Five Questions for Tom Dadey

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Tom Dadey is the chair of the Onondaga County Republican Committee and is also the second highest Republican officer in the state.  As such, he's got some pull, even if he's not been able to accomplish much on behalf of his party here in the City of Syracuse, where I think we now have a total of zero city-wide elected officials who wear the Republican red.

While it's better in Onondaga County for the Republicans (County Executive Joanie Mahoney, DA-for-life Bill Fitzpatrick, and 13 of 17 legislators, for starters), Dadey notes that the Republicans struggle statewide, not having won anything in about a dozen years. He pointed this out the other day when talking with Teri Weaver, a state government reporter The Post-Standard.

The topic of Weaver's story was a meeting between Donald Trump and several county Republican chairs from across the state. Dadey pointed out that,

I believe the consensus in that room would be that if Donald Trump chose to run for governor, not only would it be a game-changer for the Republican Party, but he would be our nominee. I could see the Republican Party getting behind him.

He noted that Trump didn't ask for any endorsements, and there was no count to see if the chairs, who control the majority of the votes needed to get someone the nomination, would support him. And when asked if he would endorse Trump, Dadey was cagey more than anything else.

It's fair to say that I want the strongest candidate to run against Andrew Cuomo, the strongest candidate that the Republican Party can put forward. 

Spoken like a true politician, don't you think?

In addition to not asking for endorsements, the ever-blustery Trump also did not declare his candidacy; apparently what he's interested in (this week) is a united front against Cuomo. He has mentioned previously that he would only run if everyone was behind his candidacy, and he made that clear again at a fundraiser in Erie County on Friday.

You can't have people going in, knocking the hell out of each other in a primary, spending millions of dollars and then someone comes out wounded and limping... If they can't unify, I have other things to do.

Apparently echoing that sentiment, here's what Dadey said:

Because the focus needs to be on beating Andrew Cuomo. We don't need a primary. We haven't won a statewide rate since 2002.... There was a lot of support for Trump's candidacy today. 

However, not all that long ago, Dadey was expressing a different view of a Trump candidacy.  Back in October 2013, these were his comments, as reported on the State of Politics blog.

I like the idea of putting in a very successful businessperson to be our candidate. My fear with Donald Trump is he's doing this just to stroke his ego and make his TV show go higher. 

And,  even as recently as last December, Dadey was making statements like this, regarding Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, the most likely 'traditional' opponent to Cuomo:

Rob Astorino is the real deal and I believe he would be a formidable challenge for Governor Cuomo if he runs for governor. 

And when asked about Trump in that interview, he offered this, with a laugh:

Who? Now, is that the guy who throws his name out there so he can sell shirts and ties and always throws his name out there as a political opportunist? 

Now, as a party bigwig Dadey might get stuck supporting a Trump candidacy (pretending for a moment that The Donald is actually not just jerking people around), or maybe Dadey's being as cagey as Trump himself, I'm not sure. But it does seems he's changed his mind quite a bit from October expressing 'fear' and then December referring to an actual Republican politician as 'the real deal' to now.

So, here are five questions for Tom Dadey:

1. Do you still believe that Rob Astorino is 'the real deal'?
2. What do you know now about a potential Trump governorship that would alleviate the fear you expressed in October?
3. If we were a few weeks past the new season premier of the Celebrity Apprentice, instead of a few weeks before it, do you think you'd even be talking about Trump giving up his ridiculously lavish lifestyle to become Governor?
4. Andrew Cuomo has managed to balance New York's budget, reduce taxes, and devote billions of dollars in economic development across New York, most notably in Buffalo and Albany. He's also put forth a plan for tax-free job creation. Why, specifically, does the focus need to be on defeating him?
5. Finally, the obligatory stupid and irrelevant question (remember Bill Clinton's boxers or briefs moment on MTV?): do you own any Trump shirts and ties?

I"ll share any response I receive.