Robocall asks Huntington residents about Chad Lupinacci

Daily Point

Cook asks the tough questions

Huntington Town Board member Eugene Cook is asking very harsh questions about Republican Supervisor Chad Lupinacci in a poll as Cook prepares for his "surprise" announcement and fundraiser Thursday. Yet, the Independence Party-turned-Republican Party member still says he’d be happy to stay out of the upcoming supervisor’s race under the right circumstances.

The robocall, which Cook began Monday and said is running through Friday, asks a few fairly standard questions before the final two queries. One suggests Lupinacci has been accused of misrepresenting or withholding critical information and asks, "Do you believe there’s a cover-up by Supervisor Lupinacci?"

The last question asks: "News articles on Supervisor Lupinacci’s past actions have classified or referred to him as a molester, a sexual predator, abusive and showing unprofessional conduct. Would you be less likely to vote for Lupinacci knowing these terms were used, or does it make no difference?"

Not the standard stuff, for sure.

Lupinacci has been sued by a former staffer, Brian Finnegan, who accused him of sexual misconduct. Newly minted town GOP chair Tom McNally has said he is close to announcing the party’s slate of nominees, but still has not revealed it, though Lupinacci is expected to be the party designee.

Huntington Town officials released results last week of investigations conducted in 2020 by independent counsel into personnel matters involving Lupinacci and Cook, including a sexual harassment allegation against Lupinacci that was found to be unsubstantiated. Allegations that Cook violated the town’s code of conduct also were unsubstantiated.

The robocall was paid for by The Friends of Eugene Cook and he told The Point Wednesday that he’s just trying to gather information on public opinion on Lupinacci. He told The Point that he fears that if Lupinacci is the party nominee, Democrats and their candidate, Rebecca Sanin, will destroy him with the accusations and turn the town blue. Cook said he ran his own poll because McNally would not share the results of polling the party recently did on the supervisor race.

Cook, who has a virtual fundraiser scheduled Thursday night from Oheka Castle, says he’s not married to a run. He just wants to stop Lupinacci from winning the nomination and losing the general election. He said he will primary the incumbent if he must.

"If [town clerk] Andy Raia were the party designee, or David Bennardo, I’d drop out in a heartbeat and support either one of them," Cook said.

Raia’s name has been associated with supervisor runs for a decade but he’s never sought the race. And Bennardo, who will retire as superintendent of the South Huntington school district in June, is expected to get a GOP nomination for town board for November.

But both names are in the chatter as the battle shapes up between Lupinacci, who wants the nomination very badly, and Cook, who claims not to want it much at all even as he prepares to kick off his candidacy.

—Lane Filler @lanefiller

Talking Point

Rudy Sunderman’s new gig

Suffolk County Legis. Rudy Sunderman, under indictment on perjury charges, posted a cryptic Facebook note Tuesday night that confirmed rumors he is not long for the job. Then on Wednesday, the Shirley Republican filled in the blanks, and announced that he will resign his seat next month to take a position as deputy director of the Suffolk County Fire Academy.

Sunderman said his resignation had nothing to do with the pending criminal case and he did not return requests for comment. But one county official told The Point that Sunderman’s departure was discussed on a recent GOP legislative caucus call during which the case and his resignation were connected.

If Sunderman were to enter either a misdemeanor or a felony plea in the case, he would be removed from office under the public officers law. Sunderman is charged with falsely telling the Suffolk County ethics board that he was no longer working for the Centereach Fire Department and that he was not collecting two paychecks from taxpayers. But the charges accuse him of setting up a shell company run by his wife to accept compensation from the fire department.

The resignation was likely a last-ditch attempt for leniency from prosecution, a source told The Point. By no longer being a legislator, Sunderman might be less of a high-profile target and not such a priority for law enforcement.

If that was the plan, it doesn’t seem to be working. "The District Attorney’s Office is insisting that Mr. Sunderman either go to trial on the charges or enter a plea that involves a criminal conviction," Suffolk DA Tim Sini told The Point.

Sunderman is not the only Suffolk County legislator with a court case weighing heavily on their future plans. Democrat William "Doc" Spencer of Huntington is expected to announce soon that he is stepping down. Spencer is facing felony charges of attempting to trade oxycodone pills for sexual favors with a woman he thought was a sex worker but was actually an undercover police officer.

Under county law, once a resignation is filed, the legislature sets a date for a special election to fill the seat. The election must be held between 60 and 90 days from the date of resignation. The winner will fill out the legislative term, which runs through the end of the year.

Suffolk County Republican Party Chairman Jesse Garcia said in a statement that the GOP expects to win the race to succeed Sunderman: "Rest assured, the Brookhaven and Suffolk County Republican Committees are well prepared to retain this important seat."

—Rita Ciolli @ritaciolli

Pencil Point

Nothing to see here

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Final Point

Charting the long decline of money bail in New York

In the ongoing debate about the effect of New York’s bail reforms, add in a report released Tuesday from the New York City Criminal Justice Agency, a not-for-profit organization that provides criminal justice services under contract with the city, including a supervised release program in Queens.

"Pretrial Release Without Money: New York City, 1987-2020" takes a longer view of New York’s shifting practices on bail. Analyzing millions of pretrial release decisions in NYC over that time period, the group’s research shows a long period of reductions in the use of money bail to get people back to court even before bail reform.

In 1989, for example, the total number of money bails set at arraignment reached a peak of 83,705. It fell "gradually" to 11,493 by 2020, according to the report, noting that this "was partly due to the declining rate of money bail, as well as the shrinking overall volume of cases continued past arraignment."

The decline was a very steep 51% between 2019 and 2020, marking the state bail overhaul, but the study shows the drop had begun earlier.

There are distinctions in the drops, though: between 1987 and 2020, the use of money bail dropped far more for misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies than violent felonies, a pattern that continued between 2019 and 2020, too.

That relative flatness in bail changes for violent felony offenders recently suggests that the gates aren’t being flung open for huge numbers of violent offenders, which was the picture painted during last year’s state legislative elections.

The report does not, however, drill down further into bail outcomes for particular charges, meaning it can’t fully answer more granular questions about bail reform’s effect — though CJA executive director Aubrey Fox told The Point that the agency is working on additional research that might shed more light on the subject.

Regarding the hot-button question of New York City experiencing "worrying increases in homicides and gun crime," the document does note that "cities across the country with very different pretrial release practices have seen similar increases."

—Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano