But the terms of two Parking Authority board members are expiring this summer. The fight over their potential reappointment or replacement is shaping up as a proxy war between Meehan, the city Republicans' acknowledged leader for the past 15 years, and state GOP chairman Robert A. Gleason Jr., a Johnstown insurance executive who has been openly critical of Meehan's performance.
Besides the early maneuvering over the Parking Authority positions, other developments mark the escalating friction within GOP ranks:
* James T. Dintino, a former Republican ward leader with strong connections in South Philadelphia and a reputation for hard-nosed politics, is giving up his post on the Board of Revision of Taxes to become executive director of Republican City Committee. There's talk that he could replace Vito F. Canuso Jr. as party chairman, with the blessings of Meehan and Canuso, when the party elects new leaders in June.
* Republican ward leaders are scheduled to meet tomorrow night to vote on new party by-laws that would solidify Meehan's control. Instead of each ward leader having an equal say in electing party leaders, the new rules would weight the ward leaders' votes depending on how many Republicans are registered in their wards. The proposal would strengthen the power of ward leaders in Northeast Philadelphia, the base of the Meehan family's political clout for three generations.
Al Schmidt, hired by Republican State Committee as its "senior adviser" in Philadelphia, is urging the GOP's 67 ward leaders to oppose the rules change. But some may have trouble even finding the meeting. It's scheduled to take place in the United Republican Club in Kensington, at Frankford & Allegheny avenues, but Schmidt noted that the official invitations carried the wrong address, for a pub on Frankford Avenue about 40 blocks away.
