Toulon moving on, Garbarino gets moved out

Daily Point

The lure of the top job

Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon Jr. just won reelection to his post in November, but he is already looking at a bid for county executive, three Long Island Democratic sources tell The Point.

With current County Executive Steve Bellone term-limited, 2023 presents an open field for contenders. Toulon, first elected in 2017 and Suffolk’s first Black sheriff, has a countywide platform and defeated GOP opponent William Amato by just over 10 percentage points last year. As in his first run, he had both the Democratic and Conservative lines, and he has been the unusual law enforcement professional who earns praise from some criminal justice reform activists.

Toulon is no stranger to the county executive’s office. The longtime corrections veteran did a stint as assistant deputy county executive for public safety earlier in Bellone’s tenure.

A request for comment sent through Toulon’s previous campaign website was not returned, and Sgt. Paul Spinella, a sheriff’s office spokesman, said that the sheriff was unavailable for comment.

But multiple political insiders report his interest in the gig.

"Others have spoken to me about wanting to support him," county Democratic chairman Rich Schaffer told The Point in an email Tuesday. "He has said he would consider it but we have not had any concrete discussions nor did I feel he has made any decision."

But if Toulon took the leap? "I would support him if he ran," Schaffer wrote.

— Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Talking Point

LI pols' stake in the Albany map scrap

Proposed maps issued by Democrats on the Independent Redistricting Commission this week could provide a starting point for the party’s legislative supermajority in Albany to complete the task.

Under the tentative proposal backed by Democratic commissioners, Republican Rep. Andrew Garbarino’s home in Bayport would land in the 1st Congressional District currently represented by GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin of Shirley, who’s running for governor rather than for reelection.

That’s just a small and symbolic part of how Garbarino’s CD2 would be transformed — from a relatively compact area running along the South Shore to a north-south district with a leg that reaches east. The Town of Brookhaven becomes fractured between Suffolk districts under that plan, despite some appeals during the commission hearings that it should be kept whole.

The border of these two districts looks on the Democratic map like a jagged link between jigsaw puzzle pieces. CD1 would also extend to the south into heavily Democratic precincts of Brentwood and Central Islip.

Here The Point took the commission’s proposed GOP and Democratic maps and enhanced them with specific town borders for a more detailed look at what could be the starting point for boundaries of the new districts.

The commission’s Democrats would also alter the Brooklyn portion of first-term Staten Island Republican Nicole Malliotakis’ district. Republicans suspect that in drawing part but not all of the heavily-Asian Sunset Park neighborhood to link up with Chinatown in lower Manhattan, Democrats could be making her CD11 more favorable to their candidates. Last month Democrat Max Rose, who lost to Malliotakis in 2020 by six percentage points, announced his bid for a rematch.

Redistricting draws outsized attention this year with make-or-break midterm congressional elections coming up. So the prevailing question is whether New York Democrats here can and will use the lines to reduce the number of Republicans in the state delegation from the current eight, thus offsetting the impact of red-state redistricting. Nationally, a pickup of five seats is all it takes for the GOP to win back a majority in the 435-member House.

On a state level, three Assembly districts in the commission Democrats’ plan would, for the first time, cross the border between Nassau and Queens. Nassau residents had asked the commission to avoid such crossovers. But there were requests as well for Asian-American communities of interest to be consolidated and that appears to be the motivation for at least one of these proposed New York City-Nassau County combinations.

Also, in the Democratic plan, the Franklin Square residence of Republican Assemb. Ed Ra, who represents the current 19th Assembly District, would be shifted into the 22nd A.D. currently represented by Democratic Assemb. Michaele Solages.

Commission vice chairman Jack Martins, the former GOP state senator, has protested what he calls the Democrats’ abrupt refusal to complete an intense series of negotiations on a single map that would be sent to the legislature for approval. Chairman David Imamura of Westchester and other Democrats publicly denied that characterization during their meeting Monday.

Maps approved by Republicans on the commission — which are unlikely to get much love in Albany — would redraw Rep. Kathleen Rice’s CD4, putting it in part into northeastern Queens. CD3, currently represented by Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), would be changed to stay entirely in the Long Island counties, eliminating some solidly Democratic areas.

All these maps carry only the weight of suggestions. Unable to agree on a single 10-year plan, the commission voted as expected along party lines Monday to submit two separate sets of proposed state and federal lines to lawmakers in Albany. The Democrat-dominated legislature is widely expected to reject both as a prelude to setting the lines themselves.

Ten years ago, when the Senate was controlled by Republicans and before there was an independent commission, state lawmakers haggled mostly over the Assembly and Senate districts near and dear to their immediate experience.

Under the 2014 constitutional amendment creating the commission, the Senate and Assembly would need to reject both commission plans and send it all back to the panel for another try. Further commission effort may or may not be fruitless at this point, but that’s the prescribed process. The legislature’s own task force for drawing lines still officially exists.

Once the first-ever commission exercise is completed, possibly by the week after next, the legislators could have their way with the maps as they always did before the "independent" system.

Many expected that outcome all along for 2022, so crunchtime is just beginning, with the real details eagerly awaited.

— Dan Janison @Danjanison

Pencil Point

Remembering Jan. 6

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

Final Point

Masked tactics

The game plan is clear.

"We will be peaceful, but loud," says the email from John Gilmore, who heads the Autism Action Network and presides over the New York chapter of Children’s Health Defense. "We will not be doing any civil disobedience, and we do not seek confrontation with anyone. But we will be seen and heard."

Wednesday morning, busloads of New Yorkers who oppose vaccine and mask mandates will be heading to Albany, for a rally, and then the protesters will head to the Capitol for Gov. Kathy Hochul’s State of the State address and to possibly meet with individual legislators.

In an email to supporters, Gilmore outlined a series of instructions — what not to bring (no knives, weapons, bullhorns, whistles or signs on sticks), what not to put on signs (no Confederate flags, yellow stars or swastikas), and how to handle perhaps the most controversial issue: masks.

Gilmore noted that masks are required to enter the Capitol and legislative office building.

"We think masks are useless. We think mask mandates are oppressive political theater," Gilmore wrote. "But Wednesday is not the time to make a principled stand. We need to get as many people into the buildings as quickly as possible."

Gilmore said the event’s sponsors will have masks that read "No Mandates" that they’ll be handing out.

Besides attending the rally, with dozens of speakers planned, the protesters are being asked to set up meetings with lawmakers throughout the day, too.

"If you are meeting with Democrats, especially, please wear your masks," the email reads. "If you show up without one you will not be heard …"

"You want them to think about you as a reasonable, well-informed person who treats them with respect," the email concludes.

— Randi F. Marshall @RandiMarshall

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