Opinion

Nancy Goroff is the best prepared and most knowledgeable newcomer at any level of Long Island politics in years. 
The Stony Brook University chemistry professor is a scientist. And she’s running against an incumbent, Lee Zeldin, who twists himself like a strand of DNA trying to support a president who does not believe in science — to the detriment of the nation. 
Goroff, 52, a Democrat from Stony Brook who’s on leave from her job for this run, would bring a unique and badly needed analytic perspective to the House — and promises to serve as a resource for all members of Congress on matters of science. Her fact-based background would be particularly helpful in dealing with the COVID-19 crisis and other pandemics, and the development of a high-tech corridor centered at Brookhaven National Lab and Stony Brook University. 
Goroff would be especially effective in the fight against climate change, one of the primary factors motivating her run. She understands that rising seas, coastal erosion and extreme storms threaten the Mastic-Shirley area, the East End, the Long Island coastline, and our very way of life. Her plan of attack has three planks — set ambitious targets, like being carbon-neutral in energy production by 2035; vigorously use existing technologies in renewable energy, clean vehicles and clean buildings to get there; and invest in research to develop the technologies of the future to be used in the United States and to be exported to other countries to help them improve their standards of living without emitting huge amounts of carbon. It’s a plan that makes sense. 
As a researcher, Goroff collaborated on developing materials for solar energy, and her experience as chair of Stony Brook’s chemistry department, a 300-person department with a multimillion-dollar budget, would serve her well in Washington. 
That’s where Zeldin lives something of a double life. The Shirley Republican is a Trump-ist star in the nation’s capital, defending President Donald Trump on television and embracing many of the divisive policies that have scarred the country for the last four years. At home in his district in eastern Long Island, Zeldin presents himself as a solution-seeking, bipartisan player. 
The dual identity is untenable, and whatever tendencies Zeldin does harbor toward moderation are outweighed by his reckless amplification of some of Trump’s worst paranoia over the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. His defense of Trump’s behavior during the impeachment trial earned him an invitation to speak at the Republican National Convention where he called Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic "phenomenal." And he voted against boosting the U.S. Postal Service, banning flavored tobacco products, reducing discrimination against older workers, and allowing the federal government to negotiate lower prescription drug prices, while supporting attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. 
Locally, Zeldin, 40, was part of successful pushes to bring the world’s first electron-ion collider to Brookhaven National Laboratory, and to allow cash-strapped Suffolk County to qualify for lower-interest federal financing to deal with coronavirus-related budget shortfalls, and like many of his colleagues he has delivered personal protective equipment to local governments and other entities during the pandemic. 
But Zeldin also was unable to stop the cap on state and local tax deductions in Trump’s tax cuts, which hurt many Long Islanders, and voted against a bill from Republican Pete King and Democrat Tom Suozzi to restore the deductions. Despite his touting of connections to the White House, he has not done enough to alleviate the East End’s helicopter noise problem, or get permanent federal protections for Plum Island. 
Goroff is an outstanding alternative. She wants to ensure students can graduate from college debt-free, create a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers brought here illegally as children, and guarantee that talented students from overseas who are critical to the nation’s technological growth can continue to study at American colleges. Those last two priorities are part of a more humane approach to immigration, including monitoring the southern border with technology, not walls, making sure asylum-seekers have legitimate representation in making claims, and working to improve conditions in other countries to reduce the number of people seeking to come here. 
Goroff understands Long Island, having lived here for 23 years, and says she’s willing to work with anyone to bring change to the region. And she promises that, if elected, she will work to restore respect for science and facts. 
With Democrats likely to expand their control of the House, Goroff would have more clout for the district, and if the party wins the White House and control of the Senate, Zeldin would be left wandering in the political wilderness. 
Newsday endorses Goroff. 
— The editorial board

Editorials

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Nancy Goroff to represent 1st Congressional District

Newsday endorses Goroff in 1st Congressional District

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In his most memorable moments, Peter King — who is vacating New York’s 2nd Congressional District after 14 terms in Congress — was an advocate for his service-oriented constituents. That included the firefighters, police officers and nurses who work long hours and sometimes dangerous ones to keep society ticking, who don't shrink from duty during disaster, be it Sept. 11 or superstorm Sandy. 
Many of them had moved to Long Island to carve out middle class lives, the kinds of newcomers whose parents or grandparents might have come through Ellis Island seeking new opportunities, and now they were making good on that gamble here. 
It is those constituents and their 21st century dreams who Jackie Gordon is perfectly poised to represent. 
Gordon, 55, has already lived a life of service. That includes nearly 30 years in the U.S. Army Reserve as a military police officer. It includes decades as a Wilson Technological Center guidance counselor and Babylon Town councilwoman. 
As with so many families in the 2nd Congressional District, hers is one of multigenerational service. She herself deployed to combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan and retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. And her 31-year-old daughter, Kerrianne, is a captain in the U.S. Air Force. 
And as with the families of so many of the people she would serve if elected, with roots from Italy to Ireland to Honduras, she has an immigrant background. She migrated from Jamaica with her post office- and railroad-worker parents at age 7. 
"Outside of America, people look at this country as a real beacon of hope, and not just words," the Copiague Democrat said in an endorsement interview with the Newsday editorial board. "If you come here to America, you will do better. That’s what people outside of America believe about America." 
Indeed. 
Her career of service has taught her the value of working with all parties. This ramrod-backed woman born around the tail end of the Baby Boom generation is no radical, much as GOP attacks attempt to tie her to the most left-leaning impulses of her party. She has highlighted health care, veterans' issues, bolstering Pell grants, and constituent services as top priorities. Even her policy interests, such as a hope for a role on committees including the House Veterans' Affairs or Transportation and Infrastructure committees, are grounded in helping her constituents get what they need. She knows that's crucial for the district, from veterans' health to big construction projects in the region. 
Her background includes service on a committee for King's nominations to West Point and other service academies. 
Her opponent, Assemb. Andrew Garbarino, is a committed public servant, too, who knows how to work within the legislative process and understands the needs of the district. In years past, he has distinguished himself by sometimes bucking his party as with supporting the "Red Flag" law allowing people deemed to be risks due to substance abuse, violent threats, or other issues to be prohibited from purchasing firearms. He told the editorial board in an endorsement interview that there should be a pathway to citizenship for the Dreamers protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. But the Bayport Republican’s law-and-order campaign focus on "radical mobs" and "chaos and violence" in New York City was disappointing — reminiscent of the old stereotypes of suburbs as white flight havens, and particularly inappropriate given Gordon’s career in law enforcement. This is a woman who has experience with an M16 and 9mm handgun, and who qualified in the military as a sharpshooter and expert. 
As a Black woman, she has the chance and the gravitas to work toward policing solutions beyond rhetoric. That means different training for officers and body cameras, and much more responsive, community-focused policing, but also a shift in perspective on this issue beyond stagnant and getting-us-nowhere partisan fights. 
"As a military police officer, we were charged to protect and defend," she told the editorial board. "And as a citizen, I want to be protected and defended." 
That’s the kind of reasonableness and insight that Long Island needs in Congress, for a new generation. Newsday endorses Jackie Gordon.

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Jackie Gordon to represent 2nd Congressional District

Newsday endorses Gordon in 2nd Congressional District

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Thomas Suozzi is the relentless voice Long Island needs in Washington. 
The second-term Democrat, 58, has carried the mantle on the crucial reversal of the SALT deduction cap. He helped negotiate an elimination of the cap for 2020 into the pandemic relief bill that passed in the House. 
Environmentally, he has put fixing the Bethpage plume at the forefront. He successfully appealed this past spring to the House Appropriations Committee for more federal funds to clean the polluted former U.S. Navy site, and he repeatedly has urged the Navy and Northrop Grumman to speed cleanup as the groundwater contamination continues to spread through Bethpage and beyond. He wants the Navy and Grumman to cede responsibility to local water authorities to get the job done. 
He supports the Green New Deal legislation, showing that he is able to channel the ideas of the progressives, but uses the Problem Solvers Caucus he vice-chairs to find common ground in the middle on issues like COVID-19 relief. 
Beyond his centrist work, he was willing to get partisan when needed. At the height of the coronavirus outbreak in New York, he vigorously defended the state’s taxpayers during the "Blue State Bailout" tension set off by a tweet from the president accusing Democrat-led states of mismanagement. Suozzi even tangled with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell over it. 
Opposing Suozzi is Republican George Santos, a financial professional with asset management and business development experience at firms like Citgroup, Goldman Sachs and LinkBridge Investors. Santos, 32, who lives in Whitestone, has little familiarity with specific Nassau and Suffolk issues, especially local environmental concerns. 
Santos has an unconventional plan to address the nation's broken immigration system, which he calls the Legacy Act. It would halt legal immigration with minimal exceptions and during that hiatus a system would be devised for all those here, illegally or not, that would lead to green card eligibility after 10 years. While flawed, as a challenger he gets credit for outlining a coherent vision for fixing the current system. 
Santos is a first-time candidate who was appalled by "the Third World electrical grid system" exposed by storms this past summer. He pledges that as a first-term representative he will work to secure federal dollars to begin burying the power lines and trimming trees, and boldly promises that if unsuccessful he won't run again. However, Santos could not articulate how or why the federal government would support such a plan. 
Suozzi channels a similar energy on his "high-tech Island" dreams, which includes further expansion of our research corridor. He will keep up the pressure for Bethpage plume remediation, a SALT cap repeal and Long Island’s other immediate needs from his post on the Ways and Means Committee. 
Suozzi, the former mayor of Glen Cove and Nassau County executive, has a mature political portfolio and his years in executive management add depth and insight on how to address local as well as national challenges. 
Newsday endorses Suozzi. 
-- The editorial board

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Thomas Suozzi to represent 3rd Congressional District

Newsday endorses Suozzi in 3rd Congressional District

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Rep. Kathleen Rice often talks about being the voice of her constituents, and her willingness to go against her party when she has needed to. 
It's that voice — and her strong will — that the Fourth Congressional District needs more of from Rice. Since Rice's public decision to split with now-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Garden City Democrat has been relegated to the sidelines in the Democratic caucus. But from her seats on the House's Homeland Security and Veterans' Affairs committees, there's a lot Rice can do. She rightly speaks out against the Trump administration's immigration policies, and expresses worry about veterans suicide rates, both critical issues that will need significant attention in the next Congress. Beyond her committee work, Rice keeps the spotlight on issues that always have been important to her: infrastructure, the environment, health care and technology. 
Also important is Rice's role in the New Democrat Coalition, which focuses on bridging gaps within the party. Rice is right to try to bring together the progressive arm of her party with those more in the middle — and that effort will be even more critical in the months and years to come, no matter who sits in the White House. 
While Rice, 55, has been criticized by her opponent for not being a dynamic presence in her district, her attention to Newsday's Long Island Divided series, and her concerns over housing segregation across the region and especially in her district, are welcome. She sees ways that the federal government can help. And she should explore those further. 
Republican Douglas Tuman is the Town of Hempstead's commissioner of engineering. Tuman, a first-time candidate who lives in West Hempstead, is focused on improving higher education, reducing regulations, and establishing floodgates on the South Shore. The thrust of Tuman's campaign is that he would be more engaged in the district than Rice. But many of his positions don't fit with Long Island's needs. Tuman, 40, who hosts a YouTube channel devoted to talking about cryptocurrency, wants to see government take a hands-off role on regulating the emerging digital currency and on climate change, and instead would rely on the free market to find its own solutions. He doesn't believe in mask mandates and thinks COVID-19 relief dollars should be linked to how a community handles the pandemic. 
Rice admits that she often works behind the scenes. It's time for her to emerge from behind the curtain and take a more public role to fight for her constituents and to address the issues she cares about in innovative ways, like what she did years ago with her push for interlock devices to prevent drunken driving. 
Newsday endorses Rice. 
— The editorial board

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Kathleen Rice to represent 4th Congressional District

Newsday endorses Rice in 4th Congressional District

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For the second consecutive election, Democrat Gregory Meeks does not have an opponent as he seeks his 12th term in the heavily Democratic Fifth Congressional District. 
A resident of St. Albans and chair of the Queens County Democratic Party, Meeks’ district includes a large swath of the southeastern part of the borough as well as more than 65,000 voters who live in Nassau County communities, including Valley Stream, Inwood and Elmont. 
Meeks, 67, has capably balanced the needs of representing New York City and suburban interests, and of late that means pushing for a big share of COVID-19 relief funding from the federal government for two of the hardest-hit counties in the nation. 
In his district, Meeks said hospitals and emergency facilities were unprepared for the pandemic. So he wants to put in place programs to ensure health care institutions are well-prepared for another outbreak while they continue to meet the current challenges unemployment presents such as the struggle to put food on the table. 
As a member of the House Financial Services Committee, Meeks is sponsoring the Ensuring Diversity in Community Banking Act to provide incentives for investing in minority-owned banks as well as increasing federal government deposits in them. Such a law, he said, would help local businesses overcome the "banking deserts" that exist in the district. In the new Congress, his priorities include passing a major infrastructure program to rebuild aging structures and expanding the Affordable Care Act’s scope to include a public option that would allow middle-income workers to choose a public health plan instead of a private one. 
Newsday does not formally endorse candidates who do not have opponents in the general election. 
— The editorial board

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Gregory Meeks seeks 12th term in Congressional District 5

Gregory Meeks seeks 12th term in CD5

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Newsday's 2020 picks for Congress

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