An internal dispute among GOP leadership and two young members of local committees is headed to court this month after the Carmel and Putnam County Republican Committees initiated disciplinary procedures against two of its members, Dan Dudek and sitting Putnam County Legislator Jake D’Angelo (District 5).
The action stems from D’Angelo and Dudek’s decision to walk petitions for Tanner McCracken, the non-endorsed candidate in the race for District 8. The Carmel Republican Committee had instead endorsed Town Councilman Frank Lombardi; McCracken elected to remain in the race and gained enough petitions to force a primary with Lombardi on June 23..
The dispute was first reported by David McKay-Wilson in his Hudson Valley Digger Substack.
While party officials told Mahopac News that McCracken had every right to force a primary, they said Dudek and D’Angelo had violated party loyalty rules by collecting signatures on his behalf. Putnam County Republican Committee Chair Andres Gil said the issue comes down to enforcement.
“I think Jake shouldn’t have violated the rules,” Gil said. “If you want to operate outside them, that’s fine—but don’t be on the committee.”
The rule in question states:
“Committee Members may be censured or removed from their Committee Membership for an act of disloyalty to the Republican Party or corruption in office, pursuant to NYS Election Law Section 2-116.”
According to a copy of the rules on file with the Putnam County Board of Elections, acts of disloyalty include but are not limited to enrolling in another political party, becoming unregistered in the Republican Party and “collecting, designating or nominating petition signatures for any candidate running against an endorsed, designated or nominated Carmel Committee or County Committee candidate.”
Carmel Republican Committee Chairman Nick Fannin said the committee launched a formal disciplinary process under election law, which was paused when D’Angelo and Dudek obtained a temporary restraining order.
While many have framed the dispute as an attempt to remove the two from the committee, Fannin said no decision has been made.
“We are conducting, per election law, a hearing to hear the evidence,” Fannin said. “And then the hearing committee—five people plus counsel—makes a recommendation back to the Putnam County Republican Committee.”
Fannin said the temporary restraining order was issued “to stop the hearing committee from taking place,” not to prevent a specific result.
“That’s just one possible outcome,” he said of removal from the committee. “Another outcome may be nothing. Another may be a reprimand or formal censure. So yes, the rhetoric is ‘we want him removed,’ but that’s not the case. We have due process and we’re following it very carefully.”
“Right now we’re waiting for the court case to make its way through the system,” he added. “May 11 is our court date to go before a judge for a potential hearing for the TRO that was served.”
Fannin denied the process was personal.
“Let’s be very clear about that. That’s not true. That is entirely not true,” he said. “It is the Carmel Republican Committee that has voted. It is the Putnam County Republican Committee, represented by the executive board, that voted on this.”
D’Angelo, meanwhile, called the discipline an overreaction tied to his support for McCracken, whom he described as a friend he grew up with, and said it reflects a broader divide within the party.
“Five to be exact,” D’Angelo said of the number of signatures he submitted. “It was my girlfriend, her brother, father, mother, and someone we played baseball with growing up… those signatures didn’t even get submitted, and Tanner, I think, would have doubled the amount he even needed to get on the ballot in the first place.”
“I wasn’t going door to door,” he added. “It was just to get, you know, a few people that I knew.”
He said he felt the committee had already decided to back Lombardi before hearing the two candidates’ presentations.
“I think it’s just the club, right?” D’Angelo said. “They want their friends in, you know, local politics, get my friends in.”
D’Angelo also pointed to what he described as inconsistent enforcement, citing his own race after defeating the endorsed GOP candidate Greg Ellner in a primary before facing Democrat Brett Yarris.
“Leading up to November, Ellner… brought Yarris, the Democrat I was running against at the time… to a Kent GOP Committee golf outing fundraiser… de facto endorsement,” D’Angelo said.
However, GOP leaders said it was that event that led to a tightening of the rules. Fannin said the rules were widely distributed and repeatedly communicated to committee members through multiple channels over several months, including emails, meetings and official minutes.
“It was very clear that everybody understood [the rules],” Fannin said. “He decided that he didn’t want to [follow them.]”
D’Angelo, however, framed the dispute as philosophical.
“You’re threatening their ability to control things,” he said. “I think we’re philosophically different kinds of Republicans. We’re the good government, move toward the future, fiscal conservative—and you kind of just got the establishment there that wants to just protect their people.”
McCracken—who was endorsed by the Carmel Conservative Committee and will appear on the ballot in November regardless of the primary outcome—said he submitted 410 signatures, “which was double what I needed to get on the ballot,” and has been actively campaigning since.
“Between all of those doors that I knocked… I’ve knocked on the same houses sometimes twice already,” McCracken said.
He acknowledged some pressure to step aside after not receiving the endorsement.
“Well, I did get pressure to drop out after I didn’t get the endorsement, but now it’s over,” McCracken said. “We’re on the ballot. So I’m not dropping out.”
If he doesn’t win the Republican primary and remains on the ballot on the Conservative Party line, it will set up a three-way race with Lombardi and Democrat Gwen Burke.
Asked whether anything was offered in exchange for stepping aside, McCracken said political alternatives were floated.
“I will say this: There’s a lot of things in politics, there’s a lot of things offered to you. But I don’t take bribes and I don’t take any political deals.”
Did anyone suggest he could take Lombardi’s seat on the Town Board?
“Yeah, I was offered that. I was offered…this seat would be open if you go for that,” McCracken said. “If I wanted to run for town board, I could have done it two years after being on the school board when I was encouraged to. But I didn’t run for the town board because I believed there were things that I could get done in six years on the school board.”
Fannin said he’d heard “the same rumors you have” about such an offer but rejected the idea.
“That’s no one’s to give,” he said of a Town Board seat. “I don’t know who would actually think that they are in a position to say… ‘I’m going to give you a quid pro quo.’”
Gil added that both candidates are viable heading into the primary.
“As for the current race… whoever wins the primary will be a strong candidate in November,” he said.
McCracken said his campaign is resonating with voters seeking change.
“People want to place their future into someone who kind of represents a new energy and a new focus,” he said.
Support for Lombardi remains strong, with Gil, County Executive Kevin Byrne, Assemblyman Matt Slater, Carmel town councilmen Rob Kearns and Robert Schanil, and County Legislature Chairman Dan Birmingham among other prominent Republicans recently attending a fundraiser in his support.
Gil said that both candidates would be strong in the general election.
“As for the current race… whoever wins the primary will be a strong candidate in November,” he said.
As for the internal battle within the committees, McCracken said it came down to a choice between reasonable people.
“Jake thought I was a better Republican, the committee thought Frank was a better Republican,” McCracken said. “That’s a fair disagreement to have.”
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