Gerard “Jerry” Kassar was unanimously re-elected as head chair of the state’s conservative party for a fourth term on Saturday. The Party Executive Committee’s vote took place at the American Legion Blanchard-Curreuy Post in Delmar, New York.
First elected party chairman when he succeeded Michael Long in February 2019, Kassar was previously the Brooklyn Conservative Party Chairman and New York State Conservative Party vice chairman.
He has also served as: national director of Young American for Freedom (YAF) in the 1980s at just 22 years old, in senior staff roles under both Senator Marty Golden (Chief of Staff) and Governor Pataki (Commissioner of the Interstate Environmental Commission), as president of the Dyker Heights civic association, and on the board of trustees of the former Victory Memorial Hospital.
Kassar resides in the Dyker Heights community with his wife, Janet. A lifelong Brooklynite and champion of conservative ideas, Kassar has routinely proved to shine while using local posts to weigh in with credible influence on both statewide and national matters.
In his weekly “Common Sense” column for The Brooklyn Reporter, Kassar wrote of then Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) in November 2020, “Earlier this year, I gave Gov. Andrew Cuomo high marks for communicating each day the status of COVID and the state’s response. I did not give him high marks for the response itself, which is bared out in the numbers of cases and deaths.
“As such, I think the Emmy he is being awarded for his communications skills is insulting to all New Yorkers, but in particular to those who have lost loved ones,” Kassar added. “I suppose I should not have expected better from those who do little more than play at being someone other than themselves.”
The New York Conservative Party was first formed in 1962 “to restore a meaningful choice to the voters of New York State.”
Political consultant William F.B. O’Reilly of The November Team continued: “At that time, the three existing political parties espoused the doctrinaire liberal philosophy of the welfare state at home and the collectivist ideology abroad. In just six decades, the party has grown from a small band of conservative-minded men and women to a statewide organization dedicated to the traditional American values of individual freedom, individual responsibility, and individual effort.”
The Conservative Party most notably elected 10 New York Republican-Conservative candidates to Congress in 2022—victories that helped give the GOP its current House majority.
“Serving the Conservative Party has been one of the great privileges of my life, and I am honored to be elected chairman again,” Kassar said in a statement. “The New York State Conservative Party has stood for time-tested principles for more than 60 years — common sense, individual, political and economic freedom, and respect for the Constitution — and that advocacy will boldly continue under my leadership. New York State has become a shell of itself under faddish progressive rule, and taxpayers are yearning for normalcy and economic relief.”
Additional new electees in the New York State Conservative Party’s executive ranks include: Ralph C. Lorigo-Executive Vice Chair; Howard Lim, Jr.-Secretary; and Frances T. Vella-Marrone-Treasurer.