Police union in a brawl

Daily Point

PBA elections get twice as nice!

When Nassau County Police Benevolent Association president James McDermott announced his Sept. 1 retirement earlier this month, the consensus was that PBA 1st vice president Pete Paterson would grab the reins until a new leader is chosen in regular elections in November.

Then somebody read the union’s bylaws, which state that McDermott’s departure is too early to allow an interim president to serve out the term. So Tuesday, five candidates were nominated to serve 15 weeks as president during the interregnum, earning the incumbent a possible advantage. The slates for November’s election are due in mid-September.

It’s a messy and wide-open field, as befits a union whose leadership has fractured. Three candidates who’d already announced November runs are in this interim race:

• Eighth Precinct trustee Michael Spadaccini is said to be the pick of 2nd vice president Dean Losquadro and would join him on the fall ticket. He is at odds with McDermott and Paterson over the union’s direction.
• PBA treasurer Thomas O’Reilly is said to be the choice of Paterson, who would join him on the ticket. He is also McDermott’s pick for the spot.
• Tommy Shevlin was a PBA delegate for five years before returning to the ranks to work as a peer support officer and employee assistance counselor. He appeared on "The Dr. Phil Show" last year to talk about the problem of officer suicides and the "code of silence" among cops about mental illness.

But now two other candidates have also jumped into the fray for this first race.

• Sixth Precinct trustee Kevin Mullick
• Seventh Precinct officer Tim Regan, who has never held a union position

With the chaos that has ensued, the old guard of the union are shaking their heads even as they parcel out blame among themselves for the turmoil.

When Gary DelaRaba stepped down from the post in 2008 he’d been in it 20 years, and he orchestrated a clean transition to James Carver by timing his resignation to allow Carver to become president. Carver then served eight years, and positioned McDermott for a smooth ascent.

But McDermott will leave having served just less than one term, with no clear line of succession. It’s possible that after having two leaders in 28 years, the union could have three presidents in four months.

And the internal battles will do nothing to help a membership that’s been working without a contract since 2018, has witnessed some public resentment against the police, and would likely prefer to have all the PBA guns pointed outside the tent.

— Lane Filler @lanefiller

Talking Point

Bail and the Nassau DA race

Nassau County district attorney hopeful Todd Kaminsky notched an endorsement from the New York State Troopers Police Benevolent Association on Wednesday, just another sign of his pro-law enforcement strategy in the campaign to succeed Madeline Singas.

The Long Beach Democrat has been eager to highlight his pro-police bona fides and, in particular, his work to tweak the state bail reform measure passed in 2019 by adding more crimes that would make people eligible for bail and potentially kept in custody.

"I believe in funding the police," Kaminsky said at the PBA event on Wednesday, adding that he wants to make sure men and women in law enforcement "have a champion."

It’s part of a pattern for Kaminsky, who has also touted the endorsement of his hometown Long Beach PBA and has a campaign ad that mentions spending late nights at precincts in his former life as a prosecutor, "working hand in glove" with police. The ad includes testimonials from first responders.

The language and pro-cop focus cuts against some in the Democratic Party who are vocal even in relatively moderate Nassau County. But clearly the other side is also eager to talk about criminal justice reform issues, particularly bail. Both the county GOP and its candidate, Anne Donnelly, who has spent decades as a prosecutor in Nassau and has her own law enforcement endorsement from the county police detectives’ association, are running Facebook ads about Kaminsky and bail reform.

"Is your family safer with this thug released back on the street?" asks one ad from Donnelly, over a picture listing multiple alleged offenses above the face of a Black man. "FREED BY TODD KAMINSKY’S BAIL LAW," the ad says. News stories from 2020 state that the individual in question had been arrested and released in upstate Watervliet; public records indicate that he is currently incarcerated.

Asked about Kaminsky’s PBA endorsements, Donnelly said in a statement to The Point that she’s "confident that I will receive other law enforcement endorsements as the campaign proceeds."

Her relatively newly launched campaign hasn’t posted fundraising filings yet, but Kaminsky has a war chest to get his message on law enforcement out there. The July periodic filings show his DA campaign account with nearly $2 million on hand.

— Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Pencil Point

Who's game?

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

Final Point

For Rudy these days, a gig’s a gig

Rudy Giuliani has drawn public notice for a few things in recent months: suspension of his law license over the GOP election-fraud hoax, having the FBI raid his home, failing to get ex-President Donald Trump to pay him for his services, trying to promote his adult son for governor, and taking requests for personalized greeting videos on the Cameo platform at $199 a pop.

The ex-mayor still has his fans, however. On Saturday evening in Southampton, he is due to appear as a "special guest" at a fundraiser for the Manhattan Republican Party whose chairwoman is Andrea Catsimatidis, daughter of billionaire grocer and oil man John Catsimatidis, owner of WABC-AM radio, where Giuliani is a regular host. The chairwoman has been a guest on his show.

The organization’s annual soiree is slated for the Capri Hotel, a "beach chic" spot on busy County Road 39. Tickets for the "smart casual attire" event range from $500 per individual to "photo opp., $1,000," "Vice-chair $2,500," "co-chair $5,000," and "chair, $10,000."

Andrew Giuliani, a former Trump employee, is competing against the better-funded and more independently known Rep. Lee Zeldin for the GOP nomination for governor next year. The Manhattan fundraiser happens to fall in Zeldin’s district. Will one or both of the declared candidates make an appearance? This is not yet known for sure.

But the more immediate concern for what’s left of New York City’s GOP will be Curtis Sliwa, another WABC celebrity and a longtime friend of papa John Catsimatidis, who’s running as the underdog nominee against Democrat Eric Adams for mayor in November.

Hamptons political fundraising season is in full swing with plenty of transactions still to go. Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul is due in East Hampton for receptions over the weekend.

Might partygoing Republicans run across their Democratic counterparts along the jammed thoroughfares? It can happen.

— Dan Janison @Danjanison

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