LI's rambunctious primary season

Daily Point

Dems wrestle over signatures and look to fill vacancies

It's spring, and that means primary season is starting — and what would it be without controversy, infighting and oddities?

A candidate for the Democratic Party line in Suffolk County's 1st Senate District election didn't know his petitions were being challenged by a fellow Democrat until told by The Point.

Even in the season of renewal, politics is a bare-knuckle affair.

Farzeen Bham and E. Christopher Murray are both on the Democratic line for SD1, a seat held by Republican State Sen. Anthony Palumbo. Murray's campaign manager confirmed they are challenging Bham's petitions.

"This is the first time I've been notified of that," Bham told The Point. "My response would be that I think that my campaign has made sure that we have lawful, legal signatures."

Bham said he submitted more signatures than the minimum 1,000 needed to be on the ballot for the race.

Murray's campaign manager Diane Costello told The Point, "We filed general objections because an initial review of Mr. Bham's petitions showed irregularities which we are investigating now." A general objection opens a six-day window to investigate a candidate's petitions. An objector can then "specify the basis" of the general objection.

Bham lost a bid for the 3rd Senate District in 2022 with 35% of the vote. He was unsuccessful in 2021 as a 19-year-old candidate for the Longwood Board of Education. Murray ran unsuccessfully for the 7th Senate District back in 2002 with 37% of the vote.

In Nassau, Democrats don't seem to be taking advantage of an unexpected opening for the 14th Assembly District, created when 88-year-old Assemb. David McDonough (R-Merrick) announced he was stepping down after a Newsday news division story noted he had missed about 100 votes in the Assembly this year. Republicans nominated Shannon Fredericks, a 29-year-old State Senate staffer, for the seat but Democrats don't have a candidate. A draft and preliminary list of candidates from the county Board of Elections notes the party is still "awaiting substitution." That's also the case for Democrats in the 5th Senate District. State Sen. Steve Rhoads (R-Bellmore) won the seat in 2022 and 2024 with 61% of the vote in each election.

For AD16, Republicans have Michael Pulitzer on the list, but two sources told The Point that Pulitzer, the clerk of the Nassau County Legislature, is a placeholder candidate, meaning Republicans have a few more days to replace him on the ballot if needed. Current Assemb. Daniel Norber (R-Great Neck) surprised many by announcing in February that he wasn't seeking reelection. Democrat Kim Keiserman is running for the seat, one the Democrats say they have a chance of turning from red to blue.

Another unexpected vacancy, created in Nassau County's 16th Legislative District when Democrat Arnold Drucker announced he wouldn't seek reelection, actually has two opposing candidates. Democrat Jared Behr, who lost a bid for Oyster Bay Town supervisor in 2023, is running against Republican Olivia Pfeifer, listed in public records as a Nassau County employee.

And challenging Minority Leader Delia DeRiggi Whitton (D-Glen Cove) for Nassau LD11 is former county Legis. John Canning. Canning gained brief national fame in 2024 at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee when he was shown during a Jimmy Kimmel segment dancing in the stands of Fiserv Forum. Back then, Canning told The Point he had once been featured on David Letterman's late night show, also for dancing.

"Could I possibly become the official dancer of the Republican National Convention?" Canning wondered aloud to The Point two years ago.

Like we said, primary season can get a bit offbeat.

— Mark Nolan mark.nolan@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Blame humans

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Final Point

REVIVE Act faces opposition over local control

The REVIVE Act spotlights the need to reuse vacant and underutilized commercial, retail or parking parcels of land for housing and mixed-use development. There are many who want to extinguish it.

Introduced last month in Albany, the bill is coming under fire from Long Island's elected officials with a particularly intense back and forth between Hempstead Town Supervisor John Ferretti and the bill's sponsor, Assemb. Michaelle Solages, who represents communities in the town.

The pushback is familiar from Ferretti, who said he is worried about efforts to supersede "local control" and repeated the refrain of turning Long Island into New York City.

Solages said she became focused on the issue after flooding and a fire at an Elmont co-op building displaced seniors.

"Trying to find housing for them was nearly impossible," Solages said. "It led me down a path to realize we as an Island need to have a different conversation about housing. There's a belief we can't build ... but we could convert these underutilized spaces into residential and mixed-use development."

The bill would encourage the redevelopment of properties that are at least 15,000 square feet, are zoned for commercial, office, retail or parking, and have been more than 50% vacant for at least a year. For such properties, the bill suggests that new mixed-use or housing developments could be allowed at such sites, with density and heights based primarily on what's already allowable within the jurisdiction. The bill does, however, provide some guidelines, noting that municipalities "shall not limit the density of such a site to less than fifteen dwelling units per acre."

The bill, which is sponsored in the State Senate by James Skoufis, who represents the suburbs of Orange County, also provides some timeline parameters, saying that a village or town should review and approve eligible projects within 60 days for those with fewer than 150 units and 90 days for those with more.

Solages told The Point that she sees the bill as a "conversation starter," and that it wasn't intended to go through the legislature during the budget process. But Ferretti had a more ominous take.

"I ran a campaign to make sure the Town of Hempstead does not become the sixth borough of New York City," Ferretti told The Point. "The REVIVE Act would allow for zoning rights to be stripped away in favor of high rises and New York City-style complexes to be built as of right. We're not going to stand for that."

Ferretti went to Albany last month to protest the bill, meeting with Assembly Minority Leader Ed Ra and others. But Ferretti did not reach out to her, Solages said.

"None of them sent any inquiries to the office and no one has talked to me about the bill," Solages said. "It just shows you that it's not about the language of the bill, it's just a political talking point."

Ferretti, for his part, noted that Solages did not reach out to him either.

"It's shocking that someone who represents a suburban community would write legislation to strip away the rights of that suburban community," Ferretti said, noting that Solages is also Hempstead Town's Democratic leader.

Ferretti, who said he remained concerned that the bill would be slipped into the budget at the last minute, suggested that the bill would allow buildings the size of Nassau University Medical Center across the town, adding that it also would remove "local control" from zoning and development decision making.

"If it were to pass ... it would transform places like the Town of Hempstead into the sixth borough of New York City," Ferretti said. "I don't think the Town of Hempstead residents have the appetite to see dozens of buildings the height of NUMC without any ability to stop it."

But Solages clarified that NUMC is exempt from zoning as a county facility and would not represent the standard discussed in the legislation, adding that the bill does not override local zoning.

"This is a classic Republican playbook," Solages said. "It's fear tactics not based in reality. And it's not based in actually having a conversation about how we can protect Long Island ... and about developing the community within the character of a community ... but obviously Ferretti is not mature enough to have this conversation."

As the political fight ramped up, Solages told The Point this week that she planned to reach out to Ferretti to attempt to start a discussion.

"My door is always open," she said.

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

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