Wanted: A police union leader

Daily Point

Nassau PBA has tickets

With the announcement Friday that Nassau County Police Benevolent Association president James McDermott will retire on Sept. 1, the race to win a November election to lead the county’s largest police union got chaotic.

The PBA is also the only county cop union without a contract, having worked under an expired deal since 2018. The county elections that the PBA has often (but not always) played a big role in, beckon.

And sources inside and outside the union say the first vice president, Pete Patterson, and the second vice president, Dean Losquadro, don’t want the job, though both are likely to stand for reelection for their current roles.

Just not on the same slate.

Patterson, for decades a trusted lieutenant to PBA leaders who has stayed above the feuds, has never wanted the top slot permanently but will occupy it on an interim basis until a new president is installed in January.

Losquadro was McDermott’s glued-to-the-hip sidekick until the two began to fall out over Losquadro’s desire that the union throw heavy support to Republican causes and politicians not directly related to Nassau PBA needs, including some outside the county. That fallout became insurmountable when Losquadro’s politicking against a proposed contract agreed to by union leaders and County Executive Laura Curran led to the contract’s defeat, an outcome that many who voted against the deal now regret.

The three names getting the most traction for president right now are:

• Eighth Precinct trustee Michael Spadaccini, said to be the pick of Losquadro, who would join him on the ticket.
• PBA treasurer Thomas O’Reilly, said to be the choice of Pete Patterson, who would join him on the ticket.
• Tommy Shevlin, the only announced candidate. Shevlin was a PBA delegate for five years before returning to the ranks to work as a peer support officer and employee assistance counselor, and 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.

With five weeks before the nominated slates are finalized, insiders say the scramble is going to be chaotic. So, too, will the attempts to get a new contract approved by both the county and the troops, once the new president takes office.

— Lane Filler @lanefiller

Talking Point

Cuomo lawyers dig in

If you listened to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s lawyers as they spoke in a late-Friday news conference, you’d be hard-pressed not to come away convinced that the third-term governor has ruled out resignation as an option. At least for the time being, that is — despite the near-total collapse of his Democratic Party support and alliances.

Attorneys Rita Glavin and Paul Fishman began to demand documentation and transcripts they complained of being denied by Attorney General Tish James and her hired investigators, Joon Kim and Anne Clark. Both lawyers suggested Kim had formed a preset impression of the Executive Chamber from his past investigations out of the U.S. attorney’s office under former prosecutor Preet Bharara.

They asked reporters to inquire with James’ office about various alleged holes and gaps. They appealed to the State Assembly judiciary committee, which is scheduled to meet Monday on impeachment, to grapple with and consider the incompleteness of what they characterized as a biased probe.

Just as when Cuomo pushes back on any government or media matter, the legal team sought to turn accusers into the accused. By their telling, ex-aide Lindsey Boylan, the most widely publicized accuser, had been confronted on the job about complaints against her, resigned, and soon sought her job back. They chipped away at her motive and tweets in light of her running for Manhattan borough president.

For another accuser, they challenged the timeline, said the statements of alternative witnesses were left out, and argued against the likelihood that events could have occurred as she described them on what they called the only day she could have been in the Executive Mansion performing assignments she’s supposed to have been performing. They cited her upbeat emails during this period.

Curiously, the allegedly intimate touching of a state trooper on Cuomo’s team was left for the governor to address at a later time. But the officer’s hiring for his security detail was explained, as before, as part of an effort to diversify the largely male unit.

For all those reasons, the presentation sounded like it was far from a parting shot from a departing governor.

— Dan Janison @Danjanison

Pencil Point

Gov. Cuomo

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

Final Point

Trump, Giuliani, and angling Cuomo’s woes

Nine months after losing the presidency by a record number of certified votes, Donald Trump was nonetheless the main draw for New York Republicans in Westchester on Thursday with a fundraising appearance that reportedly yielded badly needed cash for the county’s needy GOP.

Trump said from the rostrum, "We love Rudy," and had the city’s long-ago mayor, Giuliani, speak and repeat stolen-election falsehoods for which he’s now most famous, the same deception that got his state law license suspended. By all accounts, however, Trump is still refusing to pay Giuliani for his futile pre- and postelection services as both face serious investigations.

While on hand, Trump called on for speeches both Giuliani’s son, Andrew, and his putative rival for next year’s Republican nomination for governor, Rep. Lee Zeldin, who has already gathered sufficient party support to make the ballot without filing petitions. This all comes in the context of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s pending impeachment. Loose and sloppy as the ex-mayor’s utterances have become, his Twitter account may reflect a need for his home-scripted son to try to pick up support from Democrats who could end up alienated by a Cuomo ejection.

On Tuesday the elder Giuliani tweeted: "Today’s AG James’ ‘trial by press conference’ marks the end of Due Process and Constitutional Law as we know it in America! Conviction by press conference, investigative report and media verdict without a trial became illegal one thousand years ago. Is there any wisdom left?"

A subsequent Giuliani tweet says: "Now we will find out who really believes in the rule of law. It is very disappointing that some of the right wing protectors of due process for President Donald have convicted Cuomo on a report from 3 prosecutors who up until now were trying to frame Trump."

Contrast that posture against right-wing Trump backer Zeldin’s statement this week: "The facts are out — Andrew Cuomo institutionalized widespread abuse and used his position of authority to harass multiple women!"

The Giulianis may be looking to campaign against James for governor, though she hasn’t declared a candidacy, and so are getting in early on attacking her performance.

In addition, the Cuomo and Giuliani camps have for decades kept up the appearance of a nonaggression pact. Every Republican candidate for governor needs "crossover" voters in a predominantly blue state.

While Thursday’s fete was held on his home turf, former Westchester Executive Rob Astorino, also a declared candidate who emphasizes the need for crossover votes, was reportedly invited as a paying guest but didn’t attend and was out of town.

Nevertheless Astorino — undercut when he ran for governor in 2014 by then New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, an off-and-on Republican ally of Cuomo — is due to attend the Republican Governors Association meeting in Chicago on Monday.

For a hungry and ambitious "out" party, it’s all angling all the time.

— Dan Janison @Danjanison

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