In order to change political party enrollment, one must fill out a new voter registration form. Last week, I called 800-FOR-VOTE and ordered a form. When it arrives, I will be registering as a Conservative. I have no idea why it took me so long, because I’ve been feeling “disenfranchised” – that term the Democrats like to toss around – since 2003. That’s when I first discovered that in New York, the GOP rivals the Democratic Party when it comes to clubhouse maneuvers. It took the ham-handed antics of the party chairman, Stephen Minarik, to push me over the edge and out of his party.

In 2006, we will be electing a new governor and a U.S. senator and we the people will have absolutely nothing to say about choosing which candidates best represent our interests. The state party leaders, led by Mr. Minarik, will be pushing a former Massachusetts governor, William Weld, as their preferred nominee. Originally, Mr. Minarik had scheduled a meeting on December 12 for the bigwigs of the party to officially endorse their gubernatorial and senatorial candidates. Adverse criticism of this highhandedness may alter the timing of that meeting, to which we the people were not invited. Yoo-hoo, Albany, does the word “primary” mean anything up there?

I spoke to the chairman of the New York State Conservative Party, Michael Long, to get his thoughts on the status of the Grand Old Party in the Empire State. He said: “I think the state GOP is headed in the wrong direction. They are seeking to anoint William Weld, who is not a Reagan Republican, as their candidate. This is not giving the grassroots of the party an opportunity to get involved. By issuing a mandate, they are not allowing the process to work. Instead, the party is catering to special interests. Those candidates who are up to the task of running for office should be out there talking about the issues and creating a broader basis against the opposition.”

In 2003, I interviewed Michael Benjamin, one of the individuals who felt up to the task of running against Senator Schumer in 2004.The young conservative had canvassed all the counties to build support and garnered promises of endorsements from upstate county leaders. Mr. Benjamin claimed during a press conference months later that the Schoharie County GOP offered him an unsolicited, unanimous endorsement, but that before it could be made public the party bosses in Albany forced them to rescind the endorsement. Mr. Benjamin was not the man party leaders wanted to run against Mr. Schumer. And why not?, you may ask. Could Mr. Benjamin have done any worse than Howard Mills, a moderate the party endorsed so late that he ran on a pittance against Mr. Schumer’s multimillion-dollar campaign?

Before the Howard Mills debacle, there was the Dora Irizarry run for attorney general, another anemic attempt by Albany to power-broker the election process. Now we come to the crucial 2006 campaign against Senator Clinton, and the egg is already smeared on the faces of Governor Pataki and Mr. Minarik for pushing Jeanine Pirro into that race and forcing out the credible Ed Cox.

Another principled conservative willing to enter the fray, John Spencer, a former mayor of Yonkers, is digging in his heels and raking up endorsements every week as Ms. Pirro stumbles along as a not-ready-for primetime candidate.

I was delighted to read that Georgette Mosbacher, who as a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee’s Finance Committee is one of the most loyal Republican contributors, is just as frustrated as I am with the New York GOP. She has announced that she will close her checkbook to the party next year.

Ms. Mosbacher, who is CEO of the international cosmetics firm Borghese, said, “Our New York party leaders have tried to be everything to everybody, and what’s now happened to us is that we’ve become nothing to everyone.” Hear, hear, Georgette.

Now the feckless party leaders are trying to convince Ms. Pirro to run for state attorney general. I hope she does. Even though I have pushed for the incorruptible Staten Island district attorney, Daniel Donovan, to pursue that spot, part of me hopes he resists until the corrupting influences in Albany have faded away.

Some may ask why I’m not switching to the Independent Party, as many journalists do, but that’s just a pretext for fence-straddling. I doubt my switch to the Conservative Party will elicit trembling in the GOP, but may I point out that my spouse, my six children, and their spouses are Republicans who might follow my lead?

I’ve ordered extra forms.