Manhattan GOP

Manhattan GOP chairman James Ortenzio, one of KT McFarland's strongest backers, has apparently asked her to drop out of the race after lackluster fund-raising and the airing of ugly family business that has distracted and damaged her flagging campaign.

McFarland's press secretary, Morgan Ortagus-Dobbs, denied any notion of pressure from Ortenzio.

"I just asked KT," said Ortagus-Dobbs after putting the Observer on hold. "And she said she has received no such phone call."

This is a little off the usual track, but here's an interesting comment on New York City politics: a lament from a Queens Republican on Urban Elephants about a party endorsement meeting that featured almost no Republicans.

These kinds of events are nearly always under the radar of most of the media - and for good reason. The spectacle of GOP functionaries awarding their stamp of approval to whichever candidates from the opposite party bother to show up is simply old news. It's chalked up to being a logical and unavoidable result of a) cross-endorsement and b) the massive registration imbalance between the parties.

(In that context, stuu's genuine distress about what happened in Queens last night is almost touching in its earnestness.)

The Manhattan GOP, at least, mounted an effort a while back to restore some semblance of local competitiveness by seeking out and running their own candidates for judgeships, if only as a gesture towards party-building.

Should they have bothered? Comments, please.