State Republicans Court Disaster as Labriola Threatens to Seek New Term.

Maybe it was the high spirits of the evening. Republican party chairman Jerry Labriola told several party loyalists at Thursday’s annual Prescott Bush fundraising dinner that he may enter this month’s contest for his job, Daily Ructions has learned. Labriola’s confidants spent Friday sharing their dismay at the prospect.

The race for party chairman features rivals Joe Markley, John Pavia, and J.R. Romano. No candidate has emerged as the clear leader in competition to be decided by the party’s state central committee at the end of June. Labriola may have misinterpreted the party’s failure to remove him shortly after November’s many election disappointments as a vote of confidence rather than the demoralized party’s polite instinct to let Labriola’s tenure fade away.

The annual Bush dinner can become boozy affairs for some of its organizers. The gathering may have induced cloudy visions in Labriola that he could grope his way to a late ballot victory in the fractured field of hopefuls.