Seneca Indians target Port Washington pol for defeat
Photo credit: Newsday/Photo by Joseph D. Sullivan | SHIRLEY AUGUST 27, 2009: State Senator Craig Johnson, flanked by Deputy Majority Leader Jeff Klein (l) and Senator Brian Foley with Shirley and Mastic civic association members speaks to the press about urge the legislation they've proposed. Elected officials unveil a top 10 list of zip codes in Nassau and Suffolk counties with the highest number of sex offenders and call on the governor to sign legislation that would create a statewide e-mail notification system. Photographed at William Floyd Elementary School, 111 Lexington Road, Shirley.
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Leaders of the Seneca Nation of Indians, more than 400 miles from Long Island, have declared state Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington) "hostile to the Nation's interests" - and targeted him for electoral defeat.
The source of the tension is old: uncollected taxes on cigarettes sold from Indian reservations. But Johnson's role in it is relatively new. Still in his first year chairing the Senate's investigation and government operations committee, Johnson has criticized the Paterson administration's failure to reach tax-collection agreements with the Senecas and other tribes. He's conducting a hearing Tuesday.
In a resolution last month, the Senecas' foreign-relations committee accused the Senate Democratic leadership of planning "new legislation to undermine the Nation's treaty rights." It called for the Senecas' governing council to allocate $500,000 to send a delegation to the Manhattan hearing from western New York and to help candidates against Johnson and committee members Sens. Jeff Klein (D-Bronx) and William Stachowski (D-Erie County).
"Clearly, this was an intimidation tactic," Johnson spokesman Richard Azzopardi said. But the panel will listen open-mindedly to all sides, he said.
Tracy Lloyd, of the lobbying firm Hinman, Straub, represents the Senecas. Until 2007 he was chief of staff to Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), a key partisan adversary of Johnson and the others.
Gov. David A. Paterson asked federal officials to assess the threat of violence if a collection effort is made, it was revealed last week.
FIGHT NEXT DOOR: An executive is elected in a fiscal crisis, presides over better times, faces a new crisis. Despite incumbent advantage, he takes the offensive. Nassau Executive Thomas Suozzi's camp stresses opponent Edward Mangano's ties to a business in tax arrears, while Mayor Michael Bloomberg bashes challenger William Thompson's past school board leadership role.
FACE TIME: Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) was among those hailed by President Barack Obama at last week's fundraiser for upstate congressional hopeful Bill Owens, then ferried back to Washington on Air Force One.
BIT OF TIME: Assembly Environmental Committee chairman Robert Sweeney (D-Lindenhurst) says the state should extend a key deadline for a crucial review on tapping natural gas in the upstate Marcellus Shale to "make sure it's done right."
