Westchester Conservative Party Chair Hugh Fox
By Dan Murphy
“Republicans and Conservatives in Westchester can’t win elections if we are divided. There aren’t enough of us left.” This comment, from a Westchester republican, echo the thoughts of several republican elected officials and leaders who have had negative political interactions with Hugh Fox, Chairman of the Westchester County Conservative Party.
Fox, who has been County Conservative Chairman since 2011, has been withholding the Conservative Party line from republican candidates since 2019. Last year, he gave the Conservative line to Five Democratic, progressive pro-abortion candidates for State Supreme Court from Westchester.
That unprecedented move gave all five candidates, Judges Anne Minihan, David Zuckerman, David Squirrell, Elena Goldberg-Velazquez and Sherri Eisenpress help in their victories and enraged Westchester Republicans who had the same working arrangement with the Conservative Party for decades in judicial races. Some say the reason for this is that Fox’s wife works in the Westchester County Courthouse, where many of these same judges preside.
This year, Fox has withheld the Conservative line from republican candidates in Eastchester, Tuckahoe, New Rochelle, Harrison, and Yonkers, and some have had enough.
In Eastchester, Fox sent out a letter to Conservative Party members in Town, alleging that “Republicans have decided not to run on the Conservative line.” Actually, it was Fox who denied one republican candidate for Town Board, Anthony Giacobbe, from also running on the Conservative Party line, and then ran a conservative candidate against Giacobbe and Councilwoman Sheila Marcotte (also up for reelection), without telling the republicans.
That dispute resulted in Supervisor Tony Colavita and the entire republican ticket in Eastchester to side with Giacobbe in refusing to take the conservative line without their running mate. So, the two Eastchester republican candidates for Town Board are now opposed by a Conservative candidate who is totally unelectable.
In the letter that Fox mailed out to Eastchester residents, he explains that Giacobee’s political sin is that he is a supporter of Rob Astorino. “Anthony Giacobbe and Scooter Scott (2021 GOP County Clerk candidate and candidate this year for Tuckahoe Mayor) were not endorsed due to their misguided and ambitious associations with incompetent and ethically lapsed politicians, particularly the last Westchester County Executive, and his greedy political operatives,” writes Fox.
“Giacobbe backed the same, failed former politician against Lee Zeldin last year…. We find Mr. Giacobbe to be disloyal. He is a man in a hurry…. We are endorsing Bob Fois for this open seat,” writes Fox.
The question that many are asking is why does Fox have such political hatred for Astorino? Fox became County Conservative Chair in 2011. When Astorino became County Exec., he gave Fox a six-figure county job with a car. In 2014, Fox crashed the county car and got arrested for DWI in White Plains. He resigned his county job the next day, but quickly was given a private job at Westchester County Airport.
But Fox is said to hold a grudge against Astorino for “not going to bat for him with the DWI,” said one Westchester Republican. “What did he want Astorino to do, squash the arrest for DWI after he crashed a county car?” asked one Westchester republican. Since 2018, Fox has publicly bashed Astorino and anyone who supports him.
We find Anthony Giacobbe to be a young, republican-conservative whose political future is bright. In 2021 he almost upset Damon Maher for County Legislator. His wife Laurie serves on the Eastchester School Board. We find the Giacobbe family to be true conservatives, and do not believe that Giacobbe’s support for Astorino to be a lifetime ban on public service in the county.
“Hugh Fox declined to endorse a republican slate of candidates in Eastchester, one of the last republican-conservative strongholds in Westchester. Good luck with that Chairman Fox, for shooting your party in the foot,” said an Eastchester republican.
Fox has circulated petitions for Bob Fois, Eastchester Conservative Party Chair, to run for Town Board. Fois has the same employment history as Fox. Both were given county jobs by Astorino, but now both are actively working against anyone tied to Astorino, the former two-term County Executive who still has the respect of a super-majority of republicans across the county. And Fois still has his job in county government, 6 years under the new democratic administration of County Executive George Latimer, making some wonder how this conservative leader in Eastchester still has his job.
Prior to Latimer’s election in 2017, it was a rare occurrence for republicans in Westchester NOT to get the Conservative Party line. “Now it’s happening all over the county,” said one county conservative not affiliated with Fox and Fois.
Several years ago, Fois ran for Westchester County Board against Vito Pinto, and lost badly, despite having both the republican and conservative party lines. Fois recently sent out a letter to Eastchester residents that we have obtained. He writes, “My candidacy leaves us with an election between a Conservative and a Republican-two parties who share common principles…. Our party embraces the sanctity of life. We support Judges who support your Second Amendment rights.”
But Fois’ words do not match the actions of Fox and the Westchester Conservative Party, who endorsed five democratic candidates for State Supreme Court just last year. Many see this as an inherent double standard, and the smell of backroom politics rampant in the Westchester Conservative Party
“If you are asking me to choose between Rob Astorino and Hugh Fox, it’s no contest. Astorino all the way. And the odd thing about it is that Rob is a true conservative, based on his principles and beliefs, and the way he ran the county as County Executive. This is getting ridiculous,” said one Westchester republican leader.
Republican candidates in Harrison and Yonkers and other municipalities are having the same problems with the Westchester conservative party. In Yonkers, Councilman Anthony Merante, the republican candidate for Yonkers Mayor, did not get the Conservative Party line this year. “You are not going to get more Conservative in Yonkers than Anthony Merante. And this year, you never know with the term limits debate and Mayor Spano seeking a fourth term. Merante could be close enough to win.”
And in Harrison. Fox denied the republicans and gave the conservative line to the entire slate of democratic candidates in the upcoming Town elections. Other Westchester communities where Republican candidates did not get the Conservative line in 2023 (some did not seek due to the toxicity of the party) include: Bedford, Bronxville, Cortlandt, Tarrytown, Pelham, New Rochelle, Rye City and White Plains.
And in the most recent county-wide race, Republican County Executive candidate Christine Sculti had the same thing done to her by the Conservative party in Westchester, denying her their line, as well as the republican candidates for County Clerk, and for District Attorney in 2020.
One registered Conservative from Cortlandt remined us that back in 2011, at a County Board of Legislators meeting, Fox “disrupted the proceedings and was led out of the Chamber by a Westchester County Public Safety officer…Fox then began acting inappropriately in the Rotunda, with witnesses watching him first standing on a table and then attempting to vandalize one of the framed portraits on the wall. The portrait came off the wall and Fox quickly re-hung the portrait back up before scrambling off the table,” according to the Albany Times Union.
“When is it enough? Every year, there are fewer and fewer registered conservative in Westchester. And Hugh Fox is going to tell the republican party what to do? Isn’t this the tail telling the dog what to do?”
