Politics & Government

Vecchio Calls for Suffolk GOP Party Leader to be Ousted

Smithtown Supervisor calls out John Jay LaValle for act of party disloyalty in Republican primaries.

Smithtown Supervisor Patrick Vecchio is calling out Suffolk GOP Leader John Jay LaValle for what he calls 'party disloyalty' and wants him out of office. 

Vecchio has asked state Republican chairman Edward Cox to oust LaValle from office, claiming LaValle lied to party voters in a last-minute letter campaign letter that claimed his opponent, Councilman Robert Creighton, was the party-endorsed candidate in the primary, Newsday reports.

Vecchio won the Sept. 10  primary over Creighton by 3,245 votes to 2,566 votes, according to Suffolk County Board of Elections. The 36-year incumbent will run for re-election to supervisor's seat in November. 

Despite this victory, Vecchio is asking his party to take punitive measures against LaValle. 

"He should be sanctioned and removed from his position as county chairman and regional vice chairman for the state party at the very least,” Vecchio said in the two-page letter reports Newsday. 

LaValle will be seeking re-election as the county's Republican chairman this Friday. 

This is not the first time Vecchio and LaValle have publicly clashed over the leadership of the Suffolk GOP Party. In February, Vecchio wrote a scathing letter calling LaValle's leaderhip "pathetic" after he endorsed Creighton's campaign for Smithtown supervisor. 

"There is one good option for you, and that is resignation. You owe it to the Republican Party of Suffolk County," Vecchio wrote to LaValle in February. 

Read more on Newsday [subscription required] on Vecchio's call to oust John Jay LaValle from his seat as Suffolk Republican chairman. 


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