New York State Republican Party left in shambles
BRIAN ACKLEY Political Columnist
Look in the dictionary under "Herculean task," and you'll likely find a picture of Joe

Mondello.

Actually, that's an understatement. All Hercules had to do was carry the world on his shoulders. Mondello, it now appears, will be charged with reviving New York State's Republican party, which is more tattered than the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to pen our national anthem.

The New York Times did a chilling job earlier this week laying out just how irrelevant the Grand Old Party has become in the Empire State. For the first time since 1938, Democrats swept every statewide office. Eliot Spitzer won his governor's race in 59 of 62 counties, one more than even political rock star Hillary Clinton. Never in history have Republicans had fewer representatives in Congress than they will in 2007.

Barely one in four registered-to-vote New Yorkers call themselves Republicans. Even normally red upstate - New York's balance has traditionally skewed blue because of New York City's Democrat enrollment - is now, at best, an expansive patch of pale purple. There are today only about 3,000 more registered Republicans away from the Big Apple then there are Dems.

Ned Regan told the Times (about the state's GOP, and, presumably, not his wasted tenure as Erie County's control board chairman), "It's not dead. It's comatose."

But when Spitzer starts his tenure on Jan. 1, there is more than just another Joe - and we're not talking about Mr. Mondello here - who will prove to be something more than a parking lot speed bump and a little less than Mt. Everest in the governor-elect's continued climb to the political mountaintop.

Albany's ruling triumvirate, the Empire State's trio of taxpayer torturers, effectively just shrunk by one.

For if Spitzer is indeed even able to manage a thimbleful of meaningful reform, it will have to go through the now even more emboldened Senate Majority leader Joe Bruno, who, thanks to lackeys such as Dale Volker, managed to keep its Republican advantage in tact.

For the first time, Bruno is the lone Republican in a Democratic chorus line, freed from the shadow of outgoing governor George Pataki, who bears as much responsibility for the ramshackled state of Republicans as anyone. And while they often were allied publicly - as we're seeing in the current "you go," "no, you go" theatrics over the removal of Comptroller Alan Hevesi - there were never a lot of behind-the-scenes warm and fuzzies between the two.

"I welcome an opportunity to talk on day one, day two, day three with the new governor about an agenda," Bruno said at an Albany new conference shortly after last week's elections, leaving little doubt as to where he sees himself as a player in New York's new political landscape.

It will be an interesting dance, a tango of two smooth talkers who traditionally get their way. Some political observers say don't be surprised if that pair, and not Spitzer and Democrat Assembly ruler Sheldon Silver, share the dance floor together more than skeptics might think.

Don't buy it, not in this perfunctory post-election period of protocol and politeness. Syrupy prose and promises flow like tree sap on a 70-degree March day.

Nothing's changed, day one or day one thousand and one, not with Spitzer, and certainly not with Bruno: it's all about the power. Believe that Bruno's kick step will likely be especially vicious - if not overly visible at times - as the Republican's lone banner waver. Expect checks with a capital C, balances with a state capitol B.

As the Albany Times Union headline read two days after the Nov. 7 election: "Bruno set to exploit new reality in Albany."

Mondello gets to be the GOP's new executive chef - after current head cook Steve Minarik got busted to busboy over the weekend - almost exclusively because he's the majority leader's guy. The governor-elect should take note. Not that he ever has been, but now more than ever, Bruno will be no average Joe.

(Brian Ackley is a columnist for the Weekly Independent Newspapers of Western New York. For more information on WIN, or to provide feedback on this column, visit our Web site at www.wnynewspapers.com. Opinions expressed here are those of the author.)