What did Curran know and when did she know it?

                                                                                        

State health Commissioner Howard Zucker with Gov. Andrew Cuomo today

A guessing game within political circles began Sunday after the Washington Post reported that Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Vaccine Czar Larry Schwartz, who heads the New York's coronavirus vaccine allotment program, had called Democratic county executives throughout the state to gauge their support for the embattled governor.

The story said one of those executives, who was not named, filed an ethics complaint with the state attorney general because of the fear that his or her response to Schwartz would affect the amount of vaccines distributed to their county. 

Cuomo is under investigation by both state and federal authorities for alleged sexual harrassment/assault and for allegedly covering up the actual number of coronavirus deaths in New York nursing homes. Cuomo has denied the allegations.

Larry Schwartz was a deputy county executive under former Democratic Suffolk County Executive Patrick Halpin. He served as Cuomo's secretary from 2011 through 2015 and has been advising the governor on a volunteer basis off and on ever since.

Schwartz has long been known as Cuomo's enforcer. While Republican Ed Mangano was Nassau's county executive, Schwartz called into the middle of a meeting of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, temporarily stopping its consideration of putting the county into a financial control period.

At the time, Schwartz told a Newsday reporter that he was just calling to see what was going on.

This weekend, Schwartz told the Washington Post,  “I did have conversations with a number of County Executives from across the State to ascertain if they were maintaining their public position that there is an ongoing investigation by the State Attorney General and that we should wait for the findings of that investigation before drawing any conclusions.” 

Some guessed that unnamed county executive was Suffolk County Steve Bellone. Late Sunday, Bellone issued a statement acknowledging the call from Schwartz.

"Last Friday, I had a conversation with Larry Schwartz who reached out to discuss whether I was supportive of the Governor. I explained that there were serious allegations made and that I was supportive of an independent investigation. At no point did the topic of vaccine distribution come up during the call," Bellone said.

After Bellone appeared to be ruled out, attention turned to County Executive Laura Curran, who has been a loyal ally of Cuomo.

                                                                    

County Executive Laura Curran

The county legislature's presiding Officer Rich Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park) today put out a statement from the Republican lawmakers who control the legislature:

"The Majority is calling upon County Executive Curran to immediately disclose whether or not she was called, and what the outcome of the call was. Nassau residents deserve to know if their supply of the life-saving vaccine is now contingent upon political support for the governor," Nicolello said.

Presiding Officer Rich Nicollo

News12 and this blog also asked the Curran administration whether the county executive had talked to Schwartz, whether she felt it was appropriate and whether she had filed an ethics complaint.

Curran answered those questions during an interview on KJOY 98.3 radio this morning.

When asked if she had been called by Schwartz, Curran said, " I had conversations with Larry Schwartz many times over the past year. My experience does not match any of the others where vaccine or state support was connected to support of the governor. "

Pressed again about Schwartz' call, Curran again repeated. "I've had a lot of conversations within him over the past year. Those conversations don't really match what we're reading about. I can't really speak about anybody else's experience. .

The DJ Jamie asked, "So you personally didn't feel that Nassau County's vaccine count was being held over your head?

"Right, " she said. "But I must say that everyone has their own experiences. I can only tell you about mine." 

Curran had repeated Schwartz talking points over the weekend to News12. While saying the allegations were terrible, she said she wanted to wait for the results of the independent investigation before joining local, state and federal Democratic elected officials in calling for Cuomo to step aside or resign.

But Curran's support was weaker this morning.

"New Yorkers deserve and need stable effective leadership right now. I do wonder with every hammer that comes down, with every allegation, if the governor is becoming less effective," she said.

Asked if she was feeling more strongly about  Cuomo stepping down,  Curran said, "I think he needs to think really deep about whether he can be effective. In the meantime, I think its really important that these allegations be heard."

Cuomo's health commissioner,  who was with the governor at the opening of an SUNY-Old Westbury mass vaccination site, remained supportive of Curran today.

Commissioner Howard Zucker said "Long Island has done a great job on the vaccination front; The tremendous success we've seen here in Nassau County, where more than a quarter of the population, has gotten at least one shot, is a model for the rest of the state."

Meanwhile, Curran is running for re-election this year but the Nassau Republican party has yet to announce its candidate,  even though the petition gathering period started two weeks ago and ends March 25. The names of possible candidates have rotated repeatedly.

Still being discussed today were State Assemblyman Ed Ra and Hempstead Town councilman Bruce Blakeman, a former presiding officer of the county legislature.

We'll see.