmation of the breakdown of the two party system in Suffolk ... the Republican Party doesn't exist at all," said Paul Sabatino, former long-time legislative counsel, despite the GOP's 43,000 edge in registered voters.

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Harry Withers, Suffolk Republican chairman, said he'd heard rumors of Schneiderman's defection but received no official word. "It doesn't make sense to me," he said.

In fact, Schneiderman's switch caused a lot of head scratching. "He always seems to go his own way and no one can figure out why," said Ben Zwirn, top political lieutenant for County Executive Steve Levy, who himself has often clashed with the Montauk lawmaker.

Some say Schneiderman, 46, a motel owner, sees Republicans on the wane and believes he has a better chance of getting legislation passed as a free agent. Democrats already have made him chair of the legislature's environmental committee and he gave them a key vote last month to make Democrat Vivian Vilora Fisher deputy presiding officer, despite heat from GOP lawmakers.

"The underlying message is that the Republican Party is in trouble and their future is in doubt," said Legis. Jon Cooper (D-Lloyd Harbor).

Others say Schneiderman believes Frank MacKay, county and state Independence Party leader, has the kind of influence that can keep major parties at bay or wrangle Schneiderman, a major party endorsement.

The Independence Party has 29,100 enrolled voters in Suffolk, nearly 10,000 more than the Conservative Party, though some critics say many of its voters do not know they belong to an organized party. The party's clout exceeds its numbers because MacKay is a savvy strategist who talks with everyone from John McCain to Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Of Schneiderman, McKay said, "We get another independent voice and having another public official is always an asset."

Schneiderman joins the ranks of a handful of other officials who have signed up to the minor party, including town board officials Riverhead's Barbara Blass, wife of the former Suffolk Legislature Presiding Officer, and Babylon's Lindsay Henry, son of former District Attorney Patrick Henry.

Some experts say he is weakening himself by leaving a major party because it's tough to run on a minor party line alone. Of his victory last year, only 10.5 percent of the 70 percent of the vote he received came from the Independence line. "Put a fork in him because he's done," said one Republican lawmaker, who did not wish to be identified.

But Schneiderman said the move returns him to his political roots. Though raised as a Democrat, Schneiderman became an unaligned voter as an adult and was not registered in any party when Republicans recruited him to run for East Hampton supervisor. After two terms, he ran for county legislator, but then enrolled as a Republican so he could run in a party primary if he had to.

"I may be committing political suicide," said Schneiderman, but "when Abe Lincoln left the Whig Party to become a Republican, it didn't hurt his career too much."

THE ISSUE: GOP lawmaker switches parties

THE PLAYER: Legis. Jay Schneiderman

WHAT'S NEXT: Can he survive as minor party member?