Gail Burns, the Conservative Party chairwoman, blames the “political underground” for all the trouble she’s been experiencing since she handed her party’s endorsement over to Andy Spano, the liberal-Demoratic incumbent in the race for Westchester county executive.

Rank-in-file party members are furious with Burns for what is perceived as a betrayal to conservative principles. They smell a secret deal that was cut between Andy Spano’s political allies and Nick Spano, the former state Senator and Republican who is now a state lobbyist. According to this scenario, Burns carried out the wishes of Nick Spano to whom she owes her current employment as a patronage hack in Yonkers City Hall.

The two Spanos are not related.

In a recent letter to Conservative Party members, Burns purports to set the record straight, but really says nothing beyond painting herself as bravely opposing unnamed foes.

But it’s obvious that the scapegoat for this perfidy is Julio Cavallo, the shady but powerful head of the Independence Party.

The Burns-Spano story, which they’re sticking to, is that Cavallo was using bullying tactics to force the Conservative Party to endorse people he favored, i.e. Rob Astorino for county exec and Tony Castro for DA. The spin is that they refused to cave into Cavallo.

In other words, they’re trying to say that they actually acted in a courageous manner, conveniently forgetting, of course, that they screwed Astorino, a true conservative, out of the endorsement he deserves over the left-of-center Andy Spano.

Amazing…just amazing.

Here’s the letter in full:

Dear Fellow Conservative:

There has been quite stir surrounding this year’s Conservative Party nominations and our designated slate of candidates. As Chairwoman of our party, I am compelled to set the record straight.

The Westchester Conservative Party is certainly not stranger to contentious elections and hard fought campaigns. Despite decreasing enrollments, we’ve always maintained our rightful position as a strong voting block with principled values.

Unfortunately, in recent weeks there have been many people from the political underground attempting to influence our party and damage its integrity through threats and intimidation.

Simply put, I absolutely will not cave to political coercion. The Conservative Party will not tolerates these tactics, and I now that Westchester’s registered conservatives will not stand for them either.

Now, I need your support to ensure that our party ins ot raided by outsiders. Below please find the countywide candidates that we have endorsed at our recent convention. We are confident that these candidates will represent our party well and, once elected, will best serve the people.

County Executive Andy Spano

District Attorney Janet DiFiore

County Clerk Robert Morabito

Please be mindful of our candidates and those out there purportedly representing the Conservative Party. Make sure to look for the designated candidtes listed above and our “commitee to fill vacancies” designating Gail Burns, Nick Caputo and Gene Branca.

As always, thank you for your support of our party,

Sincerely Yours.

Gail M. Burns

Chairwoman