** FILE ** New York Republican state Committee Chairman Stephen Minarik speaks after the committee selected him to succeed outgoing Chairman Alexander Treadwell at a meeting in Albany, N.Y., on Nov. 15, 2004. Infighting, a calculating husband and a touch of desperation sound like the latest prime-time soap opera. In this case, it's the Republican Party of New York state. Facing the prospect of two formidable Democratic candidates next year, including one named Clinton, the GOP is being undercut by disagreements major and minor _ from party leaders' inability to agree on who should run for governor or the Senate, to grumbling from the Senate majority leader that the lame-duck Republican governor won't let him use the state helicopter. (AP Photo/Tim Roske, file)