Queens Republicans pick Democrat to challenge Councilwoman — and shake up their leadership, too

Middle Village civic leader Robert Holden officially secured the Republican Party line on Wednesday in his bid to unseat incumbent Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley of the 30th District, who had defeated him in the Democratic primary.

The lifelong Democrat was officially given the Queens County GOP’s support as the party itself underwent a shakeup on Sept. 28. Former Congressman Robert Turner, who had led the party for four years, was voted out of his chairmanship post and replaced by JoAnn Ariola, a Howard Beach civic activist and Republican district leader in the 23rd Assembly District.

Despite a decisive loss to Crowley in the Sept. 12 primary, Holden had already intended to go on to the November general election on the Conservative, Reform and “Dump de Blasio” lines. Up until this week, the Republican candidate for the Council seat, attorney Joseph Kasper, had been virtually nonexistent on the campaign trail. He wasn’t listed in the Campaign Finance Bureau’s “Follow the Money” contribution database, had no campaign website and doesn’t even live with the 30th District’s confines, which include Ridgewood, Glendale, Maspeth, Middle Village and parts of Woodhaven and Woodside.

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