Opinion

<a href="https://www.newsday.com/opinion/editorial/newsday-endorses-tom-dinapoli-1.21870574">The New York State comptroller’s race</a> is our first endorsement for the 2018 general election. The editorial board is endorsing in 41 races and interviewing more than 75 candidates for federal, state and county offices. Our recommendations will be rolled out in the next three weeks. 
We want to take you behind the scenes of this undertaking. See the candidates as they come for their endorsement meetings and some of their elevator pitches (in our elevator) at instagram.com/newsdayopinion. 
Candidates also are being interviewed about the process for a video that lets them talk candidly about it. Stay tuned. The video will be on our website by the end of the month. 
One of our most exciting new projects is our first podcast series. “The Bellwether” captures this raw political moment at the midpoint of Donald Trump’s presidency in two Long Island congressional districts. Republican incumbents Lee Zeldin and Peter King are being challenged by political newcomers, Democrats Perry Gershon and Liuba Grechen Shirley. The podcast chronicles their campaigns, and includes interviews with the candidates and sharp observations by the insiders tracking them. Congressional Districts 1 and 2 are likely to be harbingers for what happens nationwide on Nov. 6. 
Download the first episodes on iTunes or listen on your computer at <a href="http://newsday.com/thebellwether">newsday.com/thebellwether.</a>

Editorials

VPENDORSE181014

Behind the scenes of Newsday's editorial board endorsement process

Behind editorial board endorsement process

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Ten years ago, Kirsten Gillibrand was wrapping up her freshman term in the House, representing a fairly rural and conservative district in the Hudson Valley. Now, seeking her second full term in the Senate, she is one of the highest-profile Democrats in the nation.
Her rapid ascent took talent, ambition, hard work and keen political instincts, but it has not come without a cost.
Gillibrand, 51, of Brunswick, shines most in her fights for women’s rights and well-being. Her tireless advocacy to professionalize the process by which sexual harassment and abuse are handled in the military and take it out of the chain of command is both proper and admirable. She also has been at the forefront of fighting such assaults on college campuses, in the corporate world and even in the House and Senate themselves. The continued tolerance for such abuse and the too-common retaliation for those who report it are a stain on our nation. 
She wants to fund a huge national infrastructure plan, put a price on carbon to fight climate change and pass a paid family leave act, and she’s right on these issues. 
Gillibrand, though, shines less bright when she jumps at a shiny issue she hopes will score political points without thinking through the ramifications. She did this in throwing her support behind the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It’s a powerful slogan, but a terrible idea. ICE would better serve the nation if President Donald Trump dedicated more resources to the pressing priorities of serious crime and terrorism than the deportation of immigrants here illegally who are not dangerous and are working to make new lives for themselves. 
And Gillibrand made a similarly costly mistake when she flip-flopped on a bill that would have punished individuals who actively worked to support boycotts of Israel by nongovernmental entities. Gillibrand first co-sponsored the bill, infuriating elements of the pro-Palestinian left who attacked it, then repudiated it, enraging the strong supporters of Israel.
Gillibrand has used her time in the Senate to establish a national profile but has little presence in New York and especially on Long Island. She’s not a fixture at important events and some local elected officials don’t consider her a go-to representative when they need assistance from the federal government.
Republican candidate Chele Farley, 51, of Manhattan, is a political newcomer who has served as the New York City finance chair for the party. She’s a Stanford-trained engineer who has had a successful career in finance, and says she would be a tireless advocate for New York. Farley wants New York State to retrieve the $60 billion more she says it will pay the federal government in 2018 than it gets back. She would create a $36,000-a-year tax deduction for renters and fund infrastructure projects like the Gateway railroad tunnel. But she has no idea how Washington should make up the deficit such changes would create. 
Gillibrand has grown considerably in her decade in Washington, and her policy positions are ones that more closely reflect the views of most New Yorkers. She just needs to bring that passion to fighting for Long Island.
Newsday endorses Gillibrand.

VPUSSENATE

Re-elect Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand

Newsday endorses Gillibrand for Senate

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When Newsday endorsed Shirley Republican Lee M. Zeldin in his 2014 run to unseat Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop, the fact that Zeldin could have the power to help Eastern Long Island as a member of the dominant Republican majority was a prime reason.
The GOP wanted the seat badly. It had repeatedly and unsuccessfully targeted Bishop. Once the party won the district, Zeldin should have had power. He should have been willing and able to make the case that he’d have to take care of the voters’ needs and perch on the party’s moderate wing if he wanted to keep the job and fairly represent his diverse district.
Zeldin didn’t do either. Instead, he embraced an extreme brand of conservatism, and failed to secure some crucial Long Island needs.
Then he got worse.
President Donald Trump came on the scene and Zeldin quickly became a reliable cheerleader for Trump’s divisive, dismissive politics and disastrous policies. Most troubling are Zeldin’s feverish efforts to discredit the federal investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election. Zeldin joined with the most right-wing elements of his party, even speaking on the House floor in a #releasethememo campaign. More recently, he sponsored a bill to create a second special counsel to investigate the FBI’s probe of Hillary Clinton’s emails.
Zeldin, 38, says a top priority is the preservation of Plum Island, which hosts a federal animal disease research center just off Long Island. The lab’s functions are moving to Kansas, and federal law requires that it be sold to the highest bidder, which would likely lead to commercial development. That’s an unacceptable outcome. The prospect led the Town of Southold to pass zoning laws making the island essentially impossible to develop. But zoning can change. Federal protection is needed.
This is exactly the kind of local need a majority-party legislator with power in his caucus and the ear of the president ought to be able to satisfy. But Zeldin has gotten nowhere. His bill to stop the sale and have the government draw up a plan to preserve and protect Plum Island has passed in the House more than once but gone nowhere in the Senate. Plum Island has no more federal protection today than the day Zeldin was elected.
The same is true of 1st District residents who bought their homes counting on federal deductions for state and local income and property taxes. Those long-standing deductions were limited to $10,000 annually in a tax bill Republicans passed last year. That added $1.5 trillion to the deficit and used the loss of Long Island homeowners’ deductions to help pay for a huge corporate tax cut. To his credit, Zeldin fought limiting that deduction. To his detriment, no one listened.
In perhaps his worst vote in four years, Zeldin joined his party’s efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Except for the courage of the late Sen. John McCain, who defeated the effort in the Senate, as many as 1 million New Yorkers could have lost Medicaid benefits over time and more than 60,000 1st District residents could have lost their insurance.
Zeldin is often vocal. Up until the time he had to protect his seat in a swing district, he had been a regular on cable channels, lambasting the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. He made his voice heard fighting for billions of dollars in cuts to Environmental Protection Agency funding.
And he’s a leader in the crusade to gift the National Rifle Association with a 50-state reciprocal concealed-carry weapon law. Such a change would give anyone legally allowed to carry a concealed semi-automatic handgun — and in at least 13 states there are essentially no requirements to get such permission — the right to conceal and carry such weapons in New York and in his district. That would mean a gun right that is extraordinarily difficult for Zeldin’s own constituents to obtain, thanks to reasonable state and local legal restrictions here, would be freely granted to millions of unscreened out-of-staters.
Perry Gershon, 56, of East Hampton, is a successful financier spurred to get into the race by the election of Trump, and by Zeldin’s support for Trump’s policies. This has prompted Zeldin to repeatedly criticize Gershon for only recently moving his voting registration to Suffolk County from Manhattan, although he’s owned a home in the district since 1999 and has spent considerable time there, and before that with his wife’s family. It is a legitimate criticism.
But not being a native and wanting to stand up for residents of the 1st District is better than being from the 1st District and repeatedly letting them down. Gershon is smart, motivated, tireless and a listener, and his is the kind of private-sector success story many conservatives want to see more of in government. He says he has driven his blue Chevy Volt more than 38,000 miles across the district to meet with voters since the campaign started.
Gershon has made fighting climate change central to his campaign. Zeldin stands against policy changes that would keep rising waters and increasing storms from swallowing the district.
Gershon wants to strengthen the Affordable Care Act and push for a public insurance option all Americans can buy into, and thinks the nation could get to single-payer health care over time. Zeldin and his allies weakened the law in a way that over time will drive up rates for New Yorkers who need coverage most.
Gershon wants to give people brought illegally to the United States as children a path to citizenship. Zeldin staunchly opposes such a path.
Gershon wants a huge increase in infrastructure spending. Zeldin and his party pay that priority lip service, and do nothing to bring it about.
Gershon wants to act as a brake on Trump. Zeldin’s support enables the president’s worst behaviors.
Gershon promises to be a strong voice trumpeting the right policies for the district and the nation. Zeldin has been a voice for neither.
Newsday endorses Gershon.
 
Editor’s Note: Perry Gershon drives a Chevy Volt. The model of his vehicle was misspelled in an earlier version of this editorial.

VPCD1

Perry Gershon to represent 1st Congressional District 

Newsday endorses Gershon in 1st CD

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New York’s 2nd Congressional District hugs the South Shore of Long Island from Seaford to Sayville, and goes north to bits of Levittown and Ronkonkoma. Voters’ party registration is about evenly split. But it’s best known as Pete King’s district.
First elected to Congress in 1992, Peter T. King has seen the boundaries shape-shift twice from redistricting, moving it farther east, away from the Nassau County Republican base that launched his political career on the Hempstead Town Board and then as Nassau County comptroller.
Now, King represents more of Suffolk County. His district takes in places that are more diverse, with communities such as Wyandanch and Central Islip. Despite the changes, King, 74, of Seaford, never faced a significant challenge until this year, when more women decided to run for office in reaction to the policies of President Donald Trump. One is Democrat Liuba Grechen Shirley of Amityville, who has worked on economic development projects for the United Nations and for nonprofit organizations. 
Grechen Shirley, 37, is part of a generation that brings fresh concerns and priorities to the race. They include Medicare for all, a strong commitment to combating climate change, and the ability to discharge student loan debt in bankruptcy. Her main argument is that King no longer represents the district, that his views against same-sex marriage and abortion rights, for example, are out of step, and that his support for Trump’s executive order halting immigration from some Muslim-majority nations is wrong. Grechen Shirley could ably represent the district.
This board often has opposed King’s views and his votes. But in these extraordinary times, experience and bipartisanship are needed. Democrats are poised to seize control of the House of Representatives. Such a shift will likely be at the expense of more moderate Republicans. King knows how bipartisanship works. His fights against his own party to get medical benefits for 9/11 first responders and relief to our region after superstorm Sandy were laudable. This year, King again went against GOP leaders to help Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi increase funding to clean up the Bethpage plume. And it was King’s relationship with Trump that got the critical Gateway rail project back on track. He got Trump’s attention and $4 million for Suffolk County to fight MS-13.
In the new session, King could wrangle votes for Democratic initiatives like background checks for gun purchases, a pathway to citizenship for those brought here illegally as children and safeguards for those with temporary protective status. King is optimistic that there are GOP votes to restore lost state and local tax deductions on federal returns.
Coming months promise tumultuous times in Washington as the special counsel concludes his investigation of the 2016 election and Democrats demand more oversight of the Trump administration. It is our hope that King will step up as a proven leader and be a voice of unity and common sense that can narrow the divide that is undermining our nation.
Newsday endorses King. — The editorial board

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Peter King to represent New York’s 2nd Congressional District 

Newsday endorses King in 2nd Congressional Dist.

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Thomas R. Suozzi has long been a big thinker and an advocate for bipartisan solutions to problems, and his first term in Congress has shown him once again to be out in front on key Long Island issues.
Suozzi, 56, admits he’s been “humbled by the job” and talks about how difficult it’s been in the toxic environment to get important bills voted on while a member of the Democratic minority. Even so, the Glen Cove resident has tried to reach across the aisle. He has brought attention and money to remediate the Bethpage plume, clean the Long Island Sound and improve the Northport VA Medical Center, and brought a mobile medical clinic to North Hempstead. Unlike many members of Congress, he is one of the most visible and accessible elected officials, holding 24 town halls during his two-year term in a district that stretches from Whitestone east to Kings Park, and south to Hicksville, Bethpage, Plainview and Commack.
Suozzi’s portfolio includes foreign policy. He sees America’s role as a “stabilizing force.” He is particularly focused on Afghanistan, where he notes the need for a more specific civilian strategy.
Suozzi wants to use his platform to realize exciting goals for Long Island: a research corridor with a dual focus in life sciences and aerospace. Suozzi’s big idea: to have the region that built the Apollo program’s lunar module now build rockets for commercial launch. “Why not here?” asks Suozzi, who hopes to lure a California company to the Island. It’s that imagination and doggedness that have marked his career. 
Republican Dan DeBono, 49, is a former Navy SEAL and investment banker who has a reasoned view on encouraging business competition and anti-trust enforcement. On other issues, like immigration and gun control, the Northport resident is out of touch with this moderate district. What’s more worrisome: DeBono was linked to political dirty trickster Roger Stone. DeBono said he never paid Stone, but the link, combined with DeBono’s at-times name-calling Twitter feed, is troubling enough.
Newsday endorses Suozzi. — The editorial board

VPCD3

Thomas Suozzi to represent NY’s 3rd Congressional District

Newsday endorses Suozzi in 3rd Congressional District

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After four years in Washington, Democrat Kathleen M. Rice is finding her voice. Now she just has to use it loudly for the good of her district and Long Island.
Perhaps Rice’s most public splash was in her push against House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. But beyond the internal politics and procedural fights of the House of Representatives, Rice, 53, has clear priorities — gun violence, health care and immigration rank as the top three. She supports universal background checks and wants to prevent those on the no-fly list from buying guns. She wants to find fixes for Obamacare, protect Dreamers and provide border security. She’s right that there should be ways to get to bipartisan agreement, and she’s right to be frustrated by the House’s inability to get any of them done.
Rice’s position as ranking member of the homeland security subcommittee on counterterrorism and intelligence has given her an important perspective on the infrastructure upgrades the country and the region require, as she appropriately focuses on the need to harden security, especially for cyber and energy infrastructure. If Democrats take control of the House, she will have a platform to do so.
Rice, a Garden City resident, is not as focused on or as present as she should be in her district, which stretches from Atlantic Beach to Mineola. That’s not a new criticism. She laments that she can’t spend more time on Long Island, but she can do more. Her attention to the national political landscape or internal House leadership reforms should not come at the expense of her district. Passionately advocating for causes she has long cared about, from combating drunken driving to care for veterans, should be a priority. 
Bellmore Republican Ameer Benno is a civil rights and constitutional law attorney. Benno’s father came to the United States from Israel, but Benno argues for a strict merit-based immigration system and an asylum policy limited to taking in those subjected to ethnic and religious prosecution, rather than also for poor economic conditions or violence. He won’t take a position on whether climate change is man-made, and he argues that the federal government should focus on South Shore flood preparedness, but not on rising sea levels or the increasing intensity of storms. 
Benno, 42, is right to put a spotlight on the need for infrastructure dollars. But his focus is on the Long Island Rail Road, which doesn’t receive federal funds, and he discounts the need to build the Gateway rail tunnel under the Hudson River, a critically important project for the region.
Newsday endorses Rice. 
— The editorial board

VPCD4

Kathleen Rice to represent NY’s 4th Congressional District

Newsday endorses Rice in 4th Congressional District

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When Democrat Andrew M. Cuomo, 60, became governor in 2011, he took over a government so reliably and overwhelmingly dysfunctional that the idea of a competent Albany was a punch line.
Budgets were never on time. New levies, like the payroll tax for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, were imposed. Old ones, like local property taxes, were skyrocketing. The unemployment rate was 9 percent. The state’s projected budget deficit was $10 billion. And the two previous governors, Eliot Spitzer and David A. Paterson, left office amid clouds of scandal and incompetence. 
On the day Cuomo was sworn in, the governance of New York was such a disaster that it’s easy to forget how impossible improvement once seemed.
In nearly eight years since then, Cuomo has shepherded every budget to passage on time or very close to it, and never passed a significant tax increase. Under his leadership, that MTA payroll tax that so infuriated Long Islanders was eliminated for 80 percent of employers. State income tax rates declined a bit. State spending increased by less than 2 percent a year for his first six budgets, though that’s ticked up in the past two. And a new, less expensive pension tier for public employees hired as of 2012 began to bend that cost curve.
Most important, a property-tax cap Cuomo spearheaded altered the state’s trajectory, particularly in the suburbs. Had school property taxes continued to escalate at the 6.3 percent average rate they did for 30 years before the cap, the tax bills of many Long Islanders could be 40 percent higher than they are. Every economic aspect of life here would likely be far worse, from home values to unemployment rates to wage levels to the number of businesses founded. 
Each of these economic triumphs came with the enthusiastic help of majority Senate Republicans, who shared many of Cuomo’s fiscal priorities, and some badgering and horse-trading with the Democrats in the majority in the Assembly. The opposite formula was needed for Cuomo to be successful with social initiatives, like same-sex marriage, gun restrictions, a steadily higher minimum wage and blockage of hydrofracking. 
And while many of these big policy changes were adopted in Cuomo’s first four years, he’s had similar success in his second term pushing through seemingly impossible infrastructure projects. The rebuilding of LaGuardia and Kennedy airports, the completion of the Second Avenue Subway, the replacement of the Tappan Zee Bridge and the start of the long-proposed Long Island Rail Road’s third-track project are the grander examples of where he’s gotten dirt moving. 
Much of Cuomo’s success has come from an ability to intertwine items for opposing sides that incentivizes compromise, and an aggressively hectoring style that incentivizes surrender. It’s not at all pretty, but it works pretty well.
Marc Molinaro, 43, of Tivoli, is Cuomo’s Republican opponent. A public servant since he first ran for the village board at age 18, Molinaro has been a mayor, county legislator, assemblyman and, since 2012, the Dutchess County executive.
Molinaro says he’s running because the state has become too expensive, with the highest property tax burden in the nation, eroding infrastructure and a government that refuses to focus on the challenges. He sees communities hollowed out in his home county and across the state because of the cost to achieve New Yorkers’ dreams.
The cornerstone of Molinaro’s campaign is a plan to cut local property taxes by 30 percent. It’s a noble goal, but his ideas for implementation fall into two categories: old specific ones that have been rejected for years, like eliminating laws and prevailing wage rules that increase government construction costs dramatically, and perennially vague ideas that get nowhere once details are needed, like eliminating “unfunded mandates” put on school districts and locales by federal and state governments. And beyond the magic mantra of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse, he also can’t explain how his other big local savings, shifting $7.6 billion in county Medicaid spending to the state, would be done without increasing state taxes.
Molinaro is low key, and has on-the-ground political savvy. He’s not wrong to target New York’s bloated Medicaid spending and antiquated laws. His MTA restructuring plan is thoughtful.
 
Third terms are often more curse than blessing. Cuomo must allow far more oversight of economic development to make sure state money spent on job creation delivers. No laws will stop greedy people from taking advantage of public positions, as shown by the federal corruption convictions of a very close aide as well as three people involved in upstate economic development programs. But ethics reforms, such as lowering the limits on political contributions from individuals and corporations, could minimize the temptations. 
Cuomo must continue his focus on moving the state forward. And he may have new partners who will allow him to win on some fronts, but he must stop those looking to roll back some of his economic gains. If Democrats take the State Senate, worthy initiatives could move, such as preventing the purchase or possession of guns by troubled individuals; raising the age for purchasing guns to 21; protecting against the federal legislation that capped state and local tax deductions; passing the Child Victims Act, allowing those who were sexually abused as minors to file lawsuits; and approving ethics and voting reforms.
What Cuomo needs to do is keep a lid on more extreme legislative dreams like ending or loosening the property tax cap, raising state taxes, raising the costs of education and health care, and rushing to legalize recreational marijuana without careful thought.
New York needs a governor who can temper idealism with common sense, who can run the state competently at all times while pushing for huge changes when the time is right. Andrew M. Cuomo has done both for eight years.
Newsday endorses Cuomo.

VPGOVERNOR

Elect Andrew M. Cuomo to a third term as New York governor

Newsday endorses Gov. Cuomo for a third term

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Tom DiNapoli has held the role of state comptroller for more than decade. As the state’s chief fiscal officer and sole trustee of New York’s common retirement fund, DiNapoli has navigated through economic crises, stabilized and grown the pension fund, taken on public corruption, and shone a spotlight on agencies and municipalities through the auditing process, while managing an office of more than 2,700 employees to get the work done. 
Now, as he seeks his third full term, the focus turns back on DiNapoli’s record, and it’s clear the Great Neck Democrat has done the job well. The state’s pension fund has grown to $207.4 billion, gaining 11.35 percent in the fiscal year that ended in March. Some of those gains are due to a high-performing market, but that strength has put the fund on a more stable path, and has helped significantly narrow the gap between its assets and the benefits it pays out to public employees. New York’s pension fund continues to be one of the best-funded plans in the country, at 98 percent. DiNapoli will have to rethink the fund’s asset allocations, and likely lower the assumed rate of return, now at 7 percent, to reduce risks. 
DiNapoli, 64, is disciplined but searching in his investment choices, deciding, for instance, not to divest fully from fossil fuel companies, despite political pressure to do so. That choice, he said, is in part because of his fiduciary responsibility to get the best possible return, and in part because he thinks it’s best to have a seat — a significant one because of the importance of the fund and the size of its investments — at the shareholder table to push corporations like Exxon Mobil to make better choices for the environment. Yet, DiNapoli also hopes to find the right investments in renewable energy and green technology because it is a growth area. He should continue that effort and, if possible, divest further from fossil fuels, while balancing the good governance with good returns. 
The state comptroller has wide-ranging oversight of how taxpayer dollars are used by state agencies and many local governments. His office audits school districts, local municipalities like Long Beach and agencies like the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the state Department of Health. Most recently, DiNapoli found that the MTA’s budget gap could approach $634 million by 2022, and that the Long Island Rail Road lacked protocols to appropriately respond to incidents that occurred during the height of service disruptions late last year and early this year. DiNapoli can and should do more. He promises to address the issue of larger-than-necessary school reserves by potentially introducing legislation to combat them, and to look more carefully at industrial development agencies. But his powers have been limited by the State Legislature, which in 2011 removed the comptroller’s ability to pre-review economic development contracts. The absence of DiNapoli’s input was particularly felt in light of corruption charges that emerged from the Buffalo Billion economic development effort. State lawmakers should return that jurisdiction, and DiNapoli should be relentless in demanding the restoration of that power. 
Working with the new attorney general, DiNapoli should make it a priority to re-energize the joint task force on public integrity to investigate official corruption. 
DiNapoli’s opponent is investment banker Jonathan Trichter. Trichter worked for 2010 GOP comptroller candidate Harry Wilson as campaign policy director, and then became an employee in Wilson’s corporate restructuring firm. Trichter, 47, cites his work with Wilson as the experience that prepares him to be comptroller, but he’s done little on his own. The Manhattan resident said he would bring the state pension fund’s assumed rate of return down to 6 percent, which he said would be more honest and realistic, and he prefers a strategy of passive index-fund investment, which he said would bring better returns by not paying fees. 
Trichter, a former Democratic operative who switched his registration to Republican in May, is right to suggest the comptroller can use his powers more aggressively, but goes too far in suggesting he would hold up state budgets by making himself the “fourth person in the room” until he got the policies and budget he wanted. His caustic, bombastic attitude wouldn’t serve him well, and his lack of managerial experience to lead a huge office makes him a nonstarter. 
DiNapoli knows Albany’s players and its ways better than most. He is widely respected. He should use that capital to give his bully pulpit a louder voice and aggressively use his auditing power to further spotlight public corruption. 
Newsday endorses DiNapoli.

VPCOMPTROLLER

Re-elect Tom DiNapoli as state comptroller

Newsday endorses DiNapoli for state comptroller

The New York attorney general runs an enormous public law firm, which routinely defends the actions of state government while initiating legal actions to protect state residents and resources. In setting an ambitious agenda as a guardian of the people, it’s Democrat Letitia A. James who would continue the best traditions of the office. 
That means rooting out wasteful and fraudulent spending of tax dollars, and protecting consumers from predators and nursing home residents from abuse. It means directing more money from bank settlement funds to local land banks to rehabilitate zombie homes. And seizing hazardous lots and decrepit housing from banks or slumlords who aren’t keeping them up, and giving them to municipalities to develop. And it means continuing bold lawsuits like the one Attorney General Barbara Underwood filed last week against Exxon Mobil, which claims stockholders were defrauded because the corporation refuses to credibly acknowledge the risk of climate change to its bottom line.
James, 60, of Brooklyn, is better known as Tish and is the New York City Public Advocate. In a fierce primary fight against a talented field of Democrats, she won her party’s nomination. After the election, she should maintain her drive and effort to determine the concerns in every corner of the state.
Her opponent is Keith Wofford, a Buffalo native who now lives in Manhattan and is one of the managing partners in the international law firm Ropes &amp; Gray. In his first run for office, he faces the daunting task of introducing himself to voters and then winning them over. A supporter of Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama, he is one of the very first Republican nominees for statewide office who is black.
Wofford, 49, who also has a home in East Hampton, differs from James primarily on how they define the office. He sees the job as a much more limited one and would be reluctant, unlike his Democratic predecessors, to use the office to root out financial fraud on Wall Street. He’s critical of the lawsuit against Exxon. And he was dubious about the merits of the office’s litigation against Trump’s charitable foundation which claims Trump used donations for campaign purposes. One of the attorney general’s main roles is oversight of charities. It is that same minimalist view that leads Wofford to conclude there is not much the office can do about zombie homes.
Both James and Wofford do agree on one important direction for the office, ensuring that racial disparities are eliminated from the criminal justice system. Both would advocate for laws to guarantee speedy trials and require prosecutors to turn over exculpatory evidence to defendants much earlier in the process. 
James’ muscular vision of the office as a stalwart protector of consumers and the environment, and as a national leader when the federal government fails to step up, is what New Yorkers expect. From her first day, she must prove herself independent of the governor and legislature. And she has to work with the state comptroller to reinvigorate the Public Integrity Task Force and go after those who abuse ethics laws.
Newsday endorses James. — The editorial board

VPAG

Letitia James  to serve as New York State attorney general

Newsday endorses James for NY attorney general

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The race for Suffolk County comptroller is a Goldilocks election.
One candidate runs too hot, the other runs too cool. Given the comptroller’s vital role as a fiscal monitor, and the nature of the administration being monitored, we prefer a candidate with a warmer internal temperature.
Incumbent John M. Kennedy Jr., 62, a Republican from Nesconset, is seeking his second term. His first four years have not been smooth. Sometimes, that’s a good thing.
He came into office after a long stint in the county legislature as a burr in the side of Democratic County Executive Steve Bellone. Kennedy can still be loud and blustery, and would be better served by toning that down, but there is no questioning his independence from the county executive.
Kennedy has fulfilled a key campaign pledge — to uncover waste, corruption and inefficiency by increasing audits of county government and nonprofit agencies getting county contracts. The comptroller also processes payroll and invoices and performs other administrative duties, but the watchdog role is pre-eminent. And there is plenty of ground to plow — Suffolk has a $3.1 billion budget and thousands of contracts.
Kennedy said his audits have recovered $8 million for the county. Probes of homeless shelter providers found that one overcharged the county by $1.3 million and the other owed $3.6 million. Audits of a youth group and a cultural association uncovered nearly $220,000 in overpayments. Another audit criticized Department of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services officials for poor management that led some dispatchers to work fewer hours than required and others to collect exorbitant overtime. An audit of concessionaire Beach Hut led to the conviction of the company and recovery of $1.1 million in unpaid taxes and fees, and a finding that county parks department oversight was lacking. Kennedy also beefed up the office, oversaw its consolidation with the treasurer’s office and started a critical computer modernization that must be completed.
Jay H. Schneiderman, 56, of Southampton, understands budgets. A former fellow legislator, his experience includes stints as town supervisor in East Hampton and, currently, Southampton. He seeks compromise and stresses his ability to work with others. While collegiality is generally a good thing in government, the comptroller should be more of a principled bulldog. Schneiderman does not evince an obvious passion for the job. He has changed his party registration through the years from Republican to Independence to Democrat, and cites that as evidence of his independence. But we worry about someone Bellone has endorsed serving in this critical oversight position.
Sniping between Kennedy and Bellone and his administration has not stopped. They have battled over Kennedy’s attempt to fill staff positions and his office budget. Now they’re in court over Kennedy asserting his right to audit a bid process as it is underway. The law seems to be on his side. More fireworks are likely now that Kennedy plans to audit the county’s agreement with a developer on a $1.1 billion project that includes a 17,500-seat arena at the Ronkonkoma Hub; the probe should proceed.
If he wins a second term, Kennedy must remember that there is no place for partisan warfare; he must remain above that fray. Nor can the comptroller job be used as a springboard to attack Bellone’s policy decisions. That’s not his job, nor should another term be a springboard for Kennedy’s own ambitions to run for county executive next year. The comptroller works for the people of Suffolk, not to advance the interests of any political party or leader.
Suffolk County needs a pit bull with bite, not bark. We believe Kennedy can fill that role.
Newsday endorses Kennedy. — The editorial board

VPSCCOMPTROLLER

John Kennedy to serve as Suffolk County comptroller 

Newsday endorses Kennedy for Suffolk comptroller

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The position of Surrogate Court’s judge is an important but little-understood and typically low-profile job. That latter part is not so true this year in Suffolk County, thanks to a unprincipled candidate-selection process that offended anyone who believes in fair elections.
The surrogate in each county serves a 10-year term, oversees the processing of wills and appoints an executor when one does not exist. The surrogate also appoints guardians for minors or incapacitated adults. These are lucrative assignments for lawyers, and in handing them out, surrogates must be independent from party bosses on whose lines they ran for election, bosses who also are seeking jobs for party stalwarts.
This year’s race for Suffolk surrogate is the poster child for the necessity of changing to some form of nonpartisan, merit-based method of selecting judges in New York.
The Democratic candidate is Theresa Whelan, 56, a Family Court judge from Wading River. She also has the Conservative and Independence lines. Whelan got her party’s nod after a three-party cross-endorsement deal for nine judicial races blew up. That happened when Republican Tara A. Scully, 41, a Setauket attorney, exposed the sham behind the selection of District Court Judge Marian Rose Tinari, a Conservative and the wife of Suffolk Conservative chairman Frank Tinari, as the Democratic nominee. Scully did so by petitioning her way onto both the Republican and Democratic lines.
Tinari withdrew, Democratic boss Rich Schaffer replaced her with Whelan, and the Independence and Conservative parties fell in line. So the deal was still intact, just the names rearranged. Scully, who lost the Democratic primary, is on the GOP line.
Whelan, in her interview with the editorial board, refused to condemn or dissociate herself from the selection process. That’s worrisome, and it makes us question her ability to dissociate herself from the interests of the party that chose her, despite her promise to do so.
Scully, also running on the Green and Reform party lines, practices in Surrogate Court. She knows the law, and has the empathy needed to deal with the difficult and heartbreaking cases heard there. Whelan does, too. But Scully has less baggage.
Newsday endorses Scully.
— The editorial board

VPSURROGATE

Tara Scully to serve as Suffolk Surrogate’s Court judge

 Newsday endorses Scully for Surrogate’s Court

VPSURROGATE_WEB

If Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s political experience and accomplishments were the only advantages he brought to the contest against Cynthia Nixon in Thursday’s Democratic primary, they would likely be enough. 
But he also has the edge when it comes to political philosophy. On nearly every issue in which Cuomo’s and Nixon’s platforms differ, the two-term governor’s vision is the better choice for Democrats, for Long Island and for the state. 
In this race, Nixon, an actress turned activist, has become an avatar for younger, more liberal New Yorkers disenchanted with establishment Democrats. Some of what she wants for New York, and particularly for its most challenged residents, is mostly noble: better schools, access to health care and affordable housing are some of her signature issues. It’s in her plans to provide these things that her philosophy is felled by reality. 
<h2>Case against Nixon</h2> 
When the city-centric Nixon talks about improving schools, her answer is more taxpayer money for the traditional system that spends $22,366 per student, 90 percent above the national average. She opposes Cuomo’s most significant achievement, the 2 percent property tax cap, and his annual 2 percent cap on state budget increases. She rails against public charter schools, no matter how successful. Under Nixon, who also wants to see far more money diverted from the suburbs to New York City schools, taxpayers on Long Island would pay a lot more for an education system that likely wouldn’t improve. 
Nixon’s answer on health care is state-financed single-payer for all. Her plan is “Pass it and then figure out how to fund it.” But it can’t be implemented for New York alone without massive state income and payroll tax increases that would cause wealthy people and big employers to flee. It would require Washington to grant a waiver to redirect all federal funds (like those used for Medicaid and Medicare patients) that this federal government will not grant. Nixon is not wrong to support single-payer health care, but such a transition would take time and would need buy-in from the federal government. It’s that pragmatic approach that has Cuomo’s support. 
To provide more affordable housing, Nixon supports statewide price controls on nearly all rental units. But even liberal economists say the effect would be a dire shortage of apartments, particularly in downstate suburbs already facing a dearth of such housing, as investors would refuse to put money into a market in which they couldn’t earn a strong profit. 
And then there are the Nixon campaign planks that would be terrible ideas even if they worked as intended. Nixon’s support of a right to strike for public-sector union workers when state law already grants them strong protections would be disastrous. And the rollback of public pension reforms Cuomo pushed through that she calls for would put unbearable pressure on local and school district budgets, and taxpayers who fund them. 
<h2>Case for Cuomo</h2> 
Stacked up against Nixon’s fantasies, Cuomo’s eight years of achievement are even more impressive. For many, they are often drowned out by an imperious and bruising style he claims is the only way to get things done in a state capital besieged by bureaucracy and intransigence. He likely has a point. 
Besides Cuomo’s pension and taxation reforms, his progress in addressing New York’s seemingly intractable infrastructure woes may be his greatest accomplishment. The Tappan Zee Bridge replacement is a reality, as is the Second Avenue Subway. The Long Island Rail Road’s long-frustrated third-track has broken ground. And LaGuardia and Kennedy airports are undergoing huge improvements, as is Penn Station. And Cuomo has been a voice for social justice and the environment, pushing for gay marriage, tough gun controls and paid family leave, banning fracking for natural gas, supporting clean energy, and raising the state’s minimum wage. 
The challenges Cuomo has faced from his left have been effective in a way that his challengers might not be if they ran the state. Convinced to raise the minimum wage, for instance, and fight for paid family leave, he had the ability to push them through. 
The tough job of New York governor is getting tougher. In Washington, President Donald Trump has launched a full assault on the state that includes punitive tax code changes, eroded environmental and consumer protections and attacks on education and civil rights. At home, the challenge of providing jobs, educations, transportation, health care, justice and safety to the state’s residents is a complex and monumental task, as is the continuing battle to stop the corruption in state government that has ensnared even Cuomo’s closest allies. 
Cuomo has shown he’s up to the challenge. Nixon hasn’t even shown she comprehends it.

VPGOV180909

Newsday endorses Andrew Cuomo in Democratic gubernatorial primary

Newsday endorses Cuomo in Democratic primary

IMGVTME_WEB

Summary:&nbsp; So who is the best candidate to run the 600-attorney public law firm to best represent the state and specifically Long Island? 
That candidate is&nbsp;Letitia James, the public advocate for New York City, a former City Council member and former head of the attorney general’s regional office in Brooklyn. She will be a passionate advocate for consumers, such as protecting older residents from housing fraud and other scams, and she would be diligent in ferreting out taxpayer fraud. 
Only the most engaged Democrats will vote in the state party primary for attorney general next week, and they’re likely to be itching for a candidate who makes the most noise about using the office as a platform to thwart President Donald Trump’s administration. 
That would be a waste of your vote. Current state Attorney General Barbara Underwood, chosen by the State Legislature to replace Eric T. Schneiderman after he resigned, is on the case. And no one running has the professional chops to do it better. Underwood, who has extensive federal and local prosecutorial experience, is suing Trump, three of his children and The Trump Foundation for self-dealing transactions that violated state charities law. Oversight of nonprofit organizations is one of the prime functions of the state attorney general, evidenced again Thursday when Underwood announced the office is examining whether the state’s eight Roman Catholic dioceses used donations in covering up sexual abuse of minors. 
Underwood, a former acting solicitor general of the United States, is also investigating whether Trump’s businesses in New York are violating the federal constitutional ban on presidents receiving payment from foreign governments and is in the lead with other states in suing the federal government over its immigration policies and regulatory rollbacks. 
Underwood said she would continue working in the office, and all four attorney general candidates have pledged to keep her on. No matter which Democrat wins the primary, if he or she wins in the general election in November the office’s fight against Trump’s policies will continue. 
<h2>Best for Long Island</h2> 
Despite every candidate donning the crusader cloak against corrupt public officials, the actual powers of the attorney general to investigate those cases are limited. The state constitution invests criminal prosecution powers in local district attorneys and experience has shown that U.S. attorneys have the more expansive laws to bring wrongdoers to justice. The state attorney general and the state comptroller investigate the misuse of state funds. However, changing Albany’s pay-to-play culture requires changes to campaign finance laws and a ban on outside income. 
So who is the best candidate to run the 600-attorney public law firm to best represent the state and specifically Long Island? 
That candidate is Letitia James, the public advocate for New York City, a former City Council member and former head of the attorney general’s regional office in Brooklyn. She will be a passionate advocate for consumers, such as protecting older residents from housing fraud and other scams, and she would be diligent in ferreting out taxpayer fraud. 
James, who goes by Tish and has been doggedly campaigning here, is the only candidate who can knowledgeably take on the serious environmental issues facing our region, including the illegal dumping of toxic construction debris that threatens our soil and water. She will work to get more money from mortgage crisis settlement funds directed to local landbanks to rehabilitate zombie homes. And she has clear plans to seize hazardous lots and decrepit housing from banks, or from slumlords who aren’t keeping them up, and give them to municipalities to develop. 
Leecia Eve, a former aide to Hillary Clinton when she was in the Senate, is a lobbyist for Verizon and a commissioner with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. She is intently focused on criminal justice reform, but she was late to seek party support and her campaign barely registers downstate. 
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney has a deep understanding of state government, having worked for Govs. Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson, and its interaction with Washington. But he showed little passion for the job he is seeking as evidenced by his decision to run simultaneously for re-election to Congress. 
Zephyr Teachout, a law professor, is seeking a national platform for her government reform ideas but doesn’t seem to have a strong grasp of the job she seeks. She doesn’t demonstrate a granular understanding of how the attorney general’s office works, telling us that she has the vision and would set a “legal strategy.” In the past four years, Teachout ran unsuccessfully for governor and Congress, in an upstate race in which she showed little enthusiasm for recently enacted state gun-control laws. 
Teachout became a registered member of the New York bar only a few weeks ago. She dismisses her failure to take the steps to practice law in the state as insignificant but it gives credence to the concern that Teachout talks a big game but isn’t much interested in specifics. 
<h2>Reason to believe</h2> 
In 2010 and in 2014 we did not endorse Schneiderman because we were troubled by his showboating, inability to attract and keep talent in the office, and lack of interest about Long Island issues, particularly on aggressively protecting the environment. Those concerns remain. 
Tish James came up through the ranks as a scrappy fighter and is now the party’s designated candidate. She promises this won’t diminish her independence as attorney general, and we believe her. 
Newsday endorses James.

VPAG180907

Newsday endorses Letitia James for attorney general

Newsday endorses James in AG primary

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Suffolk County politics is a swamp. It has been one for years. 
The mastermind of the morass is Democratic Party county boss Rich Schaffer, and he’s been up to his usual tricks in advance of next week’s primaries, weaving a web of cross-endorsements in cahoots with Conservative and Independence party leaders. 
Why should you care? Because these deals steal from you the power of your vote. Candidates end up with so many ballot lines that the result is a foregone conclusion. Party bosses divide the jobs that are the spoils of victory. And real damage is done. This cabal is responsible for a notable decline in the quality of the Suffolk judiciary — by engineering victories for party favorites while hindering the progress of strong, independent judicial candidates and judges. 
To all Democratic voters: If this brand of politics disgusts you, if you want to cast a vote for change, look at your party’s primary for judge of Suffolk Surrogate’s Court. It’s a doozy, and the stakes are high. 
The surrogate’s position is the mother lode of patronage. The judge assigns legal work, like handling wills and guardianships, where billing can reach six figures. As part of a nine-judgeship deal, Schaffer promised his party’s line to District Court Judge Marian Rose Tinari, a Conservative who also happens to be the wife of Suffolk Conservative Party chairman Frank Tinari. 
Responding to a Newsday editorial board plea for alternate candidates, Port Jefferson attorney Tara Scully, 41, of Setauket, gathered enough petitions to run — as a Democrat and as a Republican, her party of registration. After Tinari withdrew, Schaffer replaced her with someone who is registered as a Democrat, Family Court Judge Theresa Whelan, 56, of Wading River. She’s the wife of Supreme Court Judge Thomas Whelan, who has close ties to the Independence Party and was entangled in controversial lawsuits involving political power broker Gary Melius and former Conservative boss Ed Walsh, now in prison. Of course, she has the Independence line. 
So now it’s Scully vs. Whelan for the Democratic nod. 
If Whelan wins, the Conservatives likely will give her their line, too, and reap the spoils just as they would have with Tinari. If Scully wins, she will have both the Democratic and Republican lines and almost certainly triumph in November. Schaffer’s argument now that Scully wants to deprive voters of a choice is an insult; his deals repeatedly deny them a choice. It’s even more ludicrous given Scully’s proposal for nonpartisan elections of judges, which would remove political party bosses from the process. Schaffer’s complaint about a Republican being on the Democratic line is rich, given he was going to give the slot to a Conservative. Now he has sent out mailers giving the impression that Newsday’s editorial board has endorsed Whelan. It has not. 
We’re usually loath to encourage a primary vote that would limit voter choices in November. But we’re also loath to encourage a vote for a system, corrupted by Schaffer’s machinations, that has weakened our judiciary. If you are a Democrat fed up with your party cozying up to Conservatives and not giving you real choices, vote for Scully in the primary. Unique times call for unique responses. 
Newsday endorses Scully.

VPSURROGATE180905

Newsday endorses Tara Scully for Suffolk Surrogate’s Court primary

Newsday endorses Scully in Surrogate’s Court primary

OPLTR180905_WEB

The lasting story of the 2018 elections nationwide will be the emergence of a new generation of leaders, first-time candidates eager to enter government to solve problems, flush with fresh ideas about serving their communities, mindful of listening to their constituents and being accountable to them. 
Voters in the 18th Assembly District have an opportunity to elect someone with just such promise: Taylor Raynor. She grew up in Uniondale and attended its schools, a springboard to attending Spelman College and obtaining a master’s degree in industrial psychology from Hofstra University. 
Raynor, 34, wants to bring Uniondale, Hempstead, Roosevelt and Freeport a new model of representation that elevates the areas to new heights and rids them of divisions. Raynor is brimming with ideas on how to connect all residents and improve the three school districts, as well as fill the persistent potholes. “We are paying a lot of taxes but we don’t see the impact of our money,” she says. 
Raynor is challenging 30-year incumbent Earlene Hooper for the Democratic nomination in the Sept. 13 primary, a contest that will determine the ultimate winner for this overwhelmingly Democratic district. Hooper’s lack of transparency is so bad she’s even invisible in her district. There are about 133,000 residents in the 18th AD, and Hooper has failed most of them, except for the anointed few in her Hempstead inner circle. 
Hooper has shamelessly blocked Freeport’s attempts to have its armory transferred to the village, preferring to have it delivered to a favored church group. Her lack of leadership in the continuing crisis in the Hempstead school district is another reason to make a change. She tried to block a $1.5 million anti-poverty grant from being administered by the United Way so she could have more control over it. 
Hooper clings to her position by peddling nonsense — that anyone who challenges her is a tool of white overlords, that she alone can deliver wheelbarrows of money, that she can’t be in her home district too much because she works so hard in Albany. 
She explained it this way at a recent candidate forum in Uniondale: “On Sunday night, around 7 to maybe 9 o’clock, they sit in this room in the Capitol, a room on the side, where the door looks like a wall, and that is where they divide up the money. I am talking billions,” she exclaimed. Asked where she was the rest of the week, she retorted, “On Friday, I am getting ready to go over there to make sure you get your fair share.” 
There is no side room with a secret door where governmental leaders divide up piles of money, as if in an illegal poker game. Requests for grants must be in writing, and are allocated during regular committee meetings. They are vetted by the Assembly speaker and then the state comptroller. Hooper also says she is the fourth most important person in state government: “There’s the governor, lieutenant governor, the speaker and Earlene Hooper,” she said at the forum. Hooper has boasted she stopped Nassau Community College from being closed, as well as the local supermarket. There isn’t a grain of salt large enough to temper the taste of Hooper’s fantasy world. 
Newsday endorses Raynor.&nbsp;

VPHOOP180904

Newsday endorses Taylor Raynor in 18th AD primary

Newsday endorses Raynor in 18th AD primary

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