Steve Minarik, the controversial and divisive former head of the county GOP, has died. He was 49.

Minarik lead the party from 1992 to 2008, when he was asked by Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks to resign.

Minarik was state party chair from 2004 to 2006, but, faced with Democratic "stars" like then-US Senator Hillary Clinton and former Governor Eliot Spitzer, he had a difficult time bringing his local success to a larger stage.

Under Minarik's leadership, Republicans have held the County Legislature and, for a long time, Republicans dominated in the suburbs. But that has begun to change.

Minarik's old-school, iron-fisted style of leadership, however, raised questions of "pay for play" and cut short any rare attempt at bipartisanship.