Supporters of Congressional candidate Nan Hayworth are pushing back against a powerful Republican county chair who has been trying to recruit alternative candidates to run against incumbent Hudson Valley Democrat John Hall in a GOP primary.
Her backers are charging William DeProspo, the longtime and powerful chair of the Orange County Republican party, with opposing Hayworth merely because she is a woman.
“Bill has a complicated relationship with women, especially with women in power,” said Sue Kelly, the district’s former seven-term congresswoman, who is backing Hayworth, adding “It’s a problem being a woman running for office, always, and people like Bill don’t make it any easier.”
The Hayworth campaign cited past reports that they say suggests DeProspo is uncomfortable letting women rise to prominence in the party. In 2005, DeProspo blocked judge Elaine Slobod from running for state Supreme Court on the Republican line, telling the Times Herald Record, “The only thing that remains for her to do is start sucking on a lollipop like a two-year-old, which is how she’s acting now.”
Slobod eventually ran as a Democrat and won.
In 2006, DeProspo sent out a mailer describing local Republican Assembly Member Nancy Calhoun as a “challenged member of the legislature” with “an abrasive nature,” after Calhoun questioned the promotion of DeProspo’s wife, Catherine Bartlett, to the state Court of Claims.
DeProspo denied the allegations, saying that he opposes Hayworth because she “lacks political experience,” and recited a long list of his accomplishments in women’s rights and membership in women’s organizations.
“The thing I’m most proud of as Republican chairman is that over a third of our elected offices are held by qualified Republican women,” he said. “I don’t know how anybody could accuse me of being sexist.”
DeProspo has a long-standing feud with John Hicks, Hayworth’s campaign manager, whom he accused of ginning up the allegations against him.
“It would be unfortunate if it deteriorated into some personal animus into me and John Hicks,” he said, “But it has nothing to do with [Hayworth’s] gender, and I would be making the same comments if it were a man and he had the same lack of political experience.”
DeProspo has been vocal in his criticism of Hayworth, saying she does not possess the acumen or toughness needed to succeed in politics and openly disparaging her for hiring Hicks.
Some insiders say that the claim of sexism is overblown. Several quarrels have divided the county party over the years, and fault lines have formed. DeProspo’s confrontational approach, combined with his power in the district, make him an easy target for personal attacks, they say.
“It’s definitely [about] Hicks. The two of them are obsessed with each other,” one GOP insider said. “He’s a typical cocky attorney and has a record of anyone that gets in his way – man, woman, child – he’ll just steamroll over them.”
Republican officials in the area have been urging Hayworth to find a new campaign manager for the sake of party unity.
“One of the things I would like to ask from her is to meet with these Republican chairmen and maybe cut the umbilical cord between her and John Hicks,” one G.O.P official said. “The Republicans are going to have to get united one way or another.”
Others say that their feud is actually about tort reform, a policy Hayworth, a wealthy opthamologist, supports and DeProspo, a successful attorney opposes.
For months, Dutchess County Assembly Member Greg Ball was the frontrunner to win the GOP nomination for the race against Hall. But Ball dropped out last month, clearing the way for Hayworth, who has the backing of the national Republican party.
DeProspro and other county chairs are looking to David
McFadden, a former mayor of Tuxedo Park, and Neil Di Carlo, a chief compliance
officer on Wall Street who lives in Putnam County, to challenge Hayworth for
the nomination, a move first reported in City Hall.
DeProspo added that a fourth candidate is likely to announce his interest sometime in January, and stressed that the person is “very well-qualified.”
