For the besieged New York Republican Party, all the signs for months pointed out that 2022 would be an exceptional year.
As Democrats fight the traditional mid-term downfall, Republicans have been blessed with an unforeseen fortune, including a judicial victory that led to new lines of Congress facing veteran Liberals and putting new House districts at stake. Add to that the average figures from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s polls, and many New York Conservatives dreamed of a united GOP that would win its first state election since 2002.
Then came Carl Paladino.
Mr. Paladino, the party’s former candidate for governor, resurfaced unexpectedly last week as a candidate for the 23rd district of Congress in western New York, a fact that has created a sharp gap among some Republicans, including those who feel that the story of racist and outrageous comments from Mr. Paladin disqualifies him and could endanger Republicans up and down the polls.
It is also fueling a potentially nasty power struggle between two of Trump’s youngest party leaders who are fighting for dominance: Rep. Elise Stefanik, the powerful Conservative from the North who has backed Mr. Paladino, and Nick Langworthy, the president of the state party that formally declared his candidacy for the 23rd District on Friday, giving a veil to the trend of his former ally in incendiary statements.
“We don’t just need people who like to make noise,” Mr. Langworthy, in a campaign ad video. “We need proven fighters who know how to win.”
Far from surprising, Mrs. Stefanik, the third Republican in the House, is next to Mr. Paladino, whom he endorsed moments after current district MP Chris Jacobs announced last week that he would not face re-election. of a furious reaction to his adoption of gun control measures following the mass shootings in Buffalo, near his district, and in Uvalde, Texas.
Mrs. Stefanik spent the week helping Mr. Paladino to collect signatures to vote. And in private, she and her allies are stirring up discontent over Mr. Langworthy among party leaders and mid-level lawmakers, a growing number of whom believe his candidacy for Congress could be a costly distraction for the party if he does not resign as president.
Needless to say, a tough primary battle on the shores of Lake Erie is not what Republicans had in mind before a critical midterm election that was shaping up to be the most promising for the party in two decades.
Following the district redistribution fiasco for Democrats, party leaders planned to compete seriously in up to a dozen House districts across the state.
And in a likely run for government against Ms. Hochul, a Democrat who has seen her job ratings down in the face of crime and the economy, Republicans are hoping for a serious solution to breaking a long streak of losses. in a state. in which registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than two to one.
Four Republicans face the June 28 gubernatorial primary, with Long Island Rep. Lee M. Zeldin receiving the party’s blessing. Andrew Giuliani, son of the former mayor of New York; Rob Astorino, former Westchester County executive; and Harry Wilson, a corporate participation expert, are also all on the ballot and will meet for their first debate on Monday.
“This is a distraction in a battle that no one needs at all,” said Thomas Doherty, a former chief aide to Gov. George Pataki, the last state-elected Republican in New York, on Mr. Paladin and the debris that came out of his campaign.
“You have the main Republican in the House supporting a guy who has a lot of baggage against the Republican president,” Doherty added. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
Since Mr. Paladino entered the race last Friday, Media Matters, the left-wing surveillance group, has already uncovered a Facebook post amplifying conspiracy theories about mass shootings in Buffalo and Texas and a 2021 radio interview in which Mr. Paladin praised Adolf Hitler. as “the kind of leader we need today.”
Mr. Paladino, 75, who was defeated in the race by the governor by Andrew M. Cuomo in 2010, has long been known for racist and homophobic comments. He apologized in part for Hitler’s statements on Thursday, calling them a “serious mistake” that he said had been distorted by the media.
On Friday, Mr. Paladino said he would not comment on Mr. Langworthy, however, said he planned to file more than 3,000 petitions to run for office, more than his opponent.
“I am very grateful for the popular support of thousands of Republicans across NY-23 in such a short time,” Paladino said in a statement. “Forward to victory!”
In her own statement, Ms. Stefanik said she was “focused on getting the majority back this November,” while serving her constituents and the Republican House Conference in Washington.
But some Republican state leaders were apologetic to Mr. Paladino, including Keith H. Wofford, a black corporate lawyer who was the party’s 2018 candidate for attorney general. On Friday he issued a relentless statement saying that his personal experience left no room for doubt as to who Mr. Paladin was.
“There are many times when people have called one Republican or another racist, and I’ve explained to these accusers why they were wrong,” Wofford said. “But Carl Paladino is a racist. Not ‘racially insensitive’; not ‘unsophisticated’; a sincere, old-school racist.”
He added: “If he wins the primary, I hope he loses in November.”
Democrats have chosen Max Della Pia, an Air Force veteran and community activist, as the district’s candidate.
The decision of Mr. Langworthy to show up — after he pushed Mr. Jacobs to stand aside — has not been without controversy. A number of county party leaders have criticized him for trying to run for Congress and leading the state party at the same time, raising concerns about conflicts of interest.
“It has to be all on deck and our state presidency can’t join the 23rd district of Congress holding primaries while we try to choose a governor simultaneously,” said Lawrence A. Garvey, party president in Rockland County. .
He asked Mr. Langworthy to resign.
“The potential is very much there to take advantage of the good options we have this year,” he added. Garvey, clarifying that he was not trying to push Mr. Paladin: “No one in his right mind could defend some of the things he said.”
This sentiment was echoed by Susan McNeil, president of the Republican Party in Fulton County, northwest of Albany, and Mike Rendino, her Bronx counterpart.
“You can’t serve two masters,” said Ms. McNeil, who is close to Mrs. Stefanik. “I’m not arrogant enough to think I could do both.”
Mr. Rendino said that Mr. Langworthy would be a good MP, but said “we need a state presidency committed to raising the money needed for ballot security and protecting the party in the next state election.”
In an interview, Mr. Langworthy, 41, argued that he was advancing party interests by assuming Mr. Paladino and said he maintained the support of the “vast majority” of state county GOP presidents.
He also predicted that he would have no problem focusing on winning the gubernatorial race for Republicans in the general election after defeating Mr. Paladino in the primaries.
“There are detractors and people who are interested in any organization, and they may be incited by certain elected officials, but I will not make a fuss,” he said. “The most destructive thing that can happen is that we have leadership choices.”
The candidacy of Mr. Langworthy arrives after a career as a party agent, including a stint in Mr. Langworthy’s office. Pataki and the time spent with two members of the Republican House. In 2010, he became the president of the Erie County GOP, a position he used to drive Mr. Crude’s campaign. Paladin as governor.
Both he and Mr. Paladin urged Donald J. Trump to run for governor against Mr. Cuomo in 2013, and finally they didn’t convince him. Both were perplexed by Mr. Trump in his 2016 presidential candidacy.
In 2019, Mr. Langworthy helped remove the longtime party president, Edward F. Cox, with the support of the then president, and took over the job himself, promising a new face for the party.
District 23, which was redesigned by a court-appointed cartographer last month, should be Republican for sure. It runs from the suburbs of Buffalo to the Southern Tier, on the border between New York and Pennsylvania, and includes some of the most conservative counties in the state.
Yet after a brutal spring, with its carefully crafted district redistribution plan shattered by the courts and its lieutenant governor accused of bribery, Democrats seemed delighted Friday to sit down and let Republicans share the look of scrutiny.
“I wouldn’t say the last few months are perfect for my team, and I was concerned about being a Democrat,” said Christine C. Quinn, the state party leader.
But he called the GOP conflict an ongoing “train crash.”
“Republicans seem committed to getting this thing so bad,” he added.