Arguing their points

Daily Point

The campaign spending to come

One advantage that Republican Andrew Garbarino has in his bid for Pete King’s old seat in CD2 is his elected berth in Albany, a benefit of which was evident in taxpayer-funded literature that recently hit mailboxes from Garbarino’s Assembly office. 

“Andrew Garbarino always makes our first responders a priority,” the piece says, going on to list related Assembly initiatives: legislation for a tax credit for volunteer firefighters and designating public safety and emergency dispatchers and operators as first responders, for example. 

The messaging, which Garbarino said he approved many weeks ago, perhaps as far back as the spring, pairs well with some of the pro-law enforcement rhetoric he has used as a candidate. Assembly literature like this is processed by central staff, said Mike Whyland, spokesman for State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. The piece was mailed Aug. 26, Whyland said, not long before the 60-day blackout period mandated for such mass mailings before a general election.

But plenty of other money and material is flooding into the closely watched district apart from such Albany mailings. Garbarino’s Democratic opponent, Jackie Gordon, a former member of the Babylon Town Council, raked in contributions even as he fought a tough primary against fellow Assemb. Michael LiPetri. 

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s independent expenditure arm has made a $650,000 New York City cable buy for Gordon as part of a wave of outlays for flipping seats. Earlier, they had reserved a half million dollars in TV ads for the CD2 race.  

Not to be outspent, the House Republicans’ Congressional Leadership Fund in August committed $1.9 million for Garbarino’s district as part of a wave of broadcast, cable and digital platform reservations.

More than just Assembly mailers are en route. 

—Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Talking Point

With LIPA deal made, more votes to be cast

When the Huntington Town Board agreed to accept LIPA’s offer of a tax settlement on the Northport Power Plant last week by a 4-1 margin, it represented what should be the last vote on the issue in Suffolk County for the foreseeable future. 

But the settlement itself, and the stances local politicians took on it, will be judged in at least three future votes: the 12th Assembly District and 5th State Senate District races in November, and the town supervisor contest a year later.

The Assembly race to fill the seat vacated by Andrew Raia, who is now the town clerk, features Democrat Michael Marcantonio,  who led the fight against accepting the settlement, and Republican Keith Brown, an attorney. 

Brown originally argued that the state should step in and solve the problem of a plant paying $86 million a year in property taxes that LIPA contended were badly overassessed. But as the deadline for accepting the deal approached, Brown changed course to support the deal. “The reality is, no one is going to help us — not the governor, not the legislature, not the court system … the choice is clear when you weigh the options of settling on one hand, and no clear legal path out of this on the other,” he wrote. 

Marcantonio told The Point Wednesday he never wavered in opposing the settlement and is still fighting for enactment, highly unlikely, of a bill in the State Legislature that would make the refunds the LIPA case sought from Huntington, Brookhaven and Nassau County illegal.

In the Senate race, Republican town board member Ed Smyth made his previously uncertain stance public when he became part of the 4-1 majority supporting the deal. He’s running against a one-term Democratic incumbent, in James Gaughran, who never endorsed the deal, or specifically opposed it. A Gaughran staffer issued a statement Wednesday saying “the senator has not taken a position because he has yet to see the full agreement and terms.” 

But Gaughran’s stance as the deadline for accepting the deal approached is generally read as opposition.

That leaves 2021, and the town election. Supervisor Chad Lupinacci fought for the settlement after, he said, holding out for the best possible deal, which included a $3 million sweetener for the town and a potential five-year extension of the plant’s new $46 million annual payment if it is included in a new power-purchase agreement seven years from now. 

He could face Eugene Cook, Independence Party member and the town board’s leading anti-settlement activist, in a primary, according to Cook. And the eventual Republican nominee might well face one of the two other “yes” voters in the general election: Democrats Mark Cuthbertson and Joan Cergol are both said to be mulling a run.

In the end, the settlement was accepted because the town board believed the people wanted it, to avoid the possibility of payouts of as much as $10,000 to $25,000 per household and huge, immediate tax increases if the court decision went in favor of LIPA.

This November and next, a much broader survey of the voters’ take on the issue could prove decisive.

—Lane Filler @lanefiller

Pencil Point

Getting political

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

Final Point

How’s school going?

As most of Long Island’s 124 school districts began classes this week, educators, parents and students got their first taste of what this school year holds for them. Some are studying from home, while others are heading to classrooms, and many are part of hybrids that have them doing both.

Safety is a concern as contact increases and obstacles like bus lines, temperature checks, teachers teaching in-person and distanced simultaneously and uncertainty about what the future holds are colliding. Kids and teachers are being asked to do new things, like wear masks and avoid contact, while custodians adopt new cleaning regimens and parents are expected to keep contacts between their families and other people to a minimum even outside of school.

In our latest Newsday webinar, columnist and editorial board member Lane Filler speaks with educators, including Regent Roger Tilles, Nassau BOCES Superintendent Robert Dillon, Hauppauge Superintendent Dennis P. O’Hara, Syosset High School AP Biology teacher Carisa Steinberg and Bellport High School social studies teacher Wayne Martin, about how their first few days have gone, and answering audience questions on the challenges that lie ahead. 

Sign up for the webinar here.

—Lane Filler @lanefiller