LI's new forces on the right

Daily Point

Allegiances form, shift, among Long Island’s right

The allegiance that ebbed and flowed on the right of Long Island’s political spectrum was usually between Republican Party and Conservative Party players, who might share spoils or fight bitterly over them.

Now there seem to be four players at the table, and a deck that keeps reshuffling, thanks to the emergence of the Long Island Loud Majority as a political force, and its increasing alliance with the Suffolk County PBA.

At the jubilant late-night festivities at the Suffolk County GOP’s victory party on Nov. 2 last year, the scene was unity between the establishment GOP players and the young upstarts, represented most visibly by the Long Island Loud Majority. The combo brought home a huge victory for District Attorney Ray Tierney and delivered a Suffolk County legislative majority to the GOP.

But there was grousing that it would have been a supermajority of local lawmakers had the Conservative Party not endorsed some Democratic candidates. And the PBA, all in for Democratic DA incumbent Tim Sini, had taken a beating from the right.

Flash forward to today: Alliances have shifted dramatically, and still are shifting, sometimes race by race.

In the gubernatorial battle, the GOP, Conservative Party, Suffolk PBA and LILM are utterly aligned behind Rep. Lee Zeldin.

That’s not the reality in some other high-profile contests:

In Rep. Andrew Garabarino’s reelection race in CD2, the political parties and Suffolk PBA are firmly behind the fairly moderate Garbarino, while LILM is working hard for Robert Cornicelli. LILM co-founder Kevin Smith said Donald Trump’s inclusion of Garbarino on a list of GOP House members who need to be primaried was a factor. Garbarino earned that honor with his Jan. 6 vote to accept the results of the 2020 election, along with votes for President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill and a national gun-safety law.

And, Smith said of the challenger, “Rob was one of the first people to get behind us, including on his radio show, he’s always been there for us, he’s a veteran and a stand-up guy."

Then there’s the Suffolk County clerk race. In an extraordinary turn, the contest has the GOP and Conservative Party backing primary challenger and Conservative Vincent Puleo, currently the Smithtown Town clerk. It’s the PBA and LILM who are supporting incumbent Republican Judy Pascale, who reportedly was to retire, ceding Puleo the spot, but then sought reelection. Pascale’s petitions survived a challenge from the Puleo side this week, and the Suffolk PBA was a key player in collecting her signatures.

And in the Smithtown school board race, the Suffolk PBA is supporting the incumbents and the LILM has the challengers’ backs.

“Listen, I’ve told the PBA that when we’re together, we’ll be together, but we’re not going to be together on everything,” Smith said.

The question, once the primaries are past, will be whether these four feathers on the right wing can come together once the focus shifts to beating Democrats, regardless of how they battle each other in the fall.

— Lane Filler @lanefiller

Talking Point

Whew! Senate, House hopefuls spared déjà vu

State Supreme Court Justice Patrick McAllister — managing this year’s legal redistricting scramble out of Steuben County — issued a revised pre-primary schedule for state Senate and U.S. House candidacies on Wednesday that some hopefuls and operatives might want to stick to the fridge with a magnet.

Intraparty contenders for the newly redrawn districts now officially face an Aug. 23 primary. That much was already expected.

What wasn’t absolutely clear, until now, was that candidates who already qualified for the primary — that is, before the courts voided those maps last month — get something of a pass. They will be spared the burden of starting from scratch.

For the Senate, that applies to candidates in any district for which they would have been eligible to run in the first place. Same goes for the Congress. All they need to do is file with the Board of Elections which seat they are seeking, according to the order.

For candidates not pre-cleared for the primary ballot, the petitioning period is opened again. Petitions for state Senate will need 850 signatures, and for Congress 1,062 signatures, or 4.25% of the enrolled party members in the district, whichever is less.

With new maps now due to be finalized and issued May 20, which is a week from Friday, there are different schedules for candidates who already made the ballot in some districts as well as those who have yet to try. For those with “prior designation,” a certificate must be filed by May 31. June 3 becomes the last day to decline a designation.

For candidates jumping in anew, May 21 becomes the first day to sign petitions. These must be filed in the period June 27 to July 5. Specific objections to those petitions must be filed by July 11.

Also, by tossing out a bid on Wednesday to redraw Assembly lines, McAllister spared others seeking election a major disruption.

He said “the court is mindful” that a change in Assembly districts would have affected delegates to Supreme Court nomination conventions, representatives to county party committees, and the New York State Democratic Committee, all based on A.D. lines. It would especially mar the court nominations because those occur so late in the calendar that their selections might not make the ballot in time for military and overseas voters to receive them.

Meantime, into the summer heat those new-to-the-race Senate and House petition-walkers must go.

Once the new maps are out, Long Islanders should get a feel of who will be staying, joining or leaving Nassau and Suffolk races — that is, how this season of titanic fights in the courts really shapes the battles ahead.

— Dan Janison @Danjanison

Pencil Point

Orwellian world

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

Final Point

Push for EVs needs recharging

Out of the 2.3 million registered vehicles on Long Island, a little more than 16,000 are battery electric vehicles, or BEVs; that's only 0.7%. Compared with the rest of New York State, Nassau and Suffolk rank first and second, respectively. Overall, Long Island accounts for more than a quarter of the battery-powered cars in the state. Brooklyn comes in a close third.

Expand the scope to include plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, or PHEVs, and Long Island is home to nearly a third of all electric vehicles. But according to the U.S. Department of Energy, Long Island only has an estimated 297 public electric charging stations. These include charging locations at office buildings, car dealerships, paid garages, and car rental locations as well as gas stations.

A 2022 Deloitte survey shows that 22% of drivers identified the lack of public charging stations or home chargers as their primary concern with BEVs.

A bill introduced in the state Senate addresses this issue: It would require new home or commercial building constructions, or those undergoing substantial rehabilitation, to have electric charging stations installed or provided for in the future.

Another Senate bill would require the construction of some parking facilities capable of supporting electric charging stations. The expansion of EV-charging stations will be increasingly critical since new legislation has banned the sale or lease of new gas-powered cars and trucks in New York State starting in 2035.

— Kai Teoh @jkteoh