Westchester Conservative Party Chair Hugh Fox
By Dan Murphy
Last month, we reported on complaints made against Hugh Fox, Chairman of the Westchester County Conservative Party, for endorsing democratic candidates for office over republican -conservative candidates. Fox, in written documents and public comments, nonsensically blames the consrvative party endorsements for democrats over republicans on former County Executive Rob Astorino. That story, Hugh Fox is Destroying the Westchester Conservative Party came from Westchester republicans complaining the Fox was endorsing democratic candidates across the county who share NONE of the beliefs of the Conservative Party, and that anyone who had even a distant history with Astorino would not receive the Conservative Party’s endorsement.
In 2022, Fox gave the Conservative line to Five Democratic, progressive, pro-abortion candidates for State Supreme Court. And this year, Fox did the same thing, giving the Conservative Party line to four democratic State Supreme Court Judicial candidates over the republican candidates at the Conservative Party’s Judicial Convention for the 9th Judicial District, held in August. Despite the negative attention given to his decision to endorse candidates without regard for their liberal views, Fox, denied Judges with a more conservative philosophy the Conservative Party line…again.
But four Conservative party members filed a lawsuit against Fox, other members of the party and all 8 candidates who sought the C line for State Supreme Court Judge. The lawsuit alleged fraud at the Conservative Party convention, and the case ended up before State Supreme Court Judge Thomas Marcelle from Albany County. Judge Marcelle interviewed witnesses at the convention and made his decision on September 11.
Judge Marcelle writes, “On August 13, 2023, delegates of the Conservative Party assembled for a judicial
convention for the Ninth Judicial District. Four slots for Supreme Court Justice were available. However, eight candidates contested the party’s endorsement. The convention was not only contested; it was contentious. And what exactly happened at the convention is a matter of some dispute. Therefore, the court held a trial and finds the relevant facts, based upon the credible evidence and the fair inferences made therefrom, as follows:
36 delegates were present for the convention. Judge Marcelle took particular notice of one witness, Evelyn Kahlow, chair of the Lewisboro Conservative Town Committee and Presiding Officer and Secretary of the 9th Judicial District Conservative Convention. “In particular, the court finds the testimony of Evelyn Kahlow to be incredible and unreliable. Ms. Kahlow was unable to provide straightforward answers to the most basic questions; she evaded the inquiries of opposing counsel, offered contradictory testimony, and routinely provided unresponsive answers. Therefore, the court disregards her testimony. The comprehensible portion of her testimony were scripted lines that had been spoon fed to her and then regurgitated on the stand.”
Fox was elected the Chair of the 9th JD Conservative convention, which was made up of the Conservative Party’s from Westchester, Putnman, Dutchess, Rockland and Orange Counties. “In total, eight candidate names were placed before the delegation for nomination: Francesca Connolly, Larry J. Schwartz, Rolf M. Thorson, Charley Wood, (four democrats) and John Sarcone, III, Karen Ostberg, Susan M. Sullivan-Bisceglia, and John Ciampoli (four republicans).
“A vote was taken on the nominee by a show of hands. Fox counted the hands and then announced the results of the vote to the convention. Fox testified that his count of the hand vote for each candidate resulted in a majority of votes for Connolly, Schwartz, Thorson, and Wood, while Sarcone, Ostberg, Sullivan-Bisceglia, and Ciampoli fell short of a majority. This voting method left much to be desired from an accuracy standpoint,” writes Judge Marcelle.
“The disorganized, mottled way the people were flung about the room made it impossible for the rank-and-file delegates to observe and ascertain the actual vote count for any of the candidates…On at least one occasion more votes were tallied then there were eligible delegates. Delegate Phil Polizzatto requested, in front of the rest of the convention, that the votes for each nominee be taken by roll call. Fox unilaterally refused this request, stating that he did not have enough time to take a vote by roll call. The ruling of the chair went unchallenged.
However, Judge Marcelle points out in his decision, that opponents to Fox’s method of madness did not properly object to the procedure used to take the vote. “Delegates did not like the outcome, but it was clear the delegates did not challenge the process employed by Fox.
“The lawsuit alleges that Fox did not call for nominations to the committee to fill vacancies, a NYS election law requirement. But Fox and his allies claimed otherwise. Judge Marcelle writes, “Fox claims that there was a motion, a second and a voice vote that properly established a committee to fill vacancies. The accuracy and the truthfulness of Fox’s testimony is contested.
“Before resolving the issue, the court needs to address its view of Fox’s credibility. Fox’s testimony seemed tailored, scripted, rote, and insincere—it also conflicted with his previous statements. Moreover, the testimony at trial established that Fox improperly exercised the power of the chair on multiple occasions. From this fact, the court infers Fox’s motive was to reach a desired result and not to have a fair process at the convention….Fox’s testimony comes tainted with insincerity and deception.”
Based on the testimony of two Conservative Party members, Judge Marcelle determined that “The court finds that the convention never voted on a committee to fill vacancies. Rather, Fox took it upon himself, post-convention, to insert into the minutes and the certificate of nomination a fabrication that the convention properly created a committee to fill vacancies.”
The lawsuit alleges that NYS Election Law requires a roll call but that it was not held, and therefore Judge Marcelle should void the results of the convention. But Judge Marcelle found that only the Committee to Fill Vacancies was improperly held, and that the petitioners waited too long to contest the results of the entire convention. So Fox’s Conservative Party Convention Circus stands, but without a committee to fill vacancies, which is rarely needed or used.
But Judge Marcelle understood that Fox had “unclean hands” in this whole escapade, writing “Fox’s submission of fraudulent minutes is immoral conduct. “While the court is deeply troubled and disturbed by the irregularities accompanying the convention and the filing of fraudulent documents, since the committee to fill vacancies was invalidly created, the remedy should be to invalidate only that committee.
Moreover, since a committee to fill vacancies is not required by the Election Law such invalidation should have no bearing on the validity of the nominations….Fox knowingly filed minutes and a certificate that were materially fraudulent. The court cannot quite ignore Fox’s fraud and bless his actions,” writes Marcelle.
Some Conservative Party members in Westchester, and in the 9th JD, are saying that “Fox is Finished” after Judge Marcelle’s findings. “How can he maintain chairmanship or state executive committee after these findings? What does the state committee think about all of this?” said one Conservative.
One of the hot spots in Westchester against Fox is in Eastchester, where Fox refused to give the Conservative Party endorsement to Republican Anthony Giacobbe. Instead Fox gave the endorsement to Eastchester Conservative Chair Bob Fois, who is now running for Town Board in November.
And how did Fois vote during the Conservative Party convention? He voted for all 4 democratic judicial candidates. It should be noted that just weeks after endorsing 4 pro abortion judges, Fois shamelessly attended the right to life breakfast which was held Sept 16 at the Castle Royal in Yonkers. “Is this someone who deserves to be running on the Conservative line,” asked one Westchester Conservative in attendance at the breakfast.
An appeal has been filed to have Judge Marcelle’s decision, that the challenges made to the convention were not timely, overturned.
