Big week for LI's primaries

Daily Point

Twists and turns ahead for LI primary fields

The election calendar makes this a defining week for determining the contestants in party primary races across New York. The state Board of Elections has been holding hearings on petition challenges that could disqualify any number of candidates. The body’s decisions on all congressional, State Senate and Assembly challenges are due for release Wednesday, with any appeals expected to follow in court.

Around the region, the congressional seats are naturally generating a lion’s share of attention. Supporters of Rep. Andrew Garbarino, the most senior of three House Republicans from Long Island, sounded confident that GOP insurgent Shannon Stephens, running to his right, would be ruled off the ballot for inadequate petitions and signatures.

Other GOP sources told The Point that Michael Sapraicone, preferred by their party for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, is also in a good position to keep declared rivals Josh Eisen and Cara Castronuova off the June 25 primary ballot.

In the Third Congressional District, GOP insiders tracking the quality of petition signatures found those handed in by Bill Cotter of Barstool Sports the most flawed, but also were hopeful that rivals Greg Hach and Jim Toes won’t make the ballot, leaving ex-Assemb. Mike LiPetri without a primary challenge.

LiPetri in 2020 lost decisively when he opposed Garbarino in a primary in neighboring CD2. Two years later, Garbarino fended off Robert Cornicelli, who ran from his ideological right, in the primary.

This year, Cornicelli, a leader of Veterans for America First, is enthusiastically endorsing LiPetri in CD3.

LiPetri is the preference of Nassau County Republican Chairman Joe Cairo to oppose Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi in what is widely considered an uphill fight. LiPetri has worked in recent years for Park Strategies, the firm founded by former Sen. Alfonse D’Amato.

Is there a bond between LiPetri and Cornicelli along the lines of “a former enemy of my former enemy is my current friend”? Absolutely not, Cornicelli assures The Point. To the contrary, he says he’s long known LiPetri, active in veterans’ aid organizations, and thinks highly of him. In sum, he says, “the man has honor and integrity.”

Democrats are seeing their own twists and turns. Patricia Maher, a perennial candidate for public office, is expected to make the primary ballot for Assembly against Judy Griffin, who is seeking a rematch against Assemb. Brian Curran who unseated her in 2022. In the 4th CD, the suspense centers on whether Gian Jones, a real estate investor, will appear on the June ballot against party designee Laura Gillen, who’s looking to challenge incumbent Rep. Anthony D’Esposito in November.

New York City is showing its own peculiar primary dynamics.

Brooklyn Democratic leader Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn has effectively let a freshman Assembly member, Republican Lester Chang, go unchallenged by a Democrat amid a feud with ex-Assemb. Peter Abbate, whom Chang defeated in 2022.

Remarkably, the Democratic majority in the Assembly initially considered refusing to seat Chang after he won — based on an unusual residency claim after the fact. The effort was later dropped.

Which just goes to show that depending on their domains, county party leaders have their own distinct styles when it comes to controlling who gets on a ballot.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Lifesaver

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Quick Points

The audacity of hope

• Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he will easily win if he can get Americans to “vote out of hope.” Presumably, he’s not talking about the hope of many Americans that he just goes away.
• King Charles III will return to public duties this week, which supposedly reassured a British public nervous about his recovery from cancer. Given that the royal family disclosed no specific updates on his condition, treatment, or prognosis, it’s not clear the Brits should put away their worry beads yet.
• Nassau County is going to redo the approval process that gave Las Vegas Sands control of the Nassau Coliseum property while an appeal of a judge’s order to redo that process plays out. You could say Sands decided to play it safe instead of gambling, which might run counter to the business model.
• South Africa celebrated the 30th anniversary of the end of apartheid and the birth of its democracy even as polls project the African National Congress party, which has been in power for these 30 years, is likely to lose its parliamentary majority in next month’s election. It’s the history of the world: Brand new days are followed by brand new days.
• Former President Donald Trump and former Republican primary rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis met Sunday and DeSantis agreed to help Trump with fundraising. They all come around eventually.
• Asked what changed some Republican senators’ minds to vote for aid for Ukraine. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “The actual facts.” Wait a second — since when have actual facts changed minds in Washington?

— Michael Dobie michael.dobie@newsday.com

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