Party rules allow the chairman to fill ward leader positions when vacancies occur.
But in recent weeks, as friction has escalated, Republican City Committee declared at least a couple of vacancies over the live bodies of existing ward leaders.
Mark Supple, elected four years ago to head the 46th Ward in West Philadelphia, received a letter from Canuso last month telling him that his services as ward leader were no longer needed. There was no explanation.
Meehan told the Daily News that Supple had asked to be replaced. "He told us two years ago he had moved out of the city, and didn't want to participate," Meehan said.
"That is just crazy," Supple replied, noting that Canuso had contacted him at his West Philadelphia address. "I plan on leaving this city, this house, in fact, when they carry me out feet first. . . . Perhaps he was mistaking me for someone else."
The Republican City Committee Web site now lists the leader of the 46th Ward as Michael P. Meehan.
"I'm a placeholder, for the time being," Meehan said. "We're looking for a volunteer."
Jerry Brown, who volunteered last year to lead the 17th Ward Republicans, said his name was dropped from the party's Web site in December, the day after the City Committee's Christmas Party.
Inadvertently, Brown said, he had sat down to eat at a table where Matthew Wolfe, the University City ward leader who has been one of Meehan's most persistent critics, was already sitting.
