A candidate for Loans 101?

Daily Point

Lafazan’s loans

Nassau County Legis. Josh Lafazan is aggressively if unofficially campaigning for the not-yet-open 3rd Congressional District — dashing around the region for anti-George Santos news conferences, trying to fundraise for his congressional campaign account, and generally being prepared for a special election if Santos implodes.

But there is a lingering aspect of Lafazan’s biography that will surely continue to make waves if an actual campaign materializes: the nearly $100,000 in college tuition payments covered through a private loan from a wealthy couple.

The money, which was paid by New York investor Bryan Lawrence and his wife Elizabeth, who also donated thousands to Lafazan’s congressional campaign, was the subject of a complaint before the August CD3 primary from one of Lafazan’s Democratic opponents, Robert Zimmerman.

And it has been revived by Paolo Pironi, who ran against Lafazan for county legislature in 2021 and says he plans on running again this year. This week, Pironi wrote to both the Nassau district attorney and county Board of Ethics calling attention to Lafazan’s loan from a “major political donor” as opposed to a bank or financial institution. Among the questions Pironi wants investigated are whether this constitutes an “unlawful gift.”

The payments were made to a “Chief Learning Officer” doctoral program at the University of Pennsylvania, according to Neil Reiff, who was counsel for Lafazan’s congressional campaign. Lafazan is on leave from that program and has one year of classes left. The structure of the loan agreement gave the county legislator five years to start repaying the loan to the couple and he has not paid back any of it yet, according to Reiff. The interest rate of the loan wasn’t provided to The Point.

Asked why Lafazan didn’t go to a financial institution for a tuition loan, Reiff said “according to Josh it wasn’t feasible,” citing the compressed timetable before classes started. Reiff said that Lafazan’s team ran the issue by ethics counsel in 2020.

Asked whether there were any probes of the circumstances of the loan, Reiff said that “we’re not aware of anything.”

A Zimmerman campaign spokesman said that they withdrew their initial complaint “as a gesture of party unity” following the primary, and a brief October letter from the Federal Election Commission about the Zimmerman complaint says that the matter has been closed.

A spokesman for the Nassau DA confirmed receipt of Pironi’s complaint but declined further comment. It’s likely that Pironi will continue raising this issue against Lafazan, particularly given the renewed scrutiny on campaign finance issues due to the Santos saga. Pironi himself was paid $1,300 by a Santos campaign committee as a recount observer in 2020, and was described by Santos on Facebook as “my friend and former campaign field director” back in 2021. Pironi told The Point, “Luckily, I disassociated myself before Santos’ 2022 campaign.”

“I’m fed up with Josh Lafazan as much as I am with George Santos,” he said.

Lafazan’s immediate political future likely rests in the hands of party leaders, who would pick a candidate in the case of a special election. State Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs told The Point he first saw a copy of the Pironi complaint when it was circulating as “an anonymous mailing.”

“For me, that is always suspect,” he emailed. “While, of course, we will look for Josh’s response, I certainly will not prejudge it at this point.”

— Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Talking Point

An unwelcome welcome

When Assemb. Chuck Lavine received an email this week from Rep. Andrew Garbarino, he was “not pleased.”

The email welcomed Lavine as one of Garbarino’s “new constituents” and offered the office’s resources “which you can take advantage of” — including help with federal agencies, grant applications and even getting flags, tours and commendations.

But there was a problem. Lavine, who lives in Glen Cove, isn’t part of CD2 — Garbarino’s district. His congressional representative is George Santos, in CD3.

When Lavine, who previously worked with Garbarino in the Assembly, received the email, he saw it in light of the recent news conference held by Nassau Republicans, in which some officials pledged to seek assistance from Long Island’s other representatives, rather than going through Santos.

“That, to me, is just cynical,” Lavine told The Point. “The folks I represent will certainly make an effort to reach out to Santos and his staff, and if there’s no response, we’re going to either our United States senators or to Grace Meng in Queens or Greg Meeks in Queens. After all, they’re closer to me.”

And, of course, Meng and Meeks, like Lavine, are Democrats.

Lavine issued a news release about the email, arguing that Republican politicians were “simply attempting to shield themselves from criticism.”

But there’s apparently a simpler explanation for the Garbarino email.

“My office inadvertently sent this email to contacts in our database, including past constituents of my predecessor who once represented the 3rd Congressional District,” Garbarino said in a statement. “I’m sorry Chuck is making this political. People make mistakes.”

Indeed, Lavine was once represented by Garbarino’s predecessor, former Rep. Pete King — more than a decade ago.

When told it was an error, rather than a calculated move, Lavine said: “I would certainly hope so.”

Lavine, meanwhile, said his office reached out to Santos’ office on Thursday to open lines of communication and find out how to reach out to him and his staff.

But does Lavine’s commentary on his congressional district suggest there’s a place for him in a potential special election for the CD3 seat?

“I am an avid supporter of Robert Zimmerman,” Lavine said. “I wouldn’t even begin to think about it unless Robert, for whatever reason, would not be running. Robert is hands down the best candidate and he would be a great congressional representative.”

— Randi F. Marshall @RandiMarshall

Pencil Point

The old line

For more cartoons, visit www.newsday.com/nationalcartoons

Final Point

Judge shopping in select stores only

The state’s dominant Democrats are still reeling from last year’s big redistricting fiasco.

The proof: Party lawmakers are pushing a bill aimed at curbing a tactic that worked in favor of Republicans last year when the Democratic legislative majority’s congressional and State Senate maps were overturned and rewritten in court.

Last spring, Republicans challenging the Democratic maps shrewdly got their case before a GOP state judge in remote Steuben County. The judge, Justice Patrick McAllister, ultimately got to choose the special master who redrew the districts once his ruling was upheld on appeal. The change in district maps helped propel a “red wave” in U.S. House races on Long Island and elsewhere.

But under a bill that cleared the Senate, 41-19, on Jan. 9, Republican lawyers wouldn’t be able to repeat what turned out to be a jurisdictional coup. Election-law challenges of this kind would have to be sent to one large county in each of the state’s four judicial departments — namely Albany, Westchester, Erie, and New York (Manhattan).

Sponsors of the measure, including Manhattan Democratic Sen. Robert Jackson, claim in a printed justification contained in the bill that it “prevents forum shopping" on “frivolous litigation” as “seen recently.”

“This bill attempts to reduce partisan gamesmanship that occurs in election related litigation,” the text states.

To the contrary, Republicans say, the measure is clearly aimed at making sure most such cases go before Democratic judges. One Republican activist told The Point that he knew of only three Republican state Supreme Court justices across all of these designated major counties, which collectively have more than 100 judges serving at that level.

So far, the Assembly Elections Committee has yet to take up the measure, so its chance of being signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul is unknown.

— Dan Janison @Danjanison