Steve Israel's call from the DNC

Daily Point

Steve Israel gets a platform

Former House member Steve Israel has been selected to serve on the Democratic National Convention’s 25-member platform committee — the only Long Islander picked for the panel, The Point has learned.

Israel, who previously represented the 3rd Congressional District, said he received a call earlier this month from the Democratic National Committee asking him to serve. The platform committee is tasked with drafting the official policy of the national party to be approved at its nominating convention, which is scheduled to take place in August in Chicago. The committee will tackle a host of issues, to “ensure [the platform] reflects the party’s values and priorities,” Israel said in an interview Friday.

Among the others on the committee are American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and former U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer of California.

“It’s a volatile time for both political parties, there’s no question,” Israel said. “It’s the job of the platform committee to work constructively to build a consensus that the broadest array from the party can support, and that fundamentally supports President Biden’s policies.”

Israel noted that much of his work in Congress focused on national security and global issues, and he expects global politics — including hot spots like the Middle East, Ukraine, China and Russia — to play a significant role in the platform committee’s discussions. Within that, he noted the current contentious climate on college campuses likely will be part of the conversation, too.

“Things are changing so quickly we don’t know how this will be playing out in August, and these controversies tend to reflect the headlines of the day,” Israel said. “But these issues are not going away. The platform committee has to ensure that we have a sensible product that anticipates controversies and unites Democrats.”

It was in 1968 that anger over the Vietnam War and the fight over whether the party platform would have a “peace plank,” spilled into Chicago’s streets

While Israel previously served as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, he told The Point he’s never served on a convention platform committee. Although he has been out of elected office since 2017, Israel noted that he has worked with the White House as a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and, as a result, has remained in touch with the White House, the DNC and the DCCC over the years.

Israel, who now owns Theodore’s Books in Oyster Bay and heads Cornell University’s Institute of Politics and Global Affairs, said he was told to prepare for a “very heavy workload” leading up to and during the convention itself. He sees his job as trying to help build consensus.

“It can’t be about being free agents. It’s got to be about reflecting the president’s vision in a unified way,” Israel added. “Will there be skirmishes? There always are. But our job is to not light fires, but to put them out.”

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Bad timing

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Final Point

Nassau GOP majority defends its map in court

As seasons change, what’s supposed to be a once-per-decade phenomenon — the redrawing of electoral district lines following a Census count — drags on in its fourth year in parts of New York.

One locus of continuing litigation is Republican-dominated Nassau County. There are two court cases pending, filed in support of Democrats — Coads et al v. Nassau County and NY Communities for Change v. Nassau County — looking to modify the county legislative map used in last year’s elections.

An interesting dispute has arisen in these cases. The former Nassau Legislature’s Presiding Officer, Rich Nicolello, and the most recent chairperson of the county’s Temporary Redistricting Advisory Commission, Francis X. Moroney, have asked a judge to quash subpoenas issued to them for documents and for their appearance for depositions.

Their legal representatives argue that the two need not comply because redistricting is a legislative activity — which means their discussions and strategies are protected from disclosure by what is called legislative immunity, or legislative privilege.

Moroney’s counsel asserts his client “engaged in the legislative activity of redistricting.” Similarly, Nicolello’s lawyer asserted attorney-client and work product privileges for when he consulted with county lawyers regarding the process.

Will their immunity claims prevail? The question will be decided in a courtroom outside Nassau County.

State Supreme Court Justice Paul I. Marx, sitting in Westchester County, is expected to make the call. The case went to him because last year, Democratic lawmakers in Albany — frustrated by the decisions from a remote Steuben County judge that upended their congressional and State Senate gerrymander — changed the system for election cases. That is, election cases now must go to only one designated county for each of the state’s four judicial departments. And the county picked for these cases in downstate’s Second Department is heavily-blue Westchester.

The Nassau redistricting cases were ordered merged for this purpose in March. Once the evidentiary disputes are resolved, a decision still awaits on the merits of the challengers who say Nassau’s process was flawed in part because it allegedly breached the state Voting Rights Act affecting communities of color.

Meanwhile, there is still redistricting legislation pending in Albany, although with only Republican sponsorship so far it is unlikely to move forward. Introduced by GOP Sen. Jack Martins, the measure says that when the State Legislature changes a plan submitted by the Independent Redistricting Commission, as happened most recently, it cannot affect more than 2% of the population of any district.

That 2% principle was already on the books when such changes were made for the current cycle. But the Democrats essentially exempted the current maps in the legislature’s second redrawing. Martins told The Point that the reason for his bill was to ensure that the 2% restriction will be “reinforced” in the future.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

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