An aerial view of the restoration of a ballfield adjacent to a...

An aerial view of the restoration of a ballfield adjacent to a recently reconstructed underpass that connects the north side of the LIRR's Main Line to the Floral Park pool and recreation center. Credit: Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Daily Point

A small victory for the MTA

Play Ball? If only...

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and its team of contractors building the Long Island Rail Road’s third track, made a bittersweet announcement Friday that they had completed some of the project’s community-benefits commitments. The work included the reconstruction of an underpass that connects the north side of the LIRR’s Main Line to the Floral Park pool and recreation center, and the restoration of an adjacent ballfield. The contractors, a joint venture known as Third Track Constructors, or 3TC, also completed ballfields and underpasses in Carle Place.

The bitter part, of course, is that no one’s sure when people will be able to use the pool and ballfields.

“It’s anyone’s guess whether Carle Place’s and Floral Park’s ballfields and Floral Park’s community pool will host aspiring Major League and Olympic Gold Medal swimmers this summer, but our crew completed the restoration of ballfields and underpasses at both locations, just as scheduled,” the announcement said.

The completion of the community-benefits projects came as work on the LIRR’s third track is ongoing. MTA officials have said that work is on schedule, despite the coronavirus pandemic.

—Randi F. Marshall @RandiMarshall

Talking Point

Open congressional seat: Day 173

CD2 hopeful Andrew Garbarino is ahead of his GOP primary opponent and State Assembly colleague Mike LiPetri in the endorsement game — he has the nods of the local parties, Reps. Pete King and Lee Zeldin, and national figures like House Whip Steve Scalise and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. 

But Garbarino is at the same stage as LiPetri in a National Republican Campaign Committee group. Both were added by McCarthy to the NRCC’s Young Guns program this week. 

The program “mentors and supports” candidates, according to its website, and candidates can move up to higher levels of the program upon accomplishing different campaign metrics. 

The CD2 candidates aren’t alone in sharing the spotlight within one district — two Republicans looking to take down Rep. Max Rose in Staten Island and Brooklyn are Young Guns, though the better-known Assemb. Nicole Malliotakis is at a higher level in the rankings than opponent Joe Caldarera. 

Garbarino and LiPetri each has had high moments in recent months. Garbarino recently claimed the Conservative, Libertarian, and Serve America Movement ballot lines. LiPetri outraised Garbarino in the April quarterly filing. Yet funding for the GOP contenders is behind that of Democrat Jackie Gordon, who has racked up national support for months. 

A Gordon campaign email Thursday noted the GOP Young Guns duo as a fundraising rationale:
“This program is the GOP’s way of communicating to major Republican donors which candidates they should prop up — and they’re pointing to not one, but two of the GOP challengers running to beat Jackie.”

—Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Pencil Point

Wrong light

Robert Ariail

Robert Ariail

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Final Point

Can Amash keep NY Libertarians on the ballot?

Michigan Rep. Justin Amash’s announcement Tuesday that he has joined the Libertarian Party and will seek its presidential nomination has politicos across the nation dissecting whether that helps President Donald Trump or hurts him. Amash was first elected as an ultra-conservative Tea Party candidate but he left the GOP over its support of Trump and later voted to impeach him. 

But in New York, where the Democratic presidential candidate is an almost certain winner, the question is whether Amash can help the state’s Libertarian Party overcome a new state law that creates high hurdles for third parties to automatically get on the ballot and avoid a daunting and costly petition process. New York’s Libertarian Party achieved automatic ballot access for the first time in its history in 2018, when gubernatorial candidate Larry Sharpe brought in 95,033 votes, easily clearing the then-50,000 vote automatic access hurdle parties had to reach every four years.

But now the hurdle is 130,000 votes, and it must be met in presidential elections as well as the gubernatorial ones where it has always been required. Amash seems likely to garner decent press and turnout as an unusually high-profile candidate. But the need to reach 130,000 votes is expected to dramatically change how minor parties handle presidential races in New York. 

In 2016, Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson brought in 176,598 votes, but only 57,438 went to the Libertarian Party. The other 119,160 went to the Independence Party, which also gave Johnson its line. This time around both parties need 130,000 votes, meaning it’s unlikely a third-party candidate will appear on two minor-party tickets. 

What’s much more likely is that parties that don’t subscribe to any particular ideology, like the Independence Party, will give their line to a major-party candidate in an effort to garner the threshold number of votes to survive. Libertarians and Greens, though, have bylaws that preclude them from sharing a candidate with Democrats or Republicans. 

And speaking of Greens, that party will almost certainly be tying its presidential aspirations (and the attempt to keep automatic ballot access) to an old-and-trusted friend: three-time gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins. He got the party 103,946 votes and automatic ballot access in 2018 and is the runaway leader for the Green presidential nomination this time around. 

—Lane Filler @lanefiller

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