By Adam Kramer
Philip Sica, a Bellerose Manor resident, was elected as the new president of the Queens Village Republican Club at the club’s December meeting.
Sica succeeds Kathleen Jones, who is stepping down from the helm of the Republican Club after a two-year run.
Sica, 66, a retired city marshal and pastor who worked for the city for 24 years, has been in the political spotlight for the past two years in his unsuccessful attempts to defeat the Weprin brothers in political races. He takes over the oldest Republican Club in the United States — founded in 1875 — at the end of the year.
“In a sense I am happy,” Sica said. “It is not a county position as a public official but as a party official. It gives me a position to make statements.”
He said being the leader of the club will enable him to work toward strengthening the borough’s Republican Party, which lost two of its three city council seats in the November election and has been getting weaker over the past few years.
The club has about 300 members and covers Queens Village, Bellerose, Floral Park, New Hyde Park, Glen Oaks, Douglaston and parts of Little Neck.
Sica captured about 72 percent of the vote in the club’s Dec. 6 election for the one-year term of president.
At the end of November, Sica lost to City Councilman-Elect David Weprin in the race to replace longtime City Councilman Sheldon Leffler (D-Hollis) in the 23rd Council District, which stretches from Fresh Meadows to Glen Oaks and from Little Neck to Hollis.
Last year he was defeated by the younger Weprin, state Assemblyman Mark Weprin (D-Bayside) in the 24th Assembly District, which extends from Bayside to Douglaston and from Glen Oaks to Hollis Hill.
Sica said he ran against the Weprins to help facilitate “the rebuilding of the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Fiorello LaGuardia, Thomas Dewey, Dwight Eisenhower and Jacob Javits” in eastern Queens.
“There are healthy signs of resurgence,” he said. “Mayor Giuliani carried the area in 1997, Gov. Pataki in 1998, Sen. Padavan in 2000 and Mayor-Elect Bloomberg in 2001.”
Sica, who was also elected district chairman of the Republican County Committee in the 24th state Assembly District two months ago, said the combined efforts of the five other district leaders in the area will return the Republican Party to prominence.
The other GOP district leaders are Linda Gritsch in the 24th AD, Morris Lee in the 33rd AD, Chairman Harvey Moder in the 33rd AD, Mary Moder in the 33rd AD. and Perry Reich in the 24th AD.
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
