Mr. Lurie, on the other hand, is a party lifer. He got swept up in the Rockefeller mania of 1966, becoming the Teenage State Republican Party chairman, and stayed with the G.O.P. for the next four decades, including 10 years as the state party's executive director. And now he is at the forefront of a roiling effort to oust Mr. Cox from his perch as head of the State Republican Party.

"What do they say-victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan?" he said. "Did we miss opportunities that we should have taken advantage of last November? I would say yes. I think a lot of people would say yes."

Besides Mr. Lurie, at least a half-dozen other potential candidates are floating their names to take over as state chairman. There is Nick Langworthy, a young county chairman from Erie; Doug Colety, a longtime Westchester County leader; Liz Feld, a former mayor of Larchmont; and Myers Mermel, an ultra-wealthy former candidate for lieutenant governor. And there are still others that may emerge.

That so many are looking to depose Mr. Cox is a little odd. When he took over as chairman in 2009, declining to take a salary for the job, New York Republicans were at their lowest ebb. They held no statewide offices and their representation in Congress had been diminished to two seats. The State Senate, a Republican stronghold for 40 years, had flipped into Democratic hands. Demographic changes in the state meant that the party was facing permanent minority status.

But after Mr. Cox chased out of office Joe Mondello, a longtime and well-liked Nassau County clubhouse power broker, the G.O.P. quickly ousted two county executives in Democratic suburban strongholds. This November saw the Republicans retake six Congressional seats-more than any other state in the union-win back the State Senate and end the Democrats super-majority in the Assembly.

And almost as soon as the last votes were counted, Republicans began plotting how to unseat Mr. Cox. To some rank-and-file Republicans, Mr. Cox failed as a fund-raiser (a claim his aides vigorously dispute) and lacks the kind of brass-knuckled political know-how needed to rule a minority party. They say he lives too much in his family's glorious (or not-so-glorious, as it were) past, willing to sacrifice the good of the party for the Nixon name, and they point to the Congressional run of his son, Chris Cox, which occurred concurrently with Ed Cox's ascendancy as chairman.

For his part, Mr. Lurie doesn't want to talk much about Mr. Cox. Intraparty battles get personal and bloody soon enough.

Mr. Cox is reticent to talk about the issue as well, but mostly because he hasn't given his record much thought. Sitting in the upstairs office of the Metropolitan Republican Club, a red-brick mansion on East 83rd Street, he brings a long finger up to his face. "Ahhhh," he said. "I haven't really thought of assessing it." He paused again. "I haven't really thought of assessing it much at all."

As party officials tapped away on keyboards in the corners of the room and the faces of candidates from long-lost races stared down from the campaign posters affixed to the walls, he went through his short tenure as state party chairman-the victories in the Legislature and in the county executives races. He recounted how the Senate majority leader, Dean Skelos, told him that "he never thought he would be in a position to cut aid to education. But he did it!" He described crucial polling the party undertook, late infusions of cash into crucial races that helped tip the balance.

"We added our bit," he said. "By playing our role in all of these ways, I think the state party is now back." Like his father-in-law, Mr. Cox has a rare ability to inspire an almost nameless, vitriolic animus among his detractors. When he ran for state chairman, to his supporters he brought a touch of glamour to the grubby precincts of horse-trading politics. To the longtime party operatives from less privilege, he was the blue blood who swooped to the front of the parade by trading on the Nixon name without spending a day toiling in the vineyards of state politics. To them, the party's historic victories in November happened in spite of Mr. Cox, not because of him.

There is some truth to this. Faced with the uninspiring Rick Lazio as the gubernatorial nominee, Mr. Cox set out to recruit Steve Levy-the Suffolk County executive and a Democrat-to switch parties and run in his stead. It was, in many respects, an inspired move. Mr. Levy had $4 million in the bank and a conservative record, and would force Andrew Cuomo to pay attention to his base. A stronger party chairman may have been able to pull it off, but Mr. Cox, the political neophyte, was unable to shove Mr. Lazio aside. A civil war erupted, and the monstrously unelectable Carl Paladino became the G.O.P.'s gubernatorial nominee. All six statewide candidates were defeated, and with them, the Republican's best hope for the foreseeable future of winning statewide. "It was an embarrassment," said Eric Ulrich, a councilman from Queens. "Ed lost control of the process."

Now Andrew Cuomo has shown no signs of slowing down, and down-ballot Democrats stand to benefit. Retrenchment is inevitable among some of the legislative seats, and demographic trends look likely to continue the Democrats' way.
And all of that overshadows what may be the biggest problem facing Republicans right now: former party luminaries who have now entered the private sector and seem more concerned with making money than with electing Republicans, and who, Republicans say, have that instinctual dislike of Mr. Cox.

"This is the real story of the State Republican Party right now, and one no one will write about," said a party operative aligned with Mr. Cox. "The guys we made kings of New York have turned their backs on us."

Republicans say that Governor George Pataki has shown little interest in keeping the state party strong, and, more critically, point to Al D'Amato's standing onstage alongside Kirsten Gillibrand the day she was named to the U.S. Senate. Without Mr. D'Amato, now a big-deal lobbyist, corralling his rolodex for Republicans, the state party has no chance of a comeback.

"He goes on TV like he's a spokesman for the Republican Party, but he is really just a spokesman for the D'Amato Party," said one operative. "How can you blame him? This is a Democratic state. He needs to deal with winners." Mr. D'Amato declined to comment for this article.

Mr. Cox names no names, but said that there were too many elements in the party that had grown content with losing. His job was to get rid of them. "When you have a party that is not on the move, you have a lot of people just doing well off it, working to the detriment of the party. You have got to clean those elements out."

His opponents say it's hogwash. The problem, they say, is Mr. Cox, who still hasn't figured out how to operate the party machinery or rebuild its infrastructure. The race to be the next chairman has, unofficially, already begun, with outreach under way to the 398 members of the state committee who will decide who shall lead them. Another bloody civil war, though, could drag the party's prospects down further in what could be a very difficult election year.

Mr. Cox said he is ready and, as he does regularly, sprinkles his rhetoric with a mention of you-know-who.

"I am just trying to get something done," he said. "When I look at the hits my father-in-law took, I say this is nothing."

dfreedlander@observer.com

The two most visible figures in the war over bike lanes, NYC Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan (pro) and her predecessor, Iris Weinshall (con) ran into each other. Weinshall embraced the commissioner by the elbows and both smiled and nodded at one another.  (I didn't get my camera out in time to capture the moment.) What did she say to the commissioner? Weinshall told me, "That's between me and Janette Sadik-Khan, don't you think Azi?"

During former School Chancellor Joel Klein's remarks, ABNY's president, Bill Rudin tried hushing the crowd. After he did, Klein joked, "This was like every education meeting I've ever been to. Nobody ever listens."

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, in presenting an award to the Council's Education Chairman Robert Jackson, joked he had so much spirt and energy, she feared he might combust.

Former comptroller, and current mayoral candidate Bill Thompson greeted his one-time fund-raiser, Suri Kasirer (who again is the top lobbyist in NYC). "I cam here looking for you," he said.

State Republican Chairman Ed Cox chatted with former Democratic City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz; Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. chatted with former Congressman Mike McMahon. And former State Senator Craig Johnson and consultant George Fontas worked the room.

"The extraordinary Republican victories in the 2009 local elections sent a strong message that New Yorkers wanted fiscally responsible government," Cox says. "Andrew Cuomo got the message and in his gubernatorial campaign ran on fiscally responsible Republican policies.  With the 2010 elections producing a Senate Republican Majority and a stronger Republican Assembly conference, Governor Cuomo could close a gaping budget deficit by reducing spending and not raising taxes."

Cox is not all praise, however. He knocks Cuomo for not going as far as George Pataki did in 1995 in cutting the size of state government and for not doing more to pare back the "regulatory burdens on businesses, schools and counties."

"Governor Cuomo's polls are sky high due to his well deserved budget success," Cox says. "Now the Governor must use all his political skills and capital to work with Republicans and willing Democrats to make the huge changes required to grow our state's economy, bring back jobs and keep New York the commercial and financial capital of the nation and the world."

"What did Ed Cox know and when did he know it?" asked State Democratic Executive Director Charlie King in a public statement. It was issued after Cox praised Levy this morning, following Levy's announcement that he settled a 16-month investigation by giving up his $4 million campaign account and pledging not to seek a third term in office.

"Ed Cox doesn’t get it," King said in a public statement. "Integrity counts. Ethics counts. It is not acceptable to break the law, which apparently comes as a newsflash to Ed Cox. The question for Ed Cox – Levy’s de facto Campaign Chairman during the campaign under investigation – is what did he know and when did he know it?”

The famous reference is, of course, to a question asked during the Watergate hearings of then-President Richard Nixon, who Democrats always delight in tying to Cox, who married Nixon's daughter, Tricia, in the White House Rose Garden in 1971.

In an email to me, King elaborated on the statement, saying Cox didn't just support Levy's gubernatorial candidacy, but hoisted foisted him onto the GOP, and was intimately involved with the campaign.

Now, it's hard to see how Cox benefited personally or politically, from his ties to Levy. If anything, it was Cox's recruitment of Levy that caused Cox so many headaches. The assumption at the time was that Cox worked with Levy in exchange for Levy's help in a congressional race taking place in on his home turf, where one of the candidate's was Cox's son, Chris. Cox never made it onto the ballot and Chris lost the crowded primary to Randy Altschuler, who narrowly lost to Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop.

"I haven't had a chance to look at what's involved," said the GOP chairman, Ed Cox, who is swinging through three upstate cities today, after raising money in Florida yesterday.

"I do know you don't have the kind of thing like [State Senator] Carl Kruger," he said, "who had 54 criminal complaints, where it's absolutely clear he's accused of taking a million dollars in bribes. There's nothing like that here," said Cox.

Cox went on to defend Levy's record of fiscal management, and spoke about him as someone whose governing style should be duplicated.

"Steve did a great job for Suffolk County; this guy is a real fiscal conservative who not only stood for fiscal conservativism, but pro-growth principles," said Cox. "That's what the state needs and certainly he's done a very good job for the taxpayers of Suffolk County."

Cox said Levy "very much belonged in the Republican fold and he wanted to run for governor and he certainly had the qualifications for that."

When I asked if Cox wanted to see Levy run for governor again, Cox paused briefly. "I'm not sure what the future holds for Levy because he said he wants to return to private life. But he certainly was a good fiscal conservative, a good pro-growth county executive and he served his county very well. Those really are the principles of the Republican Party in New York State" and "those are the principles that people of New York State would benefit from."

Yesterday, Levy settled a 16-month investigation into his fund-raising practices by handing over his entire $4 million campaign account to the Suffolk County District Attorney and pledged not to seek a third term as Suffolk County Executive. Levy's campaign account was among the reasons offered by Republican Party leaders, like state chairman Ed Cox, when explaining why they recruited the life-long Democrat to run for the Republican nomination. That money is now being offered back to contributors; whatever is not claimed will be donated to charity. 

Levy's recruitment shook up the Republican Party heading into the 2010 elections. Levy's campaign nearly derailed the campaign of former Congressman Rick Lazio, who had the support of party figures like former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Governor George Pataki. But Lazio struggled to raise money and pick up endorsements from county leaders, in part because of Levy's candidacy and Cox's involvement. Lazio eventually succeeded in keeping Levy out of the Republican primary, but lost the nomination to the Tea-Party fueled Carl Paladino, a businessman from Buffalo.

Today, Lazio's former campaign spokesman, Barney Keller, took a shot at Cox, by way of Levy's scandal.

"This is a huge embarrassment for Ed Cox and John LaValle," Keller wrote in an email to me. "They slobbered all over Steve Levy solely because of his campaign account, and now they won't see a dime. I guess it's true what they say: only fools invest in fools gold."

Messages left on Cox's cell phone yesterday have not been returned.

"This is a regrettable situation and it is sad that [Lee] had to resign,” Cox wrote in a press release. “We are fortunate to have an energized Republican Party and a deep bench of potential candidates in Western New York.”

At a Crain's breakfast forum with state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, Cox told reporters that he had not spoken to Lee before his resignation.

Assemblywoman Jane Corwin, who also serves as treasurer of the State Republican Party, and Assemblyman Jack Quinn III are among the names being tossed around as potential Republican candidates for the seat.

At the forum, Skelos was asked about another potential candidate, state Senator George Maziarz, but Skelos said that he did not believe Maziarz would run, based on what he had heard from other senators who had spoken to him.

"I believe in the end, Senator Maziarz, who is the president pro tem of the Senate, will be staying in the Senate," Skelos said.

Skelos added that even if Maziarz did run, he was confident the party could hold that state Senate district in a special election, based on its heavily Republican bent--an attitude echoed by Cox with regard to the congressional seat.

“I am confident that a very strong and qualified candidate will be selected to run who will continue to ensure that the people of the 26th District are represented in the Republican Majority in the House of Representatives in Washington," Cox said in his statement.

Cox said he got encouraging news from RNC Chairman Michael Steele after the two appeared at an event last week for Charlie Rangel's challenger, Michael Faulkner.

"Steele told us that Mr Faulkner--according to his polls, the Republican National Committee polls--thatwithin four percentage points of beating Charlie Rangel. That was what Chairman Steele said, and that district is one in which it would be very interesting if Mike Faulkner were to win that," Cox said.

He went on to list ten congressional districts that he things are particularly competitive: the 1st, the 4th, the 13th (Michael Grimm is running a very good race out there"), the 19th and 20th, the 22nd ("I think George Forbes will beat Maurice Hinchey"), the 23 ("is always exciting, that's close, lots of cross guards out there"), the 24th, the 25th and the 29th.

The room filled with resounding "boos" the jumbo screens showing news feeds declaring the senatorial races for Democrats Chuck Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand.

He addressed the crowd of about 150 people briefly, talking about a rising tide of Republican power that will change Albany and Washington D.C.

"My friends, there is one party control in Albany for the first time since 1933 and one party control in Washington, and it's not our party and so this is our oppportunity, an opportunity for victory, my friends, for victory, and that is what we are going to have today," Cox said.

Republican comptroller candidate Harry Wilson is the first to arrive at the GOP victory party. Since arriving, he has spent at least 20 minutes talking to the press in the media pin, as opposed to mingling with the 125 or so guests.

Siena's most recent poll has the comptroller race essentially tied, yet Wilson remains optimistic because of his internal polls.

"Our internal polls were always much closer than public polls, I don't know why that is but I have a lot of confidence in our internal polls," Wilson said.

Wilson stressed the importance of an independent comptroller, and, in spite of his statements to the contrary, many could view this as an attempt to connect himself to a flalling Republican gubernatorial candidate.

"I'm not trying to distance myself from Carl Paladino, I just think that the comptroller needs to be independent, no matter who the top of the ticket was," he said.

"My opponent's tenure has been a sad example of what happens when the comptroller is not independent and so that's really what I've tried to emphasize.

"I'm really impressed by the number of people who look at each race independently," he added.

"A lot of times we talk of our party in terms of the Grand Old Party," Steele said at the event. "And there's a lot that's grand, there's a lot that's old about our party. But here today in Harlem, standing shoulder to shoulder, arm and arm with Michel Faulkner, we are now the Great Opportunity Party, we are the new G.O.P."

Ed Cox, chairman of the New York State Republican Party, also spoke at the rally in support of Faulkner. Steele and Cox have battled, off and on, throughout the election season. Steele objected when Cox backed the former Democratic county executive, Steve Levy, for the party's gubernatorial nomination, and later steered national money around Cox, to local committees.

But both kept the focus on Faulkner, who is challenging nearly 40-year incumbent Representative Charles Rangel.

"We know Charlie Rangel's an institution, we get that," said Steele, who arrived on "Fire Pelosi" tour bus. "We know he's served a long time, we get that too. But at some point in your life folks you have to look around your neighborhood, you've got to look at how your kids are being educated. You've got to look at how your businesses come in and then go. How they die on the vine."

Like many Republican challengers, Faulkner emphasized his outsider status.

"I am very much the people's candidate," he said. "I was not put forth by a machine."

With only passing references to taking back the House and Senate, most of the focus was on Faulkner's race.

On his way out, Steele did talk about the positive effects of the Tea Party, saying that it was bringing back voters who had left the Republican party.

"In many respects the Tea Party has been very helpful in reinvigorating the party's base and reconnecting us to some of those old fashioned principles, if you will, that we forgot on our journey between 1994 and 2006," Steele said. "There's a reason why we lost in 2006, there's a reason why we continued to lose in 2008: because a lot of people who supported us through the '80s and the '90s, and for a good part of this century, walked away, they felt that the party walked away--that we got into big government Republicanism. That we started spending money and that we started juicing the institutions of government and that's not been part of our make up."

Congressional candidate Susan Kone from NY-8 also spoke at the event, as did New York Republican County Committee Chairwoman Jennifer Saul.