Northwell Health president and CEO Michael J. Dowling.

Northwell Health president and CEO Michael J. Dowling. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca

Daily Point

Dowling in the Biden administration?

Michael Dowling, the president and chief executive of Northwell Health, told The Point on Tuesday that the first mention of him being considered for a post in the Biden administration came through a clipping from a local newspaper his family included in a letter it mailed him from Ireland before the election.

After the election, the story was picked up by a national Irish outlet, The Independent, which interviewed him for a Sunday article headlined: "A dark horse from Limerick as Biden’s new health chief?"

To see how Dowling responded, read the full story here.

—Rita Ciolli @ritaciolli

Talking Point

A look at LI’s absentee ballot numbers

Long Islanders still have to wait awhile for final results in their congressional races, given that the counting of absentee ballots in Nassau County is set to start later this week and last 10 to 14 days, according to the county’s Democratic elections commissioner Jim Scheuerman. And Suffolk isn’t expected to start counting until next week.

That makes it all the more interesting to look at how absentee numbers will add to the in-person voting totals we already know.

  • As of Nov. 9, approximately 86,000 absentees had come in for CD1, including 39,000 from Democrats, 20,500 from Republicans, and 21,000 from blanks. GOP incumbent Lee Zeldin is up more than 65,000 over Democrat Nancy Goroff from the in-person voting.
  • CD2 saw some 63,000 absentees in the contest between Assemb. Andrew Garbarino and Jackie Gordon to replace Rep. Pete King, with about 29,000 from Democrats, just over 16,000 from Republicans, and almost 15,000 from blanks. Garbarino is up 45,000 after in-person voting.
  • In CD3, which includes parts of Queens, Nassau and Suffolk, more than 99,000 absentees are in. The latest Queens numbers publicly available are from Friday, but the Long Island ones are as of Monday and they include almost 43,000 from Democrats, 17,650 from Republicans, and 21,600 from blanks. District-wide, George Santos leads Rep. Tom Suozzi by just a few thousand votes after in-person voting.
  • And in CD4, just over 75,000 absentee ballots have been received, nearly 40,000 from Democrats, some 18,000 from Republicans, and 16,000 from blanks. As of now, Rep. Kathleen Rice is up 13,000 votes over GOP challenger Doug Tuman.

Rice’s race might be the most definitive, with an in-person lead plus an expected boost from there being more absentees filed by Democrats than Republicans. Suozzi also appears to have a solid edge with the large volume of absentees and slim in-person margin for his opponent.

The closely watched CD1 and CD2 races may be a tougher climb for Democrats, given that Goroff and Gordon would have to win absentee votes deep across party lines to grasp victory.

Important caveats: thousands more ballots were requested than returned as of these Monday numbers, and Tuesday was the deadline for most absentees to arrive. That means some more could trickle in — even newer Tuesday numbers from Suffolk include slight increases.

And some ballots could be pulled if the person was found to have voted in person.

Either way, patience is still the name of the game.

—Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Pencil Point

Hope for the future

Osama Hajjaj

Osama Hajjaj

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

Final Point

GOP closely watching absentee ballots

It may be a week since Election Day, but CD3 candidate George Santos’ campaign operation is still going strong. The Republican has made accusations of fraud, irregularities, and a Democratic effort to stop him from winning because he is gay.

Santos is ahead of Rep. Tom Suozzi in the CD3 race by more than 4,000 votes, but there is a massive number of absentee ballots to be tallied and those favor Democrats. Santos has used Twitter and Facebook to say his campaign has been "flooded with reports of irregularities," and that there is proof of fraud and voter suppression. He told The Point that he has proof that dead people voted, and also claimed that there were thousands of ballots in Republican areas of CD3 that didn’t include his name on them.

While Santos didn’t provide The Point proof of any of his allegations, he said his campaign is "pursuing legal proceedings." He has also set up a tip line phone number and email address specifically for concerns about the CD3 race.

"I have to use my platform and my platform is social media, and I’m just keeping it as transparent as I can. The campaign hasn’t ended," Santos said Tuesday. "Anybody that says this campaign is over in the Third Congressional District, they’re out of their mind."

Said Suozzi campaign senior adviser Kim Devlin: "The results will speak for themselves once all the votes are counted and the math is in Congressman Suozzi’s favor."

The Suozzi campaign said the majority of the 99,000 absentees were coming from registered Democrats. Campaign officials expect two-thirds of the mail-in votes will go Suozzi’s way.

Santos, meanwhile, says he expects his lead to hold. And he thinks Democrats are making a particular push in his race and going after him in part because he is gay, tweeting Sunday that Democrats are "working double time" to stop him, as a Gay Republican, from serving in Congress.

"I know why, it would #destroy their narrative," the tweet said.

When asked Tuesday for evidence showing that to be the case, Santos said: "The proof is in the pudding … I don’t think I need corroborated proof."

.....

Further east, anyone reading Rep. Lee Zeldin’s Tuesday morning tweet could easily have concluded the Republican was questioning the integrity of his own race. The tweet read: "Ballot integrity matters. Process matters. The constitution matters. Transparency matters."

Was Zeldin referring to his own race or just backing up his buddy, President Donald Trump, whose claims of election skulduggery are reverberating through the party?

Zeldin texted to The Point that he was referring specifically to the national conversation but does believe "there are some very important improvements needed with the process in NY."

While Zeldin is winning his race, some of the GOP candidates down ticket might have more questions.

In the 1st State Senate district, Republican Anthony Palumbo is beating Democrat Laura Ahearn by 14 points and 18,736 votes, but with 31,771 unopened ballots received by Election Day. A general trend nationally and statewide of Democrats more often utilizing absentee voting than Republicans could flip that.

But Suffolk Republicans, if they are suspicious of some race results in a region but trust another outcome created by the same ballots, will be in good company nationally.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has garnered savage lampooning for cheering his party’s Senate and House results while casting doubt on Trump’s defeat via many of the same ballots.

—Randi F. Marshall @RandiMarshall and Lane Filler @lanefiller

Newsday LogoSUBSCRIBEUnlimited Digital AccessOnly 25¢for 5 months
ACT NOWSALE ENDS SOON | CANCEL ANYTIME