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Nassau GOP appear scared by Hach challenge

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  Greg Hach For now, forget Tom Suozzi, the Democrat seeking re-election in the Third Congressional District. Yes, Vice President J.D. Vance trashed Suozzi at a Republican event in Bethpage Wednesday. And Suozzi is facing a Democratic primary challenge from public defender Danielle Welch.   Mike LiPetri But Suozzi has weathered past punches from other powerful politicians. And Suozzi has $5.5 million in the bank for his race while Welch, an relative unknown, reported a paltry $7,800 in her campaign account as of June 3. The contest generating the most heat is the Republican primary in which GOP maverick Greg Hach, a Hicksville attorney and Air Force veteran, is challenging former New York Assemblyman Mike LiPetri for the Republican nomination in the Third Congressional District. LiPetri is the Nassau GOP committee's chosen candidate even though he bucked the party in 2020 to make an unsuccessful primary challenge to 2nd District Congressional candidate Andrew Garbarino, w...
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Nassau Election commissioners reappointed; salaries hiked to $225,000

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                                                    Nassau legislators voted on Monday to reappoint Republican elections commissioner James Moriarty and Democrat elections commissioner James Scheuerman to new two-year terms beginning in January. Not that they had a choice. State law dictates that the party chairmen choose their party's election commissioners; legislators can only ratify their choice. And Nassau Republican Chairman Joseph Cairo submitted Moriarty's nomination while Nassau Democrat Chairman Jay Jacobs filed Scheuerman's nomination. Presumably, both Cairo and Jacobs agreed to raise the commissioner's salaries to $225,000 a year from $210,000 because both Republican and Democrats voted for the raises without comment. The ordinance they voted on, however, was factually wrong; it says the commissioners salaries had not been raised for seven years; ...
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Surprise: Democrat Scianablo wants to curb the use of Hempstead take-home cars -- UPDATED re Newsday editorial board

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                                                                                             Joe Scianablo                                                                                                   Is there a local political candidate anywhere who doesn't promise to cut down on government-owned cars being taken home by government employees and used as their own private vehicles? Usually fueled up at government gas pumps? Both Nassau  Republicans and Democrats running for government offices have announced...
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Tish Jame's federal indictment likely was welcomed by Cuomo -- UPDATED with Cuomo statement

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                                                                                  Democrat New York Attorney General Letitia James and most of the news media are accusing Republican President Donald Trump of political retribution in yesterday's federal indictment of James on bank fraud charges. Prosecutors contend James purchased a second home in Norfolk, Va. in August 2020 and then leased it to tenants after telling the mortgage bank that she would use it as a second residence, which carries better terms than a rental property. The move allegedly saved her $19,000, the New York Post reports. James denies the charges and accused Trump of instigating the indictment. "These charges are baseless, and the president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retrib...
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Presumptive Frontrunners in Nassau Legislative Races

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  Barring any personal feuds, the Nassau Police Benevolent Association traditionally endorses local political candidates that internal union polls indicate are most likely to win. They are not always right.  However, if the union is accurate this year,  it means Republicans will keep the majority on the 19-member legislature but again will fall short of the 13 members needed for a super majority. Political insiders consider that only a few seats are in play this November: There is District 14, now held by Republican Bill Gaylor of Lynbrook and District 16, filled by Democratic Arnold Drucker, elected after longtime Democratic legislator and former presiding officer Judy Jacobs died in 2016.  Gaylor is not seeking re-election in the traditional Republican district that was redrawn to be more competitive for both parties this year. Democrat Cynthia Nunez, a member of the Valley Stream  school board, is running against Republican Sheharyar Ali, an attorney from Elm...
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Attack Ads are starting early this year

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Generally, attack ads don't go out until after Labor Day in election years. After all, most families are not home the week before school begins. If they are home, they certainly are not attending political functions. But an attack ad against Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican running for re-election this November, has already dropped. (See above)  It blasts Blakeman for supporting a five-story apartment complex above the Lawrence train station. Blakeman, while a member of the HempsteadTown Board, spearheaded a zoning change to encourage transit-oriented development near the Lawrence and Inwood LIRR station. Former Democratic Hempstead Town Supervisor Laura Gillen supported the "massive" apartment complex. The Hempstead Town board has since repealed the zoning change, but a state supreme court judge ruled they it did not follow state law in nixing the revision. And developers had already begun work. But let's face it, five stories is massive for a sub...
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Clavin has to stay on the public payroll until he is sworn in as judge

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John Ferretti       Don Clavin  Just a quick hit:  It occurs to political old-timers that   perhaps people new to the quirks of   Nassau County politics may not know   how the system works.   For example, there seems to be   amazement and consternation among   Democrats that former Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin, a Garden City Republican, has stayed on the public payroll in some fashion since he resigned as supervisor....to make way for Nassau Legislator John Ferretti, a Levittown Republican,  to be appointed supervisor by the Republican-controlled town board so he can run as an incumbent in the November elections. Democrats are making a big fuss over the Ferretti appointment. But that's the way it has always worked in Republican-controlled Hempstead Town. The Republican town board appoints the new supervisor to run as an incumbent while the former supervisor takes another, often a less ...
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