From a press release that just went out:

Earlier this week, one of those positions was filled when Jennifer Yaffa was elected to chair the Manhattan party.

As for the finance post... Nothing yet.

State party spokesman Tony Santino told me yesterday the position is still vacant. He said it would filled by appointment by the state party chairman, but he declined to float any names.

Sigh.

-- Azi Paybarah

I haven't been able to reach Ortenzio on his cell phone or at his office to confirm. When I asked state party spokesman Tony Santino if Ortenzio was still Manhattan chair, he said, "I've heard nothing to the contrary."

If it's true, though, here's why it might make sense: Ortenzio is a Pataki ally who backed Bill Weld for governor and KT McFarland for Senate. Both lost to more conservative candidates, and the new state party chairman, Joseph Mondello, was not particularly close with Pataki.

Also, Ortenzio is reportedly the subject of an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney for allegedly filing misleading financial statements with the state.

UPDATE: I just got off the phone with Ortenzio, who confirmed that he resigned as state finance chair and Manhattan county chair at the beginning of the year. Local Republicans could vote for a new county chair as early as next Tuesday, he said.

"There are no '07 elections, '08 is a presidential election, '09 is a city election. So it's perfect timing," Ortenzio said when reached by cell phone.

He also said he will help raise money for next month's Lincoln Day Dinner, explaining, "I pass it, I don't flip it in the air for someone to catch. This baton will be easy to grasp."

He said the reported investigation had nothing to do with the timing of his decision.

-- Azi Paybarah

And on the subject of Republican leadership...

Manhattan GOP Chair and medieval cartography expert James Ortenzio - an early Bill Weld supporter - wants to know why John Faso isn't getting more help from the county leaders who claim to be in his camp.

"They're the ones who said last September that a primary would vitiate our resources," he said, referring to the Faso supporters. "That presupposes that there are resources. Let's see them."

As evidence that Faso isn't getting a level of backing befitting a party nominee, Ortenzio said, "I don't think his filing was particularly healthy. I don't hear of too many events coming up in the future. I don't hear too many statements of support - and he has some major counties supporting him. So what are the Republicans doing for John Faso?"

Anyone?

-- Josh Benson

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."

Today, the chairman of the Manhattan Republican Party, James Ortenzio, sent a letter to the city's Campaign Finance Board asking that Ognibene be disqualified from the CFB-backed debate in Harlem because he doesn't meet one of the technical requirements for qualifying, showing up with at least 5% support in a poll of at least 1,000 voters.

Ognibene's name hasn't been included in a poll of that sample size, and he has shown up at 1% and 2% in smaller polls.

"Please note that the absence of a qualifying poll for Mr. Ognibene is due to the fact that his public support is insignificant," Ortenzio writes. "Indeed, in a September 27, 2005 Marist poll which surveyed 721 registered voters, of which 381 were likely voters, Mr. Ognibene only polled at 2% and 1%, respectively. If one subtracts the margins of error (4% and 5% respectively) as required under the MOU, it would result in negative levels of support."

Hard to believe the CFB will back down on this one, but it does allow the Bloomberg campaign to, again, raise the spectacle of Freddy alone on stage. It's also a demonstration of how the resource-rich Bloomberg campaign is able to fight for every inch of ground on all fronts.

"Whether it's a log cabin, a yurt, an igloo or a split-level, we've got room for every kind of housing no matter how you depict yourself in terms of your belief,'' says State Republican Party leader James Ortenzio.

He added that State Senator Serph Maltese, the anti-Log Cabin Republican voice, "turned himself in one minute from the Maltese Falcon to some form of domestic poultry."

But Mr. Ortenzio, a multilingual meat magnate with a degree in medieval cartography, believes he's about to accomplish a renaissance of two-party politics in Manhattan. With no members of Congress, State Senators, State Assemblymen or City Council members in the Republican column, Mr. Ortenzio is starting at the bottom of the ballot, with contests so obscure that they have come to be regarded as formalities: judicial elections for State Supreme Court.

"I think that the process of selecting and running candidates for judgeships has an effect on other offices, including legislative offices," he said. "I think a number of people who were involved with this will kind of catch the spirit, and it will bring other people in who are interested in running for office."

This unlikely effort comes at a time when New York Republicans are preparing to host the party's national convention next year. The convention is very much a part of the rebuilding process, although the process itself promises to be painful.

"They've got about as much chance of electing Supreme Court judges in Manhattan as getting their pet pigs to fly from the 40th story," said political consultant Norman Adler, who actually laughed when asked about the G.O.P.'s judicial candidates. "There was a time when Republicans could win in the judiciary. But now, it's just not going to happen."

He said that it was more an exercise in party-building than an actual attempt at winning office. "They want to show the flag," he said. "They're looking forward to the convention in 2004 and the [city] elections in 2005. The hope is that their partisans can get in the habit of voting Republican, because at least they'll see that there's a Republican candidate. If there's not, they'll actually forget how to do it."

The importance of such party-building was evident last July, when the leadership of the Republican National Committee made an unusual trek to Washington Heights to open Manhattan's first G.O.P. outreach center. The next stage will be fielding candidates in even the most obscure races.

In the most recent State Supreme Court elections, Democrats ran unopposed. This time, the Republicans have come up with three judges to carry their banner: Dean Vigliano, a former assistant district attorney under Robert Morgenthau; Gregory Reed, a commercial and criminal lawyer; and Stephen Crane, an incumbent Democrat who will be running on both lines this time around.

Though the Republican candidates will struggle to be competitive with their Democratic opponents, the very fact that they are running is meant to be more than just a symbolic gesture.

The Upper East Side was once a bastion of what was called Rockefeller Republicanism, socially (and sometimes even fiscally) liberal, symbolized by people like John Lindsay, Bill Green and retired State Senator Roy Goodman. Now, in the face of dwindling numbers of registered Republican voters in Manhattan, the party is trying to revisit that time when it enjoyed some success.

Witness the scene before the start of a judicial screening-committee hearing convened recently at the once-grand Metropolitan Republican Club on East 83rd Street, as Mr. Ortenzio stood outside giving a discourse to a small group of Republican staffers on how the proceedings would go. (The last time Republicans got together to select judicial candidates in Manhattan was in the early 1960s.)

"Do you know why it took Champollion 28 years to translate the Rosetta Stone?" he asked, gesturing with a cigarette as his charges looked on blankly. "Because little by little, the world had forgotten Coptic, and without Coptic you can't read hieroglyphics."

More uneasy silence.

"That's what happened here," he continued. "No one remembers what the rules are or how to do this …. We're remaking the freaking wheel!"

Inside the club, an old brick building with creaky wooden floors, a battered grand piano and a giant oil portrait of Nelson Rockefeller, about 30 people had gathered to perform the rites of selection. Seven of them were judicial candidates, and the rest were district leaders and local activists.

What then took place was a quaintly democratic process described by Mr. Ortenzio as a "colloquial colloquium," during which each candidate talked about himself and then answered some questions from the floor. After the candidates left, the delegates discussed their merits.

What Next?

A week later, at a judicial convention at the Metropolitan Club, they reached decisions on their candidates. Because of the strict rules governing judicial races, as well as a lack of precedent and lack of means, no one is quite sure what's supposed to happen next. (As of Oct. 21, the extent of the campaign strategy was a plan to run a newspaper ad in support of the three nominees.)

Despite the fact that this was all a quintessentially partisan activity being planned at the headquarters of a political club, the people involved with the process talked earnestly of having a higher purpose. "If a competing party like the Republicans-if you can call it competition in a one-sided county like this-is fielding candidates, it has to have an upward effect on the candidates of the Democratic Party," said Mr. Crane, the incumbent Democratic judge who will be running on both lines this November. "To be competitive, the Democrats are going to want to field excellent candidates as well. This is very conceptual, but I think it has a psychological impact on the electorate, and I think it's an important aspect of encouraging confidence by the electorate."

Mr. Ortenzio, too, casts the Republican effort to field judicial candidates as a public service. "The judiciary has withered," he said. "It's withered within the Republican Party and, ironically, within the dominant party. Whether one party has gotten fat, and the other has gotten so skinny that it can't function, it has been bad for the public."

But it's not clear that more candidates will amount to more competition. Because of the huge disadvantages of the Republicans, the outcome is all but predetermined. Judicial races are extremely low-profile affairs, meaning that those voters who even bother to vote that far down the ballot tend simply to do so along party lines. And with the massive registration deficit in Manhattan-there are approximately five Democrats for every Republican in the borough-it would all seem to be too much for the new Republican contenders to overcome.

As for the candidates themselves, they seemed resigned to play their role in New York political history. "I appreciate that New York County is a solid Democratic county, and that I am an underdog," said Mr. Vigliano, one of the two candidates running solely on the Republican line. "But I'm not going into the tank. I'm not like a wrestler who's designated to lose. I believe the process can be improved, and I believe as long as coverage is given and the points we're trying to make are made, I don't think that's academic at all. If we can get away from one political party always dictating who the judges shall be, that's a positive thing. And if I end up losing, I can live with that."

place Gov. George Pataki intended to be on June 3 was the New York

Sheraton, where two newly declared enemies of the state were throwing a

fund-raising bash for the Republican Party's state committee. Mr.

Pataki reportedly was boycotting the event because James Ortenzio and

Georgette Mosbacher, two of the state's most prolific Republican

fund-raisers, are helping Mayor Rudolph Giuliani raise money for his

prospective U.S. Senate campaign.

If you've been following the continuing story of George and Rudy,

the one entitled: "Only One of Us Gets Out of Here Alive,

Sucker," you know that there are people in Albany who are not

particularly enthusiastic about the Mayor's Federal ambitions. And

they told the New York Post 's Fredric U. Dicker, whose Inside

Albany column is the Daily Racing Form of state politics, that Mr.

Ortenzio and Ms. Mosbacher had been placed "on Mr. Pataki's new

'enemies list'" because of their efforts on the Mayor's

behalf. The insiders gleefully noted that Mr. Pataki, or somebody close to

him, had declined to let the state G.O.P. committee use his name in

soliciting contributions for the Sheraton event, and that neither Ms.

Mosbacher nor Mr. Ortenzio had been invited to Mr. Pataki's much-hyped

endorsement of Gov. George W. Bush of Texas for President.

An uproar ensued, for Mr. Ortenzio and Ms. Mosbacher are no ordinary

hustings-hustlers. They are two of the most influential Republican

fund-raisers in the state (Ms. Mosbacher once raised $15 million in a

single night) and they helped lift George Pataki from obscure state

legislator to potential vice president-in-waiting. Ms. Mosbacher said that

Mr. Ortenzio, who is chairman of the Hudson River Park Conservancy,

received more than 100 voice-mail messages from furious allies and friends

expressing outrage over his supposed banishment. Mr. Ortenzio declined to

comment.

Ms. Mosbacher, in an interview with The Observer , said she

hadn't realized she was being punished for helping Mr. Giuliani.

"There was one meeting I wasn't invited to," she said.

"Big deal. I still don't feel punished."

With political insiders yapping about a major fissure in state

Republican ranks on the eve of campaigns for President and U.S. Senate, Mr.

Pataki apparently realized his absence would make matters worse. Sources

familiar with the event said the Governor decided at the last minute to

show up at the Sheraton on the appointed date, and, in full view of

disgruntled and gruntled alike, he gave his supposed enemies a flat-out,

back-squeezing hug. Mr. Ortenzio and Ms. Mosbacher squeezed back. "He

treated me as he always does," said Ms. Mosbacher of Mr. Pataki.

"I didn't sense any problem whatsoever."

Some observers recalled a famous betrayal that was preceded by a peck on

the cheek, but Mr. Pataki's gesture seemed genuine to at least one

witness. "I was two steps away," said a Republican insider. The

source said there were no signs of tension between the Governor and the two

fund-raisers.

Political insiders, never shy about adjusting their analyses when new

gossip presents itself, now are whispering that Ms. Mosbacher and Mr.

Ortenzio provoked the wrath not of Mr. Pataki, but of forces aligned with

former Senator Alfonse D'Amato, an erstwhile Giuliani foe in whose

image the current state Republican Party was created. "Alfonse wants

as much power in the state as he can get," said one Republican source

familiar with the situation. Mr. D'Amato didn't return calls

seeking comment, but sources close to the parties involved said they

believe the former Senator or his well-placed allies in state government

circulated the stories about Mr. Pataki's supposed anger with the

fund-raisers. According to the sources, the D'Amato allies were hoping

to send a message to other would-be Giuliani supporters seeking to stay on

good terms with the state Republican machine.

"They were trying to make an example of Ortenzio," said one

Republican insider. "It didn't work. It backfired."

A Flurry of Calls

The Dicker column apparently embarrassed the Governor and prompted

him to place several reassuring telephone calls, including one to Mr.

Ortenzio. "I know for a fact that [the Governor] is trying to mend

some fences," said one close ally of Mr. Pataki. "You can't

make enemies over nothing. I know Pataki himself was on the phone trying to

make everything right."

While the Governor's peacemaking gesture in the Sheraton sent a

message about his continued affection for Mr. Ortenzio and Ms. Mosbacher,

the turmoil was yet another indication of high-level tensions between the

Pataki and Giuliani camps. The rivalry, Ms. Mosbacher conceded, has not

exactly helped the cause of party harmony. "It's petty infighting

that doesn't help anyone except Hillary Clinton [the presumed

Democratic candidate for Senate]," Ms. Mosbacher said. "But

people do believe this will blow over."

Some government professionals are not so sure. They say the

Pataki-Giuliani divide is on their mind whenever they try to do business

with either the state or city governments. "Everyone who is dealing

with the state understands the perils of doing business with the Giuliani

administration," said one top lobbyist. "You know not to be too

praiseworthy [of the Mayor] in print."

The Mayor's people are convinced that Mr. Pataki's people are

working behind the scenes to make life uncomfortable for people like Mr.

Ortenzio and Ms. Mosbacher, who work both camps in the interests of

promoting New York Republicans. "It's palpable at City

Hall," said one Giuliani fund-raiser. "There's a sense that

Pataki is trying to hurt them in a variety of ways."

Chief among those hurtful ways is the Governor's presumed support

for, or at least encouragement of, Representative Rick Lazio of Long

Island, who may challenge Mr. Giuliani for the Senate nomination next year.

The Giuliani fund-raiser conceded that there was great concern about the

damage Mr. Lazio could do to Mr. Giuliani even if the Mayor wound up

winning the nomination. The ghost of Ron Lauder, the perfume heir whom Mr.

D'Amato recruited to run an expensive kamikaze campaign against Mr.

Giuliani in 1989, has yet to be exorcised, and probably never will be. Mr.

Lauder's negative campaign against Mr. Giuliani during the '89

Republican primary campaign very likely contributed to David Dinkins'

narrow victory over Mr. Giuliani that year. "Lazio could hurt Rudy

like Lauder did in 1989," the mayoral fund-raiser said.

A Republican consultant familiar with New York politics noted that Mr.

Pataki's aides, particularly those associated with Mr. D'Amato,

are "obsessed" with Mr. Giuliani and his probable campaign for

U.S. Senate next year. Among the strongest anti-Giuliani operatives is the

Governor's outspoken communications director, Zenia Mucha, a former

operative for Mr. D'Amato.

Sources close to the Republican infighting are convinced that Mr.

D'Amato is trying to find a way of reasserting the authority he lost

when voters turned him out of office last November. They saw his hand, or

the hand of somebody close to him, in the strange attacks on Mr. Ortenzio

and Ms. Mosbacher.

Several argued that it was unlike George Pataki to order a public exile

of two loyal–and valuable–friends like Mr. Ortenzio and Ms.

Mosbacher. Indeed, theassertion that they were on the Governor's

"enemies list" was jarring, if only because the genial Mr. Pataki

carefully nurtures his image as a tolerant and inclusive bridge-builder, an

antidote to Mr. Giuliani's famously assertive tactics. The notion of

even-tempered, well-adjusted George Pataki wielding an enemies list rang

false, almost like asserting that Charles Dickens actually was a

self-absorbed philanderer who cruelly left his wife and copious number of

children for another woman.

Or, er, something like that.