For D'Esposito, there's no place like home

Daily Point

Printer's error keeps the spotlight on inspector general's party activity

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer unsurprisingly resigned Monday. She's been under scrutiny for potential misconduct involving the scheduling of official events as an alleged excuse for personal travel at taxpayers' expense, as well as a reported intimate relationship with a subordinate.

She's the third Cabinet member to depart in the first 15 months of President Donald Trump's current term. Leading the high profile internal investigation was the Labor Department's inspector general, Anthony D'Esposito, a former GOP House member from Nassau County.

Only last week, after months of conflicting signals, it was announced that D'Esposito would stay in the IG post rather than run this year for his former 4th Congressional District seat now held by Rep. Laura Gillen, who defeated him in 2024.

But during that long, recently ended "will-he-or-won't-he" period, D'Esposito's name and signature appeared on a highly partisan April 1 mailing, obtained by The Point, that went to members of the Island Park, Lido, Point Lookout Republican Club, which he headed.

This is politically interesting because, beginning during his confirmation last fall, Democrats warned that any preparations by the former NYPD detective and Town of Hempstead councilman to run again for Congress could violate federal law.

The Hatch Act says employees of the executive branch of the federal government cannot involve themselves in elections or discharge their duties in anything but a nonpartisan way. In recent days the club's Facebook page has continued to display photos of IG D'Esposito at local community events.

The club's political message earlier this month stated: "It is our time to take back New York and elect our friend and County Executive, Bruce Blakeman, as Governor. Here at home, because of Democrats' sham election laws, Supervisor John Ferretti" and others are again on the ballot "and need our help," it says.

The word "sham" is an intentional reference to the even-year mandate for local elections in New York State, enacted over Republican objections.

The mailing touts the Republicans' Leaders Club Brunch to be held this Sunday, April 26 at 11 a.m. at Peter's Clam Bar where Ferretti will be honored.

When the Point inquired with the county GOP organization about the letter, a party statement said it was "erroneously attributed" to Anthony D'Esposito "by a printer and the correspondence was to be authored by Tim D'Esposito, who has been handling day-to-day operations" for the club. Tim D'Esposito is a brother of the former congressman, who according to a current TOH staff directory is deputy commissioner for conservation & waterways.

Officials said Anthony D'Esposito quit his party positions Dec. 19, the day after his Senate confirmation. But as of Monday, he was still listed on the Nassau Republican Committee website as leading the Island Park club. On Tuesday, however, after The Point's inquiry, no one was listed as leader.

Not that partisan activity by IG D'Esposito would likely land him in hot water with Trump's administration as long as it's on message with the president.

The good-government group Common Cause has documented dozens of complaints of executive officials using their roles to promote political agendas in violation of the Hatch Act and other ethics restrictions. According to the group's statements, the administration's responses have been scant.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

Pencil Point

All right?

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Final Point

A party registration change leads to party raiding accusation

The battle for control of the Suffolk County Democratic Party is ratcheting up, and now a former Working Families Party official accused of standing by while Republicans raided the party line last year has entered the fray.

Shoshana Hershkowitz, the former Suffolk County Working Families Party co-chair who was at the helm when Republicans filled the WFP line with an unknown candidate to tilt the Huntington Town supervisor's race, switched her voter enrollment to Democrat in December. The reasons: to back a challenge to Rich Schaffer's chairmanship and also to support Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado's primary against Gov. Kathy Hochul because of his progressive views on health care. Hershkowitz is supporting Southold Town Democratic Party chair Kathryn Casey Quigley's upstart bid to oust Schaffer, which has turned into a bare-knuckle affair punctuated by legal challenges.

Hershkowitz, founder of Suffolk Progressives, changed her voter registration from WFP to Democrat to protest the unfair treatment of progressives by Schaffer and state Democratic Party chair Jay Jacobs and to support Casey Quigley.

"We continue to be gaslit by Rich Schaffer and Jay Jacobs," Hershkowitz told The Point, saying that progressives take the blame for election losses that are Schaffer's fault. "If they were winning elections, I would just grumble to myself, but they're not winning."

One Suffolk Democratic Party insider who supports Schaffer, in a statement to The Point, said Hershkowitz is essentially trying to raid the Democratic Party line to get rid of Schaffer. "… this sounds an awful lot like the party raiding we saw happen in Huntington and Southampton last year inside that same party under her leadership."

Huntington Republican Supervisor Ed Smyth beat Democratic challenger Cooper Macco by 418 votes in the general election with the WFP candidate, Maria Delgado, getting 1,219 votes. Delgado told Newsday after the election that she had "no idea" she was a candidate. Democrats widely blame the WFP for Macco's loss.

Hershkowitz, however, said it wasn't her fault Maria Delgado won the WFP primary and ended up on the November ballot, saying the Working Families Party state organization takes the blame for party raiding. "That is a state Working Families Party issue that is not exclusive to Suffolk County," Hershkowitz said. "I did everything I could do as an unpaid volunteer with no party infrastructure."

Hershkowitz then flipped the party raiding issue against Schaffer. "I think it's really telling that you have a county leader like Rich Schaffer running on the Conservative Party line, bragging about the Conservative Party endorsement, rather than working with the left," she said. "The fact that he's lurched so far right rather than look to natural allies is telling." Hershkowitz was talking about Schaffer's Conservative Party endorsement of his reelection as Babylon Town supervisor, but she might as well have included Schaffer's predilection for getting Democratic candidates cross-endorsed by the Conservative Party in some Suffolk races.

And Casey Quigley also laid blame for the Huntington Town supervisor's race imbroglio at Schaffer's door. "If Schaffer and his people did their job, Cooper Macco would be town supervisor," she said. "Folks in Huntington are angry about what happened."

Even if Casey Quigley's upset bid against Schaffer fails, Hershkowitz said she isn't going back to the Working Families Party because the party doesn't support local clubs. "There's no way to build a party out there without real on-the-ground investment," she said.

— Mark Nolan mark.nolan@newsday.com

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