Opinion

In the New York State Senate, the Long Island Nine are now the Long Island Six, the stalwart Republican bloc of years past transformed into a growing Democratic caucus. 
For years, Republicans protected Long Island and other suburbs from the worst tax-and-spend instincts of city Democrats who dominate the Assembly. But the GOP caucus also blocked needed legislation like voting reforms, the Dream Act, climate change legislation, and an increase in the minimum wage. 
We were cautiously optimistic when Democrats took control of the Senate in 2018, fueled by victories in four Long Island races that added to the two seats they already had. We cautioned that they needed to be just as resolute as Republicans in representing suburban concerns while passing good progressive legislation. But the record has been mixed. 
The Long Island Six — Todd Kaminsky, John Brooks, Kevin Thomas, Anna Kaplan, James Gaughran and Monica Martinez — helped pass a raft of bills that were long overdue, but showed little backbone against the successful campaign by city Democrats to scuttle the deal to bring Amazon to Long Island City. The project’s 25,000 good-paying jobs would have boosted the regional economy; some of those workers likely would have settled on Long Island. The Democrats also participated in a rushed process with no public hearings that led to a poorly drafted bail reform law in 2019, and some fixes made this year still might not be enough. 
We hope they’ve learned their lesson. Most say they have. They need to form a stronger alliance with suburban colleagues in the Hudson Valley and upstate. This will be critical in the brutal funding fight ahead, and in the event Democrats pick up two more Senate seats. That would give them a supermajority in both chambers, enough to override vetoes by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who must balance the needs of the entire state. It also would mean Democratic control over redistricting. We want a fair process that produces sensible districts, not the partisanship shown by both parties in years past, but the temptations to skew lines will be strong with one-party dominance. 
The Long Island Six is on notice. We expect more. Time to deliver. 
— The editorial board

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The Long Island Six needs to deliver for residents

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In 1976, when "Happy Days" was the top TV sitcom, Evita Peron made a last stand in Argentina and a tech company named Apple filed its incorporation papers, the name Kenneth LaValle debuted on the ballot to represent New York’s 1st State Senate District. LaValle, a Republican whose tireless work on environmental and educational issues earned him 22 consecutive victories, retires this year as the senator for a district that starts at the points of Montauk and Orient and stretches to Center Moriches and Port Jefferson. 
The two candidates running to replace him are qualified to represent the district, but one stands out because of her potential to become a major influencer in Albany, and with that gain the clout to bring home the bacon. Democrat Laura A. Ahearn, 57, of Port Jefferson, has never held elective office but she well knows how the game is played. The founder of the Crime Victims Center and Parents for Megan’s Law and a social worker turned lawyer, she has spent 25 years advocating for victims of crime, especially those involving women and children, in areas like sexual assault, domestic violence, and human trafficking. Ahearn is rightly critical of the process that led to a flawed effort to amend a broken bail system and says she will work to give judges more discretion in deciding when an accused person should be detained. She will defend the property tax cap and wants to find a way for the state to help small businesses devastated by COVID-19. 
The Republican contender is Anthony H. Palumbo, 50, of New Suffolk, who has been a member of the State Assembly for seven years, taking care of his constituents by getting grants for youth mental health services and preserving land in Shoreham. In the State Senate, he wants to build on his efforts to get state tax incentives for developers in return for them building more workforce housing. Palumbo is schooled in environmental issues and supports using a portion of the well-funded Community Preservation Fund to improve water quality. 
But Ahearn would be in the Democratic majority if elected, and is likely to quickly become a forceful voice advocating for suburban issues, concerns that a city-centric majority often doesn’t prioritize. Ahearn has been successful in her work as a victim’s advocate because she acquires extensive knowledge about her subject matter and promotes her position tenaciously. The 1st District and Long Island need her independent voice in Albany. 
Newsday endorses Ahearn. 
— The editorial board

Editorials

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Laura Ahearn to represent New York's 1st Senate District

Newsday endorses Laura Ahearn in 1st Senate District

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Neither Mike Siderakis nor Mario R. Mattera has held elected office, but each knows his way around the halls of power. That experience reflects most positively on Siderakis, in the race to replace former Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, at one time the most powerful Republican in New York. 
Siderakis, 51, a Democrat from Nesconset, served as a state trooper for 28 years, including a two-year stint as legislative director for the troopers’ benevolent association. That experience meant he worked in Albany with lawmakers. Siderakis thoroughly understands the issues, and would be ready from the start to capably represent the district. Siderakis has a realistic take on the state’s budget woes. He says that dealing with the shortfall exacerbated by the coronavirus will be painful, and that solutions will include both spending cuts and revenue increases. He argues that a temporary tax on the very wealthy might be needed but that it should come with a hard end date. And he wants to protect school aid and health care from spending reductions. 
Mattera, 57, a business agent for Plumbers Local Union 200, is a familiar face at town board meetings pushing for union jobs on construction projects. He has a strong commitment to infrastructure and water quality improvements, including sewers and sewage treatment plants. He also has intriguing ideas for the huge tract of state land at the former Kings Park Psychiatric Center site; he wants to involve the community in a planning process that could yield a mix of open space, recreation, entertainment, small businesses and housing in a village-like community. But he lacks Siderakis’ depth of knowledge on a variety of issues and has no suggestions for handling the state’s current budget deficit. Mattera, a Republican from St. James, said he was "100% disgusted" by recent Suffolk County indictments of other officials in his plumbers union, including his fellow business agent, in connection with taking bribes, but he would not commit to returning campaign donations from the union or its leaders. 
Siderakis might be making his first run for public office, but it’s a well-timed run for a candidate ready to do the job. 
Newsday endorses Siderakis. 
— The editorial board 
This editorial has been updated to correct the views of Republican Mario R. Mattera and Democrat Mike Siderakis about development at the former Kings Park Psychiatric Center.

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Mike Siderakis to represent New York's 2nd Senate District

Newsday endorses Siderakis in 2nd Senate District

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Throughout State Sen. Monica R. Martinez’s first term, she has served as a strong advocate for her district. An immigrant from El Salvador who came to the United States at age 3, Martinez brings a fresh perspective and understands her ever-changing constituency. 
The Brentwood Democrat rightly points to district issues she wants to address, including sewers, economic development and even the dreaded Oakdale Merge. Her attention to women’s rights has been particularly welcome. 
Martinez’s efforts to push for amendments to initial bail reform legislation were smart. But in her first two years in Albany, she often remained behind the scenes, sometimes not taking a position until her caucus did, such as on the repeal of the 50-a law that hid police disciplinary records. At other times, Martinez failed to understand Long Island’s needs, such as when she co-sponsored prevailing wage legislation that would have hurt development efforts. While she touts her independence, that at times was problematic, such as when Martinez, 43, opposed banning religious exemptions on vaccinations for school-aged children. She should rethink her focus on parental choice over public health in light of the coronavirus pandemic. 
Alexis Weik, 48, is the Town of Islip’s receiver of taxes. She criticizes the state’s bail reform efforts, but doesn’t have a clear vision on what she’d like to see instead, and wrongly says absentee balloting has been "disastrous." Weik lacks a basic understanding of school district funding and any original ideas on how to close the state’s budget gap. And the Sayville Republican’s position on vaccination is even more dangerous than Martinez’s, as she says she opposes any mandatory vaccines for children attending school. 
In her next term, Martinez should use her capable voice to take a stronger stand for Long Island on statewide issues. Her independent streak will have more impact if she takes center stage. 
Newsday endorses Martinez. 
— The editorial board

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Monica Martinez to represent New York's 3rd Senate District

Newsday endorses Martinez in 3rd Senate District

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Three years ago, we criticized Republican Philip M. Boyle for taking part in an odious deal between Democratic and Conservative party bosses that involved the cross-endorsement of judges and an attempt to clear the way for Boyle, who has no law enforcement experience, to become Suffolk County sheriff. One element of the bargain was that Boyle had employed the wife of the Conservative Party boss, part of his unfortunate history of hiring the relatives of political allies. 
Opposing him for a fifth Senate term is Christine Pellegrino, 51, a West Islip Democrat who served one term in the Assembly before losing in 2018. She lacks knowledge about key issues, and hedges her words so carefully she seems to be trying to avoid offending anyone. Her unwillingness to take strong stands forces us to look to past statements and actions, which leads us to think that, if elected, she would align herself with city Democrats to the detriment of the district she seeks to represent. 
We wish this was a more inspiring race, but it's not. At least Boyle, 59, of Bay Shore, is a competent lawmaker who knows the issues and gets legislation passed. He is realistic about the state's budget crisis and supports an ultramillionaire's tax with a sunset provision so it doesn't become permanent. He called the botched Amazon deal an extreme example of government malpractice by Democrats, which it was. He also is more enlightened than Pellegrino on the need for transit-oriented housing and some density to achieve affordability. 
Boyle has provided strong constituent service as a senator and in 14 years in the Assembly. That has really mattered during the coronavirus pandemic, when his office helped people get unemployment insurance and health care, worked with small businesses hit hard by the pandemic and procured personal protective equipment for health care providers, first responders and others. 
Boyle is a survivor, and he might end up being the last one left of the once-controlling Republican Senate delegation once known as the Long Island Nine. 
Newsday endorses Boyle. 
— The editorial board

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Philip Boyle to represent New York's 4th Senate District

Newsday endorses Boyle in 4th Senate District

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For the past decade, the Town of Huntington, where Republican Edmund J. Smyth is a board member, was vexed with a property-tax appeal lawsuit filed on the Northport Power Plant. The plant was taxed $86 million annually, a hugely inflated figure, but the revenue held taxes down in the Northport-East Northport school district, and any court-ordered reduction approaching the 90% cut LIPA sought would have sent school taxes skyrocketing. The town would have been on the hook for a refund of past overcharges that could have hit $800 million. 
Smyth, 49, of Lloyd Harbor, played his role in the LIPA negotiations with canny courage. He held out for years until LIPA was forced to sweeten the deal as much as possible. Then, in the face of furious opposition, he agreed to vote for the settlement before a judge’s ruling smashed the town and district, giving the deal the momentum it needed to pass. 
Democrat James F. Gaughran, 63, of Eaton’s Neck, never came out for or against the offer. Instead of helping build support for the difficult but necessary agreement, Gaughran tried to pass an unworkable law in the State Senate to ban the refund LIPA sought. It was a disappointing lack of leadership that ill-served almost half of his constituents. 
During his first term representing the 5th Senate District, Gaughran fought successfully to make the state property tax cap permanent and amend the controversial bail reform changes, adding to the new law crimes for which suspects could be held in jail. Both were worthy efforts. But when Gaughran’s voice was needed to push for the right solution on the power plant, he did not lend it. 
For his part, Smyth should hew less closely to the party line on issues like criminal justice reform and absolutism on opposing new taxes. His openness to placing homeless families in vacant single-family homes in district neighborhoods suggests he can, although his outright opposition to the proposal for transitional housing for homeless families in Jericho is unfortunate. 
Smyth also evinces a firm dedication to fighting for the interests of small businesses that are the lifeblood of this district, restaurants in particular. And he has vowed to dedicate himself to preserving the Island’s drinking water as well as its bays, harbors and estuaries, by prioritizing state-of-the art septic systems and filtration systems for stormwater runoff. Smyth’s evolution, leadership and vote on the LIPA settlement demonstrated political fortitude and his ability to lead. 
Newsday endorses Smyth. 
— The editorial board

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Edmund Smyth to represent New York's 5th Senate District

Newsday endorses Smyth in 5th Senate District

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The race for New York’s 6th Senate District features a choice between two residents of Levittown, the famous birthplace of the American suburb. But more so, the race presents a choice between the Levittown of the past and the Levittown of the future. 
The Republican challenger is Dennis Dunne Sr., 70, a Marine veteran and Levittown political mainstay who was an original member of the Nassau County Legislature and now serves on the Hempstead Town Board. 
The first-term incumbent is Democrat Kevin M. Thomas, 36, who before his 2018 win worked as a staff attorney at the New York Legal Assistance Group and represented defendants sued over consumer debt. 
Thomas has been a fresh presence in Albany and, as an Indian American immigrant, a symbol of the demographic changes that have come to Levittown. He has been an able chairman of the Senate’s Consumer Protection Committee, rightfully evoking a sense of outrage in hearings in response to Newsday’s "Long Island Divided" housing bias series — a three-year investigation which found evidence of unequal treatment of minority homebuyers on Long Island, the kind of practice that helped keep Levittown mostly white for so long. 
Thomas faced serious confrontations in 2019 from his co-sponsorship of a bill to repeal the religious exemption from vaccination requirements — an issue even more pressing in the face of the coronavirus pandemic — but he rightly stayed the course. He must bring to bear that fortitude and all the creativity he can muster to help save Nassau University Medical Center, the county’s crucial safety-net hospital past and present. 
Dunne well understands the NUMC challenges and many of the others facing the district. But on many issues he is acting the part of the conservative reflexively yelling: Stop. That includes bail reform, which Dunne said was the issue that made him run. Rather than being the travesty of GOP fixation, it was a clunky but overdue overhaul that might need more tinkering but was the right move for New York. 
Thomas is the right choice for the future of Levittown and the entire 6th Senate District. 
Newsday endorses Thomas. 
— The editorial board

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Kevin Thomas to represent New York's 6th Senate District

Newsday endorses Thomas in 6th Senate District

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When State Sen. Anna M. Kaplan first ran two years ago in the 7th District, she often hesitated to take a strong stand on key state issues. After her first term, the Great Neck Democrat is starting to come into her own, speaking out in favor of stronger gun laws, changes to the initial bail reform proposals, election reform, the redevelopment at Belmont Park, and the need to vaccinate schoolchildren. 
As chair of the State Senate’s Commerce, Economic Development and Small Business Committee, Kaplan, 55, has become a voice for small businesses across the region, providing a spotlight that’s become particularly important since the coronavirus pandemic hit. 
David C. Franklin, a former commissioner of the Port Washington police department, has made public safety the centerpiece of his campaign, and critiques the State Legislature’s handling of bail reform, suggesting "what could have been handled with a scalpel was handled with a machete." The Port Washington Republican’s primary suggestion for solving the budget crisis is a return to manufacturing but he offers mixed messages on whether he’d support tax increases, saying at one point that he’d be willing to consider rescinding the property tax cap. Franklin, 63, also says he thinks the coronavirus emergency is now over, and argues that vaccination should be up to a parent, rather than be mandated by the government. 
Kaplan strongly emphasizes her belief in science and vaccines, and notes that she thinks the state is in "the first inning" of the pandemic. With a COVID-19 vaccine possibly on the horizon, and likely fights ahead over a mandate, Kaplan should take a leadership role on this issue to assure that public health remains the priority. More broadly, Kaplan should use her stronger voice to stand up for Long Island’s concerns even when it means disagreeing with the caucus or its leadership. 
Newsday endorses Kaplan. 
— The editorial board

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Anna Kaplan to represent New York's 7th Senate District

Newsday endorses Kaplan for 7th Senate District

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State Sen. John E. Brooks will stand alone on the ballot this fall, after the Republican Party’s two possible candidates were disqualified because of successful legal challenges. 
But Brooks, now completing his second term in office in the 8th Senate District, commendably stands out for other reasons. Just before the pandemic took hold, Brooks had introduced a bill to cap the amount of a school district’s spending that comes from residential property taxes at 50%, in an innovative attempt to provide tax relief particularly for communities with a small commercial property tax base. 
The Seaford Democrat says his plans were gaining traction, and he hopes to resume discussions, and find ways for businesses to contribute more to education funding. 
Even with such big ideas, Brooks is willing to admit he doesn’t have all of the answers to the state’s budget difficulties, but he’s open to potential tax increases on "truly high-income earners." He calls the State Legislature’s process in passing criminal justice reform "horrendous," and isn’t pleased with where the reform stands now, noting that he worries particularly about individuals with mental health issues. 
Brooks, 70, deeply understands his district, and has tried to tackle some of its most knotty challenges, such as securing a fiscal monitor for the Wyandanch school district. He says he has more to do, suggesting, for instance, establishing a veterans’ program at Nassau University Medical Center to be funded by veterans’ agencies. 
Both of Brooks’ would-be challengers — Suffolk County elections commissioner Nick LaLota and attorney Norman Sammut — were disqualified. 
Long Island needs Brooks’ imagination and thoughtfulness in Albany. In his next term, Brooks should continue to push his bold vision for changing the school funding system that is bleeding taxpayers and take a leadership role in the local delegation on financial issues, veterans’ affairs, and other issues he knows well. 
Newsday endorses Brooks. 
— The editorial board

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John Brooks to represent New York State's 8th Senate District

Newsday endorses Brooks in 8th Senate District

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Long Island needs strong voices in the State Senate to craft a smart way forward for the suburbs and Todd D. Kaminsky’s voice is crucial to that effort. 
The 42-year-old former federal prosecutor from Long Beach, who has served in the Senate’s 9th District since 2016, has notched accomplishments, including advocating for and helping to shepherd through a new Long Island Rail Road station at Belmont Park, crucial to that project’s development. 
As chair of the Environmental Conservation Committee, Kaminsky has been a strong advocate for the environment, an area of concern for his South Shore district, which has been hit hard by extreme weather and likely will be again. He has worked to create stiff penalties against illegal dumping, a particular Long Island bane, and sponsored the landmark Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Signed by the governor last summer, it is the state’s most important effort to move toward reduced greenhouse gas emissions across sectors of the economy. 
Unlike some anti-business members of his caucus, Kaminsky understands that Senate Democrats must not shy away from the big projects and partnerships with the corporate world that can bring jobs, tax revenue, and economic stability. He was too quiet and slow to challenge State Senate leadership on its mistaken opposition to an Amazon headquarters in Long Island City, eventually calling Amazon’s departure from a planned headquarters expansion a "tragedy." 
"We can’t be anti-development at the drop of a hat," he said in an endorsement interview with Newsday’s editorial board. 
It is these types of struggles within a Democratic caucus brimming with more left-leaning activists in which Kaminsky must find a firmer footing. The region’s future economic growth is at risk. In a similar and important fight in the last two years over bail reform, Kaminsky tried to use his law enforcement background to help guide some of his colleagues’ work, with mixed success. Additional revisions of the changes in bail and discovery laws are needed next year, and Kaminsky should be at the center of them. 
His opponent, Victoria M. Johnson, 60, a Rockville Centre Republican, has Albany experience including as chief of staff to former Assemb. Brian Curran. But her erroneous notions about what actually occurred in the bail reform process and crime statistics coupled with her lack of definitive support for the science of vaccines suggests that she would not be an effective advocate in the State Legislature for her district or Long Island. 
Newsday endorses Kaminsky. 
— The editorial board

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Todd Kaminsky to represent New York's 9th Senate District

Newsday endorses Kaminsky in 9th Senate District

Newsday's 2020 picks for New York State Senate

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