For Hayworth, Another Top Campaign Aide With a History of Women Problems

After Nan Hayworth’s campaign spokesman resigned in June, Democrats are looking to make an issue of a new top Hayworth aide.

The Republican congresswoman’s former top adviser, Jay Townsend, resigned  after he wrote a Facebook wall post saying, “Let’s hurl some acid at those female democratic Senators who won’t abide the mandates they want to impose on the private sector.”

Hayworth’s new campaign manager, Karl Brabenec, has managed to offend some women in his political career too.

Meanwhile, he was criticized by a good government advocate for continuing to serve as the town supervisor and police commissioner of Deer Park, population 8,000, while also serving as Hayworth’s full-time campaign manager.

The 34-year-old Brabenec made headlines in 2003 after circulating flyers for a birthday party dubbed “Karlpalooza” at a Young Republicans convention in Boston. The flyers promised  “liquor and sex to go around all evening” and encouraged female party attendees to “wear as little clothing as possible.”

At the time, Brabenec was working as an aide to Orange County Executive Edward Diana, and the incident, which was splashed across the front pages of the Times-Herald Record, prompted Diana to seek Brabenec’s resignation.

“Karlpalooza. People do remember that,” said Orange County Democratic Committee chairman Jonathan Jacobson.

The Brabenec hire came after Hayworth’s campaign was criticized for its slow response to Townsend’s Facebook comments, which became national news as Democrats pushed the idea that the GOP was waging a “war on women” in Congress.

Jacobson said he thought Brabenec’s hiring was “emblematic of the type of Congresswoman Nan Hayworth would be.”

“Nan Hayworth, even though she’s a doctor and a woman, her representation in Washington has been against healthcare and against women,” Jacobson said.

Repeated attempts to reach Brabenec were unsuccessful. Hayworth’s campaign dismissed the 2003 party as a non-issue.

Hayworth campaign spokesman Michael Knowles said the party the flyer advertised never happened, and was planned without Brabenec’s knowledge.

“If the best they can do is drudge up a stupid party from a decade ago that a campaign staffer jokingly held, then I think we’re running a much better campaign focusing on the issues,” Knowles said.

Hayworth, a Hudson Valley ophthalmologist, was elected in the Tea Party wave of 2010, but now faces a serious challenge from Democrat Sean Patrick Maloney in a race that both parties have targeted as a possible swing district.

Hayworth’s political opponents have also seized on Brabenec’s more recent conduct, pointing out that he currently holds a position as the Deer Park town supervisor and police commissioner, a part-time salaried position, and has no plans to take an unpaid leave of absence while he runs Hayworth’s campaign.

“He is a full time supervisor, and he will continue to be the full time supervisor for the town of Deer Park. He will not spend any less time serving his constituents and any less time or energy or effort on his job as supervisor,” said Hayworth campaign spokesman Michael Knowles.

Good government groups criticized Brabenec’s conduct as unorthodox.

“We should have a general policy at all levels of government that if you’re going to run a political campaign, you should step out and take a leave from your public service position,” said Common Cause executive director Susan Lerner. “It’s definitely the case in Congress, it’s definitely the case in the Legislature, and it’s definitely the case in city government that you can’t be on the public payroll and use the same time to run a political campaign. It certainly raises interesting questions about [Hayworth's] personnel choices.”

Brabenec’s own politics have, at times, conflicted with the moderate profile Hayworth has tried to cultivate since running as a Tea Party candidate two years ago.

Hayworth has straddled the Republican party line on gay marriage. She often speaks of her gay son at private campaign fundraisers and is a member of the congressional LGBT caucus, but is not in favor of repealing the Defense of Marriage Act, a stance that allows her to keep the Conservative Party endorsement and ballot line in the fall elections against Maloney, who is openly gay.

Brabenec’s position on the issue made local news last summer when he resigned a position as a marriage officiant because of his opposition to New York’s legalization of same-sex marriage.

Hayworth campaign spokesman Michael Knowles said Brabenec’s decision to step down from his post doesn’t have any relation to the campaign.

“His own religious beliefs prohibit him from actually marrying a same-sex couple,” Knowles said.
“Those are his beliefs. You would be hard pressed to find a campaign where every employee believed the exact same thing as the candidate.”