Kauneonga Lake – The leadership of the Sullivan County Republican Committee has seen enough of the dysfunction of the Sullivan County Legislature and has vowed to work toward change.

This new direction was unveiled on Wednesday night at the committee’s monthly meeting when Chairman Gary Maas spoke about the party’s future and then appointed Greg Goldstein as the new chair of the Sullivan County Republican Committee, replacing himself.

It’s a post which Goldstein previously held for 17 years. Goldstein then appointed Town of Callicoon Supervisor Tom Bose as vice chair of the county committee.

The meeting, which was attended by nearly 30 Republican Party committeemen from across the county and several legislative candidates, was held at Sorella’s in Kauneonga Lake.

“We are moving ahead as of last night,” Goldstein said Thursday morning. “We are going to work at healing the wounds and get everybody working together to get people elected [this fall].”

At the center of the firestorm is Legislative Chairman Rob Doherty, a Republican, who was elected 3 1/2 years ago. 

In the Fall of 2019, the Republicans elected eight of the nine legislators and Doherty formed an alliance which saw him get elected chair of the newly-elected legislature, replacing fellow Republican Luis Alvarez.

That alliance – Legislators George Conklin, Alan Sorensen, Mike Brooks and Nicholas Salomone – have stayed strong throughout the past 3 1/2 years.

Many in the party point to Doherty’s extremely strong personality and outspoken remarks in public as damaging to county government. 

Maas said, “Mr. Doherty has been very hard to deal with. It was his way or no way.

“That does not work well in politics,” Maas, who is also the elected Supervisor of the Town of Cochecton, said. “Doherty wanted to take over the party.”

Many of the party leaders feel that Chairman Doherty has surrounded himself with enough votes – four legislators – to take control of the board and dismissed the other legislators on the board.

“We can’t continue to treat the other legislators like they are garbage,” Maas said. “We need a party that works together.”

Although not at Wednesday night’s meeting, Chairman Doherty was aware of the Republican committee’s new leadership.

When asked about the party restoring cooperation, Doherty said, “It sounds like a great idea.

“Gary [Maas] did a fine job and was handed a tough situation with [chair] Dick [Coombe] leaving abrupty,” Doherty said. “COVID was also very difficult.

“I’m looking forward to Greg taking over. He’s a steady and experienced hand,” Doherty said. “He’s the right leader at the right time.”

Vice Chair Tom Bose said he is looking to take personalities out of county government and do what is best for the residents and taxpayers.

“We are going to disagree,” Bose said of politics. “But you can still be respectful.

“Our personalities come out at the worst time,” Bose said. “Every organization has it [but] the personalities on the legislature are embarrassing. It’s not that hard to work together.”

Bose said everyone at Wednesday night’s meeting, “share the same end goal.

“Our voters are not stupid,” he said.

Goldstein said the party “needs harmony. It’s been terrible. We are going to go back to a caucus to discuss our agendas and not [have legislators] get caught off guard [at meetings].”

Maas said, “It’s going to be an interesting election season. I know what I will be up to. We need a party that is going to work together.”