Triple play for Farmingdale State College

Daily Point

Rule of three

It’s the tale of three men named John.

Farmingdale State College hosted a meeting about its future earlier this month, featuring the three Johns: John Nader, president of the college; State Sen. John Brooks, who represents the area; and John Durso, who heads the Long Island Federation of Labor.

Nader, Brooks and Durso brought state officials to the college’s campus on Oct. 10 to jump-start a discussion about the need for a new academic building at Farmingdale. The private meeting was the first step toward getting Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and the State Legislature to commit to funding the new building in the next state budget.

Brooks and other local officials pushed for a new $53 million building, which would allow the college to enroll 1,000 more students, during the State Legislature’s session earlier this year, but the plan for a new building didn’t make it through the budget or legislative processes.

Now it’s time to try again, Brooks told The Point Friday. So, the private meeting this month was the first step in trying to convince state officials to fund the building next year.

“Farmingdale … is a gateway to the future for many people, especially in low-income areas, and we can’t lose sight of that,” Brooks told The Point. “This idea is not hard to sell … You’re going to get a tremendous return on the investment.”

Each of the three Johns provided state officials with their own perspectives. At the meeting Nader talked about the school’s needs, Brooks spoke of the regional impact, and Durso talked about how the new construction could help Long Island’s workers. 

The idea was well-received, Brooks said. But the meeting is likely just the start of a lengthy campaign. After all, the next legislative session doesn’t even begin until Jan. 8.

—Randi F. Marshall @RandiMarshall

Talking Point

Let your voice be heard

New York enters a new political universe with early voting starting Saturday, and political parties on Long Island are adapting to the new electoral landscape. 

Nassau Democratic Party leader Jay Jacobs told The Point that the party’s efforts include offering van rides to the polls during early voting, plus a “thorough followup program” to reduce the number of people the party will focus on later in the cycle.

He said some churches will be doing a “souls to the polls” program encouraging (and driving) parishioners to voting places — a tried-and-true method that may be even more timely given that now you can actually vote after Sunday services. 

The Nassau party’s work will be “a bit of a pilot program,” Jacobs said, and could serve as guidance for the state party going forward — not just because he heads both organizations, but also due to the relatively competitive races in Nassau. 

Suffolk GOP head Jesse Garcia said, “We moved up our Get Out The Vote operations earlier by nine days,” but declined to discuss elements of strategy. 

His Democratic counterpart, Rich Schaffer, also pointed to an earlier start for GOTV this October and says the party has been promoting the early voting concept. 

The Point couldn’t reach Nassau GOP leader Joe Cairo for comment. 

Most politicos agree that with early voting being new in New York, it’s difficult to tell how the cards will fall. Some studies and reports have found early voting doesn’t do much for turnout, but Jacobs said he’d like to see turnout rise a few percentage points. (New York is already a low-turnout state.)

Either way, who would the practice help? 

Schaffer believes it’s “more helpful to the group that does its job best.” (Naturally, he thinks Democrats are better door-to-door.) Jacobs thought the Democratic early voting pool might be deeper as Republicans already do a good job of getting out their voters. 

Democratic political consultant Bruce Gyory said Republicans often think early voting helps Democrats. He sees it as helpful to people who punch a clock and have a hard time getting off work to vote — “blue collar workers,” but that group includes various political stripes. 

Still, there’s a higher purpose. 

“I don’t care who it helps or hurts,” Gyory said, “it's a good thing for our democracy if more people are given the opportunity to vote.”

—Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Pencil Point

Representation

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Final Point

Rudy’s own campaign donations

With associates of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani in Manhattan federal court this week pleading not guilty to charges of making illegal campaign contributions, The Point was reminded that Giuliani has his own history with contribution violations. 

It was some two decades before Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman’s current alleged misdoings — Giuliani was running for his second term as mayor and cruising to victory. But the city Campaign Finance Board determined that his campaign received 157 over-the-limit contributions. In 1997, the limit for mayor was $7,700. The board’s review showed that some contributions from multiple corporations came from a single source, in violation of limits.

The board assessed $242,930 in total penalties, and required the campaign to return $384,551 for the portion of aggregated contributions that exceeded the limit, according to CFB documents. 

It was a large penalty: Giuliani’s predecessor, David Dinkins, had been fined more than $300,000 in the previous cycle, according to the CFB, but with the contribution repayment added in Giuliani’s amount was higher.

News clips at the time suggested that Giuliani wasn’t happy about the fine. At the same time, he added an appointee to the board, and “a dispute still swirled around whether the Mayor had sought to push through the choice to discourage the panel from fining his re-election campaign,” The New York Times reported at the time. Giuliani denied ulterior motives.

Either way, Giuliani still had to pay. And it appears that the man who would become America’s Mayor, a presidential candidate, and then President Donald Trump’s embattled personal lawyer coughed up. CFB records don’t show him on the list of non-payers. 

—Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano