With state Dems like these, who needs the GOP?

Daily Point

State Dems pass on helping LI Senate candidates

Three terms in the State Senate would usually be enough success to guarantee support from party leaders hoping for more, but Sen. John Brooks told The Point Monday that the Democrats of his chamber, led by Sen. Mike Gianaris, have left him high and dry.

It started, the Seaford Democrat said, when they savaged his boundaries in the court-ordered redistricting, moving him from the old South Shore 8th, where he’d built a strong base. He’s now in a newly constituted 5th District that runs into the less familiar northward communities of Hicksville and Bethpage.

“They did the same to Jim Gaughran, made his district impossible, and he chose not to run again,” said Brooks, who had also decided to retire before jumping back in the race three days later.

The final Senate districts were delineated by a court-appointed special master after lines drawn by the Democrats were thrown out by a judge.

But now, though he’s campaigning as hard as ever, Brooks said the New York State Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, which Gianaris chairs, hasn’t put a penny behind him. And he says it’s because the city-centric leader is tired of Long Island senators pushing for their region’s interests.

“They are not supporting John, and it’s a tremendous impediment to him,” State Democratic Party chairman Jay Jacobs said. “Full campaign support from the committee can be $500,000 to $750,000 in a race. They do your television, your mailers … John is not up on television and that’s why.”

Jacobs said the committee is supporting incumbent Kevin Thomas fully, as he understands it, and Brooks said it is working for incumbent Anna Kaplan.

“They were able to add two safe Democratic seats in the city in redistricting, and now they’d just as soon not have me poking them,” Brooks said. Democratic leadership, he said, has roadblocked his signature legislation for years: a plan that, at a cost of $1.4 billion, would make sure no school district collects more than 50% of its budget from residential property taxes. It would be a huge boon to suburban districts that lack much commercial property, but do nothing for city Democrats who, Brooks says, see Long Island as white and wealthy and resent every penny the region gets.

And Suffolk Democrats aren’t getting much help, either. Susan Berland, a longtime county legislator from Dix Hills and a “name” candidate in her Senate bid against incumbent Mario Mattera, laughed when asked whether Gianaris and his committee were supporting her.

“I haven’t gotten a penny,” she said, “and it’s not for lack of asking. That’s why he has 10,000 yard signs out and I have 500. I’m doing one mailer, and if people wonder why I’m driving them nuts with robocalls … it’s because they’re cheap and they’re what I can afford.”

Suffolk County Democratic Party chairman Rich Schaffer said Berland is not alone: Practically no Suffolk Democratic Senate candidate is getting aid from Gianaris. “Monica Martinez, I know they’re talking to her and helping her out somewhat, but that’s it,” Schaffer said.

Schaffer said it’s no secret that if Gianaris and other city Democratic leaders have enough breathing room to maintain control of the gavel, they’d just as soon not be pestered daily by the more outspoken suburban Democrats who fight hardest for their own constituents.

But, he added, that hand can be overplayed, reminding The Point that the last time the Democrats had a small ruling majority, a breakaway set of senators banded with Republicans to give that party control, which gave Long Island tremendous power in the conference.

Gianaris, though, told The Point Monday that he was simply making calculations about where to put resources that are not unlimited, using the data at hand to determine which candidates needed the money, and had the best chances of success in utilizing it.

“We want all our members to win, but it’s a question of what’s going to actually work,” Gianaris said. “And we’ve used this data and these methods to build the strongest Democratic majority in the history of the state.”

— Lane Filler @lanefiller

Talking Point

Waking up Democrats

There are not so many New York Cassandras out there saying what many candidates and political people are whispering privately: that Democrats could be stumbling into a competitive and perhaps even disastrous general election in the state.

One of the more prominent of those Cassandras is Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, who, like the Trojan War prophecy utterer, has been broadcasting dire warnings about potential future outcomes.

Over the weekend, he hosted a “rally to wake up Dems” in Manhattan. Attorney General Tish James, seeking reelection, joined him. The Manhattan location was key to Levine because, he tweeted, “[w]e need huge turnout here to prevent NY from being taken over by a slate of Trumpian, election denying, anti-Roe Republicans.”

“This election in NY is closer than you think,” he wrote on Friday on the social media site. “Dems: Don’t take it for granted.”

The Point spoke with Levine on Monday about what he was seeing in the current political field.

“This is close. There’s just no doubt,” he argued. Though he said he hadn’t looked at private polling, the tightening of the top-ticket governor’s race in public polling could suggest problems down-ballot for certain congressional and State Senate races. That includes Democrat Robert Zimmerman’s contest against Republican George Santos in New York’s 3rd Congressional District in Nassau County and Queens. Levine worked with NYC Rep. Adriano Espaillat on a bus trip sending some 30 people from Washington Heights to the Queens part of CD3 to campaign and knock on doors over the weekend, Levine said. He didn’t go himself because he was campaigning for Gov. Kathy Hochul in Manhattan, but he said he gave a rah-rah speech before the bus, filled with many Spanish-language speakers, headed out.

Levine said he wasn’t interested in casting aspersions as to who could be to blame if Democrats collapse or lose much ground in a state where they overwhelm Republicans in enrollment numbers. But when asked what he was seeing that might be flying under the radar, he noted that on the street in deep-blue Manhattan, some people, including some Democrats, are exhibiting “a lot of anger right now” on public safety.

“We have to acknowledge that,” he said. “We as Democrats have to talk about public safety and do it in the right way.”

— Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Pencil Point

Soft on crime?

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

Quick Points

Storm warnings

• As the 10th anniversary of Superstorm Sandy approaches, LIPA says it has an electric system that is more resilient and reliable than ever. Perhaps, but that was a very low bar to clear.
• Since Superstorm Sandy, 142 Long Island gas stations have installed transfer switches to change to backup power in the event of an outage — without having any backup power or a contract to get it. It’s a little like building a bridge to nowhere.
• Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a crime-fighting plan to flood city subways with so many police officers that overtime shifts will increase by 1,200 per day, a plan gubernatorial rival Rep. Lee Zeldin blasted as a “day late, dollar short.” Actually, it comes way more than one day after Zeldin narrowed the polls with his emphasis on crime and the cost will be in the millions.
• China has given President Xi Jinping unchecked power and a third term, upending norms in place for decades. In what authoritarian state have we heard that before?
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the midterm election fight is not about inflation but rather the cost of living. So when the cost of living goes up, Madame Speaker, what would you like to call it?
• Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chairwoman of the House Jan. 6 committee, said that if former President Donald Trump responds to a committee subpoena and testifies, the committee will not let him “turn this into a circus” or “food fight.” That’s nice, as long as Cheney realizes there’s nothing the committee would be able to do about it if Trump wants to turn it into a circus.
• They couldn’t hit, couldn’t field at inopportune times, didn’t pitch well enough to overcome those deficiencies, and when they desperately needed a home run from the all-time American League home run champion they instead got the final out of the season from Aaron Judge. RIP, 2022 New York Yankees.

— Michael Dobie @mwdobie