D'Angelo, Dudek removed from GOP committee

After months of battling in the press, on social media and in court, the Putnam County Republican Committee has expelled County Legislator Jake D’Angelo, who represents District 5 in Carmel, and Daniel Dudek for “disloyalty” after the pair collected petition signatures for fellow Republican Tanner McCracken in his primary against committee-endorsed Town Councilman Frank Lombardi.

Their expulsion from the county committee also removed them from the Town of Carmel Republican Committee.

In a post on the "Carmel NY Republicans" Facebook page, Carmel Republican Committee Chairman Nick Fannin called the GOP “the party of law and order.”

“We apply that to ourselves,” he wrote.

Fannin said the Sept. 24 vote to expel D’Angelo and Dudek, neither of whom attended the meeting, was 137-22.

In a Facebook video of his own, D’Angelo said he collected only five signatures, all from members of his family.

“Five signatures out of nearly 500 collected to give Tanner the opportunity to put his name before the Republican voters,” D’Angelo said. He called the decision to remove him and Dudek from the town and county committees “absurd” and “laughable” and said Putnam's GOP establishment is “broken.”

D’Angelo told Mahopac News he would continue to fight the decision.

“While the original lawsuit remains on appeal, I filed a new legal action today [Sept. 28] challenging the unlawful procedure used to remove me and the validity of the removal vote.”

McCracken, who did not face discipline and remains in good standing on the committee, criticized the expulsions.

“After our 75 percent–25 percent primary victory, County Republican Chairman Andres Gil said, ‘We as a party need to have an internal reflection period,’” McCracken said. “Apparently, the reflection period didn’t take.”

He said voters had already rejected “the backroom politics where elected offices are handed out because it’s somebody’s ‘turn.’”

As previously reported, the Carmel GOP tightened its rules on supporting endorsed candidates following controversy during D’Angelo’s race for County Legislature against Democrat Brett Yarris, when some Republicans were accused of undermining D’Angelo’s candidacy.

“After the last cycle, Jake came to the Carmel committee as a sitting member and as our nominee,” Fannin wrote. “Some people were still fighting the primary after it was over. He said committee members should not work against a duly nominated Republican. He was right.”

Fannin said the committee spent months drafting a loyalty provision and adopted it in October.

“The point was simple: if you sit on this committee, you do not wear the title while working against the committee’s nominee.”

Fannin said D’Angelo later violated that rule by circulating petitions for McCracken, while Dudek also gathered signatures on his behalf. D’Angelo and Dudek have acknowledged collecting signatures but said they had the right to do so. McCracken went on to defeat Lombardi in the primary by a wide margin.

According to Fannin, the issue was not the number of signatures collected but whether the committee could enforce its own rules.

“[D’Angelo] has since said it was ‘only’ five signatures, and they were family, as if that makes it fine,” Fannin wrote. “It does not. The rule is not a headcount. Working against the party’s nominee is the violation.”

Fannin also accused D’Angelo of attempting to reshape the committee by circulating petitions to replace 25 sitting members with family and friends in districts within his legislative seat.

“That is not recruitment,” Fannin wrote. “That is how an elected official strangles the party’s check on his own office.”

He also criticized D’Angelo for taking the dispute to the press, radio and social media and then to court, where a restraining order delayed the disciplinary process for months.

“If you will not follow the simple rules of the committee you sit on, rules adopted to stop the exact conduct you complained about, you do not get to ask this Party to put its name next to yours or to spend its time and money electing you,” Fannin wrote.

“We will hold committee members and elected officials to the same standard.”

In his video defending his actions, D’Angelo noted that McCracken and Joe Cunningham, who won the Republican primary for District 3 in Kent, were not the GOP committee’s endorsed candidates. D’Angelo said he helped run both campaigns.

“Republican voters overwhelmingly disagreed,” D’Angelo said. “My offense wasn’t collecting signatures; my offense was winning.”

Longtime observer and veteran political consultant Robert Buckley said the dispute reflects a larger demographic shift.

“The young guys are starting to take over,” Buckley said, adding that he believes the GOP’s dominance in Putnam County may be eroding, at least outside of Carmel. “The Democrats have picked up several elected seats throughout Putnam County over the last few years and they appear to have momentum.”