Are Oneida County Republicans concerned they may lose control of the Board of Legislators? The County's Minority Leader thinks they must be, following a Republican rally in Utica which featured a former candidate for Governor, who is also the son-in-law of the late Richard Nixon. "They're highly concerned, and they should be," said County Minority Leader Michael Hennessy.

On Thursday morning, the Chairman of the New York State Republican Committee paid a visit to Utica to encourage a strong voter turnout next week to keep republicans in control of Oneida County Government. "It's always a problem. People don't understand how important voting in an 'off' year election can be." Ed Cox said people aren't pleased with results from Albany where Democrats control the Senate, Assembly and Governor's Mansion. In his opinion, the same can be said of Washington D.C., with a Democrat President and a Democratic majority run the House and Senate. "The tide is coming our way here, you can feel it," Cox said.

Cox was also critical of Oneida County Democrats and they way they go about the people's business. "The Democratic Minority has been very obstructionist and you have to work on a bi-partisan basis to get things done."

The Chairman of the Oneida County Republican Party, George Joseph, who is also a county legislator, echoed those comments saying the democrats take a politcal approach to most everything. "Their approach is to take the opposite of the republican view. They only want to do what's best for their party."

Hennessy believes this show's Republicans are worried about losing control of the board. "We've got challengers who are qualified, educated, business people. They should be [concerned]." Hennessy also defended the actions of himself and fellow democrats, saying their motive is to get results and protect taxpayers. He pointed to last year's budget process saying that by working with the entire board, property owners saw a proposed tax increase nearly cut in half. "We got the property tax down from almost ten percent (8.9%) to five percent."