Plane-speaking Suozzi

Daily Point

The state of Suozzi

Rep. Tom Suozzi, running for governor, traveled to Buffalo during the fall to rally for Byron Brown, the incumbent who lost the Democratic primary but won an unlikely write-in campaign. Unfortunately for the Long Island Democrat, Brown this week endorsed Gov. Kathy Hochul, Suozzi’s primary rival.

That was to be expected. Hochul, herself a Buffalonian, stayed on the fence in Brown’s race against avowed socialist India Walton, while Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand backed Walton. But Nassau Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs was instrumental to Brown’s victory, and even as it frays their longtime alliance, Jacobs is avidly behind Hochul against Suozzi.

With Democrats due to convene next month for nominations and petitions to go out in early March, that pretty much crystallizes how things stand for the congressman and former Nassau County executive. She’s getting party, institutional and union support and raising millions for her campaign — the residue of incumbency — while he hasn’t disclosed yet exactly how much he's raised. "It’ll be better than people expect," he told The Point, in addition to the $2 million or so he’s transferring into the state coffers from his federal campaign account.

So on Thursday, Suozzi held a Zoom news conference from his Glen Cove home in which he tried to turn Hochul’s edge in the race to his moral advantage. In doing so, he reached for a long-running issue — the use of state aircraft by elected officials to fly on "official business" to places where they also happen to be campaigning. He cited 45 occasions in which Hochul seemed to have done so without reimbursing the state, and called for her to refer the matter to Attorney General Tish James’ office for investigation. James, of course, dropped out of the primary for governor and is seeking reelection.

Attorneys general, governors and helicopters have been a thing in Albany before, most pungently in 2007. Then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer sought to probe nemesis Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno’s use of state-funded copters to fly to New York City when GOP fundraisers happened to be going on. But then-AG Andrew M. Cuomo threw Spitzer this fastball: He issued a report slamming Spitzer and aides for using a press request for information to work up a political hit against Bruno.

Ironically, it was only a year earlier, in 2006, that Suozzi last tried to win a primary for governor, and Spitzer got 81% of the vote against the then-county executive’s 18%.

Slim chance Hochul would now bite on assigning a new AG-copter probe anyway. According to the Albany Times Union, which questioned the propriety of the trips last week, Hochul’s team today reimbursed the state $19,949 for three trips. Her office said in a statement: "The Governor's new deputy counsel who oversees ethics is completing a thorough review of all aircraft usage and necessary reimbursements identified thus far have been made, and we are creating additional controls and processes to better ensure consistent adherence to the strictest ethical guidelines."

A Hochul official added: "Regarding mixed-use flights, counsel's analysis identified three trips so far that merit reimbursement, issued an invoice yesterday, and payment was made this morning. Those trips are on the dates September 19, September 24 and October 4."

But that wasn’t the extent of Suozzi’s brief against Hochul, the essence of which was more focused in recent months on fundraising from and meeting privately with lobbyists than setting up a comprehensive plan to respond to COVID-19 spikes in cooperation with local officials.

Suozzi released a 30-second video, which he played twice at the news conference, mocking Hochul’s pledge of transparency, noting her "45 flights in 45 days" and ending with the posted words: "Open and ethical governing?"

It will be a steep challenge for Suozzi to make these objections catch on, with the clock to the primary starting to tick down.

— Dan Janison @Danjanison

Talking Point

Pension planning

In a time-honored tradition, newly sworn-in Suffolk Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison’s $220,000 annual salary will not be his only source of income as he takes the reins. The longtime NYPD officer and leader will also be collecting $161,493.45 a year for his retirement allowance, according to Nicole Giambarrese of the NYC Police Pension Fund.

Public retirees in New York who are under 65, want to receive their full pension benefit, and expect to earn more than $35,000 a year through public employment have to apply for what’s called a Section 211 waiver, which Harrison did in recent weeks.

The state Department of Civil Service’s website notes that these waivers "play an important role in New York State's workforce management needs, particularly in law enforcement." In fact, the "overwhelming majority of Section 211 waivers are granted to retired law enforcement personnel," which the agency attributes to the "need for highly trained security personnel, particularly in the post 9/11 environment, and the abundant supply of retired law enforcement personnel."

Harrison’s pension is effective Jan. 31 and subject to certification by NYC’s chief actuary, and the exact figure could change a bit, according to the pension fund. It is reduced if he elects a post-retirement survivor benefit. Also, city pensions in general are subject to cost of living adjustments, which Harrison would be eligible to receive after 10 years of retirement.

He’ll hardly be the first among Long Island police brass to navigate the waiver requirements and add a salary to a pension. Other Suffolk police officials used this waiver to receive their outside pensions in the past, notes county spokesman Derek Poppe.

— Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Pencil Point

Uniting America

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

Final Point

Hotel politics

The state GOP’s choice to hold its spring nominating convention at the Garden City Hotel will hardly be the first time this storied location is the site of political fanfare and intrigue.

The hotel building has gone through many iterations over nearly a century and a half, but its footprint has hosted the likes of Vice President Richard Nixon, who in 1958 attended the locale’s Theodore Roosevelt Centennial Dinner. In 1952, the hotel was home to an "L.I. kickoff meet" supporting GOP presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower, when the turnout was so large that the session had to be shifted from the Palm Room to "the spacious main ballroom," according to Newsday.

The hotel’s "gilt chandeliers" and "banner and bunting bedecked ballroom" often turned up in Newsday’s postwar pages when the county’s formidable Republican Party gathered there.

"The framework of Nassau’s political picture will be molded tonight when the Nassau County Republican Committee convenes in the Garden City Hotel," Newsday reported in 1949.

The site was once home to Nassau GOP headquarters, GOP leader Joseph Cairo told The Point Thursday. Cairo recalled a rainy annual dinner for the party in 1971 where tables overflowed from the ballroom to a tent behind the now-torn-down hotel, and even beyond. Seating was done by area, Cairo said. Uniondale was prominently placed when local boy Joseph Margiotta was chair, while Cairo (North Valley Stream) and fellow future-county-party-chair Joseph Mondello (Levittown West) were seated somewhere circa back-of-tent and mud.

"We were held in not very high esteem back then," Cairo said.

The grand, distinctive old hotel was often renovated, once burned, and demolished in the 1970s, but a new edition was built about a decade later. In 2006 it was part of the state GOP’s convention, when former Massachusetts governor William Weld and political journeyman John Faso were battling for the GOP nod.

The big gathering took place at Hofstra University, but politicos took up a block of rooms at the hotel, which was also home to wine-and-cheese receptions and "open-bar hospitality suites," according to Newsday.

That sort of thing seemed to be on Weld’s mind when he was arriving at the hotel that spring, fresh off a Rockville Centre fundraiser ("Six figures in 45 minutes," he declared). In order to woo delegates, he said he had to "hold up my end."

"That's why I've got to get up to Room 803 for my own hospitality suite," he said.

— Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Did you miss an issue of The Point? Browse past newsletters here.