Does Jesse Garcia have a shot at being state GOP chair?

Daily Point

With Langworthy Beltway-bound, who’ll lead NY GOP?

When New York GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy kicked off his campaign for a Western New York congressional seat, he was chastised for not stepping down from the chairmanship … albeit mostly by his loose-cannon primary opponent Carl Paladino.

At the time, Langworthy defended his decision to chair while running, but said he’d step down if he won, which he did on Tuesday, by a 2-1 margin. 

So who is next in line for the role that Langworthy took over from NY GOP stalwart Ed Cox in 2019? With by far the greatest GOP successes in New York this week coming in Nassau and Suffolk counties, the question has particular resonance on Long Island.

In Nassau, where County Chairman Joe Cairo brought home a strong showing for gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin, two congressional race triumphs, and a raft of Assembly and State Senate wins, the focus is still on local priorities.

Party spokesman Michael Deery told The Point that Cairo “is completely focused on being Nassau’s county chairman and getting Nassau County Republicans elected.” And Deery said Cairo resumed doing so this week, with preliminary planning on several fundraisers and strategizing on the town races and county legislature contests that are now just a year away.

Suffolk GOP Chairman Jesse Garcia, though careful to be circumspect, was a bit more open to the idea of having his name mentioned in connection with the slot. His shepherding of Zeldin’s overperforming campaign, along with big wins in congressional, State Senate and Assembly races also mark him as a hot commodity.

“Right now there is no opening, Nick has not resigned,” Garcia whispered to The Point Friday, still hoarse from Tuesday’s election festivities. “When I hear from him, I’ll discuss it.

“But I’m very flattered that my name is being floated amongst some possible successors,” Garcia added. “There is a process the executive committee will undergo, and we’ll see what happens.”

GOP county chairs are meeting in Manhattan next week, and other names getting some mention include Rockland County Chairman Lawrence Garvey, and Manhattan GOP Chair Andrea Catsimatidis. She’s the daughter of Republican grocery magnate and radio host John Catsimatidis. As for upstate, one name getting some support is Erie County’s Mike Kracker, who became county GOP chair when Langworthy took the state role. Any move he mounts, though, could be impeded by the relative difficulty of raising money upstate, and the relative dominance of Erie County Democrats since Langworthy moved up.

— Lane Filler @lanefiller

Talking Point

Catell, LIPA headed back to the future

When the Long Island Power Authority took over electricity generation on Long Island from LILCO in 1998, and KeySpan was created to combine Brooklyn Union Gas and LILCO’s natural gas operations, Bob Catell, who would head KeySpan, was integral to the process. 

Almost 25 years later, LIPA has continued to struggle with the unwieldy debt that has its roots in the Shoreham nuclear plant, operational shortcomings, and a poor public image. Wednesday, the LIPA Commission, which was established by the State Legislature to create a full municipalization plan, announced the public meeting details and 15 Advisory Committee members. Catell’s name was first on the (admittedly alphabetical) list.

Catell’s presence is notable. Municipalization has been treated as a fait accompli by some, but opponents have argued for other options, like the current hybrid management or privatization to be considered. Catell believes for-profit power companies can work in some cases, and said he wouldn’t have taken on the role if all options weren’t meant to be considered.

“It’s extraordinary that we started debating this 25 years ago, and we’re still debating what’s the best way to provide power on Long Island,” Catell told The Point Friday. He said Assemb. Fred Thiele, a driving force behind attempts to restructure LIPA and a staunch supporter of municipalization, told him that every option is on the table.

A fundamental issue has been the job protections and union affiliations of employees who have worked, as employees of a construct called SERVCO, throughout the transition from LILCO to a LIPA operated by National Grid to a LIPA operated by PSEG.

“I come from the private sector,” Catell said, “and I do believe for-profit power can work. It does elsewhere.” But Catell also said every situation is different, and arguments that a public LIPA can avoid taxes, get FEMA disaster reimbursement and pay lower interest rates on debt are legitimate.

He’ll be joined on the 15-member committee by a raft of familiar names. Lisa Tyson, executive director of the Long Island Progressive Coalition, might be the member most closely associated with pro-municipalization forces. 

Other members include Long Island Association CEO Matthew Cohen, Westbury NAACP head Leslie Davis, IBEW Local 1049 business manager Pat Guidice, retiring Long Island Builders Institute CEO Mitch Pally, Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine, Association for a Better Long Island Executive Director Kyle Strober, Nassau County Village Officials Association Executive Director Ralph Kreitzman, Brooklyn College professor Mike Menser, Asian American Institute for Research and Engagement founder Farrah Mozawalla, Queens Community Planning Board 14 Chair Dolores Orr, Shinnecock Nation Director of Health and Community Services Tela Troge, Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association Director Bob Vecchio, and Regional Ready Rockaway CEO Dr. Edward Williams.

— Lane Filler @lanefiller

Pencil Point

Get off my lawn

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Final Point

Checking in with the minors

One of the major narratives coming out of Election Day was the energy of the Working Families Party down the stretch. 

The progressive organization, which typically if fretfully allies with Democrats, gave its ballot line to Gov. Kathy Hochul and has been credited, including by some of their own back-patting, with some organizing heft particularly in its power centers like Brooklyn. 

“Speaking from direct experience, the only organized political party that did an ounce of work in southern Brooklyn this election cycle was the @NYWFP,” tweeted Brooklyn State Sen. Andrew Gounardes, who got 15% of the vote on the WFP’s ballot line this week. 

The party certainly had a survival rationale to hustle, given the new state rules requiring a higher, 130,000-vote threshold to keep a guaranteed ballot spot. They comfortably blew past that marker with some 250,000 votes in unofficial results.

A thornier political question is how much their labor ended up boosting mainline Democrats and Hochul, who was not their choice in the primary. One non-WFP progressive operative who had been worried about the lack of state Democratic Party effort in NYC was impressed with the WFP work, and put together a memo on the subject shared with The Point. The memo noted that in late September, multiple elected officials reached out to the WFP for poll-tested messaging, literature for door-knocking, and so-called full-slate mailers. The party sent out 2 million texts and 250,000 live-person phone calls for Hochul from Oct. 2 to Nov. 8. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer did a robocall telling people to vote Hochul on the WFP line, and the party did three rounds of mailers with Hochul and Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado’s name. 

A WFP spokesman confirmed those details.

It all led to a fairly successful year numerically speaking, with the WFP ending up with almost the exact same number of votes the Conservative Party garnered in the 2018 and 2014 gubernatorial elections. In those years, the WFP trailed the Conservatives by between 120,000 and 140,000 votes. The WFP more than doubled their statewide vote share between 2018 and this year.

On Long Island, Republicans have used the WFP’s past statements and organizing on policing issues against Democrats who flirt with the WFP line. But the party still logged big local jumps over 2018, doubling its vote percentage to approximately 2% in both Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Then there was Senate District 4, where the WFP endorsed Assemb. Phil Ramos in the Democratic primary for the seat. He lost to Monica Martinez, who used the WFP line in the general, and votes on that line now make up almost the whole of Martinez’s slim margin over Republican Wendy Rodriguez.

— Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano