History
The Conservative Party of New York State was founded in 1962 by a group including J. Daniel Mahoney, Kieran O'Doherty, Charles E. Rice, and Charles Edison, out of frustration with the perceived liberalism of the state's Republican Party. A key consideration was New York's fusion voting, unusual among US states, which allows individual candidates to receive votes from more than one party. The Liberal Party of New York, founded in 1944, had earlier benefitted from this system.
The Conservative Party founders wanted to balance the Liberal Party's influence. One early supporter was National Review founder William F. Buckley, who was the party's candidate for mayor of New York City in 1965. In 1970, his brother James Buckley was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Conservative Party candidate; in 1976, he ran for reelection as a candidate of the Republican and Conservative Parties, losing to Daniel Patrick Moynihan. In the 2004 U.S. Senate election, the Conservative Party endorsed Marilyn O'Grady to oppose Republican candidate Howard Mills and incumbent Democratic Senator Charles Schumer.
| Chair | Tenure | Hometown while serving |
|---|---|---|
| Kieran E. O'Doherty | February 1962 – July 1962 | Manhattan |
| J. Daniel Mahoney | July 1962 – April 1986 | Manhattan |
| Serphin R. Maltese | April 1986 – December 1988 | Queens |
| Michael R. Long | December 1988 – present | Brooklyn |
Read more about this topic: Conservative Party Of New York State
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