Fighting the good fight

Daily Point

Playing to the middle

For months now, former Babylon Town Councilwoman Jackie Gordon has had the Democratic field mostly to herself in CD2 as Republicans tried to settle on a candidate in the contest to replace Pete King.

That has allowed Gordon, an Army Reserve veteran and former guidance counselor, to settle into an early lane for the race. Her strategy came out quickly during coffee with The Point at South Bay Diner in Lindenhurst where she sported pins illustrating the American and Jamaican flags, and the slogan "Elect More Women." Fingers wrapped immovably around her mug and speaking firmly and carefully, Gordon laid out a vision similar to the one that current House freshmen, and especially women, used to flip moderate suburban districts in the 2018 midterms. 

What were her top issues? Health care, working to bring down the prices of prescription drugs, and protecting people with preexisting conditions.

Would she want any big committee assignments in DC? Just ones on transportation and veterans. “I wouldn't want to extend myself beyond, especially in the beginning.”

Asked whom she considers a model on the national level, she mentioned one of those head-down new moderate House members with a national security background, former CIA analyst Elissa Slotkin of Michigan. 

As Slotkin and other more moderate members like Max Rose of Staten Island have often tried to do, Gordon shied away from more partisan or left-wing issues. 

On President Donald Trump: “I’m focusing on my campaign,” she said, adding, “He has been very divisive.”

On King, who was heavily criticized by 2018 Democratic challenger Liuba Grechen Shirley for positions on immigration and race: “I think he will have wonderful years in retirement with his grandchildren," she said, fingers still clasped around the coffee mug. Voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act, she said, was a mistake.

While the more explosive presence of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has often drawn headlines since 2018, it was this healthcare-focused, moderate strategy that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee relied on to win back the House. For now, at least, Gordon seems to be envisioning a similar play. 

She’s supporting a down-the-middle 2020 candidate, too. 

“I’m supporting Joe Biden,” she told The Point. She had some advice for him in Wednesday’s debate: he should “be true to himself.”

—Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Talking Point

Controversy on the green

The name has changed but the controversy endures.

The Hills at Southampton, a luxury 118-unit seasonal golf community with an 18-hole golf course on 600 acres of environmentally sensitive land in East Quogue, was rejected by the Southampton Town board in December 2017. The 3-2 vote in favor fell short of the needed 4-1 supermajority.

But like all good bogeymen, it’s back. Now known as the Lewis Road Planned Residential Development, but substantively similar to the previous proposal, it was approved by the town’s planning board in October and faces a critical hearing Wednesday afternoon before the Central Pine Barrens Commission. The commission consists of the town supervisors from Brookhaven, Riverhead and Southampton plus representatives of the Suffolk County Executive and governor. Its approval would allow the project to move forward; a simple 3-2 majority is all that’s needed.

The development’s supporters are still supportive and its critics are still vehemently critical, contending that development is not allowed on those 600 acres, which are roughly half-and-half in the Pine Barrens core preservation area and its compatible growth area.

The hearing is being held in Riverhead Town Hall — Riverhead’s new supervisor, Yvette Aguiar, is the newest member of the Pine Barrens Commission.

“We hope she’s in the right place,” Long Island Pine Barrens Society executive director Dick Amper told The Point. The society strongly opposes the development and is in court over the planning board approval. “We’ve met with her, we’ve shown her the project site. We were encouraged by her knowledge and homework.”

But Amper also acknowledged the politics involved, and the likely aftermath.

“If they can get three votes, they can get it approved,” he said. “But one way or the other, it can get litigated.”

—Michael Dobie @mwdobie

Pencil Point

Money talks

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

Final Point

The stage is set

The candidates in the special election for the 12th Assembly District seat vacated by Republican Andrew Raia are set … for now.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the special election to replace Raia will be held April 28. 

That’s also the date for New York’s presidential primary, which could greatly advantage Democrats because the GOP candidate is a given.

Michael Marcantonio, of Northport, is the Democrat candidate after rival Avrum Rosen pulled out. Rosen had previously argued that Marcantonio is still ineligible to run on the same residency concerns that forced Marcantonio off the ballot in 2018. 

Marcantonio says his residency is now fine. But Republicans may still disagree. And they may have an outsized motivation to challenge his eligibility.

The ferociously contested Democratic presidential contest will bring out hordes of blue voters of every shade.

On the Republican side, President Donald Trump will face no serious opposition. And the Suffolk County Republican Party has at least as good a chance of winning over a judge to throw Democrat Marcantonio off the ballot as it does winning over the voters who come out that day to select GOP candidate and local attorney Keith Brown.

Lane Filler @lanefiller

Debate Point

Watch the debate with us tonight

Starting at 9 p.m., follow along here as members of Newsday’s editorial board, along with opinion columnists William F.B. O’Reilly and Cathy Young, host a live chat while the Democratic candidates square off in Las Vegas.

The field has narrowed to six candidates who qualified based on polling or receiving a delegate from either the Iowa caucuses or the New Hampshire primary. It’s the ninth debate of the 2020 campaign cycle and the debut for former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. 

So take a virtual seat next to us as we roll with the action in Vegas.

—Amanda Fiscina @adfiscina