Army reservist defies push off Suffolk ballot

Daily Point

Batman and Robin are done, but Estreich stays in the fight

Wearing a U.S. Army T-shirt after having just returned from a two-week stint in the Reserve, the Democratic candidate for Suffolk County comptroller said in a video posted to social media earlier this week that he is not withdrawing from his race.

In the video, Jon Estreich, a major in the Army Reserve, said: "I remain a candidate for Suffolk County comptroller" despite what he calls "the failed efforts of Republican Party bosses to remove me from the ballot ..."

The Point reported on Monday that Estreich and Anthony Portesy, the Democratic candidate for county clerk, were being pressured to step down as part of a deal to clear the field for Republicans in those races. Portesy, The Point previously reported, is accepting a judgeship nomination, a procedural move to remove his name from the ballot as a candidate for the clerk's office. State law only permits withdrawal from the ballot if the candidate dies, is convicted of certain crimes, moves out of state or accepts a nomination for a judgeship.

Estreich, an attorney, however, refused to step down under the ruse of a judgeship and will be on the November ballot against Republican Dan Losquadro, Brookhaven Town's highway superintendent. While on reserve duty at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey last week, he received a call asking him to end his run.

In a text to The Point, Suffolk County Republican Party chair Jesse Garcia said he has no bearing over the candidacies of Portesy or Estreich.

"I don't pick the Democrat Party candidates — I beat them at the ballot box," Garcia said. "I don't know this candidate, and frankly, neither do hundreds of thousands of Suffolk County voters. Most wouldn't be able to pick him out of a lineup."

Portesy, the Brookhaven Town Democratic Party chair, sought to explain his decision in a Wednesday morning email to committee members. "I want to make this CRYSTAL CLEAR: I did not 'trade the campaign for a judgeship.' "

Portesy said in the email that he and Estreich had been campaigning for real as a team. "Jon Estreich and I were Batman and Robin on the trail," Portesy wrote to committee members.

"I was running to win. Then the circumstances changed. And I made a decision."

Portesy said he "fell on the sword" because he didn't want people "losing their jobs across this county. ... Are you going to explain to their families why their livelihoods were worth gambling with?"

As far back as April, according to the county Board of Elections, Democrats had named Stacey Salamone as their candidate for clerk and Victoria Marotta for comptroller. Several Democratic Party sources said Suffolk Democratic leader Rich Schaffer, however, was pressured from within to replace Salamone and Marotta with candidates who had better chances to win.

Schaffer may have been feeling pressure to put stronger candidates on the ballot because of the challenge to his control of the party by Southold Town Democratic chair Kathryn Casey Quigley, the sources said.

In a text to The Point, Casey Quigley said Hochul was "up nine points in Suffolk County" back in the spring "and our own chair just tried to hand Republicans two seats. This is the guy we want fighting for the Democratic Party right now?"

Democratic sources contend that one reason Portesy and Estreich were named as candidates may have been Schaffer feeing pressure by Republicans who wanted to minimize any and all risks in a midterm election year for the House where Democrats are expected to do well.

That line of thinking has holes since neither Portesy nor Estreich have countywide recognition or campaign war chests to match incumbents. Estreich is looking at a 100-to-1 bank campaign account difference compared with Losquadro. Portesy reported about $2,500 in his campaign account while Suffolk County Clerk Vincent Puleo, a Conservative who also represents Republicans on the ballot, has about $142,000 in his campaign account.

Estreich was previously the Democratic candidate for the State Senate 2nd District but was asked to switch to the comptroller race.

Channeling his inner Theodore Roosevelt, the rugged and independent-minded 26th president, Estreich stands firm in his video about not relenting to outside pressure. "To quote Long Island's own president, Teddy Roosevelt: It takes more than that to kill a bull moose."

Calls to Portesy and Schaffer by The Point were not returned. Estreich returned a text but didn't provide further comment.

— Mark Nolan mark.nolan@newsday.com

Editor's note

Monday's Point item headlined "Suffolk clerk, comptroller races in question" over the withdrawal of Anthony Portesy as the Democratic candidate for county clerk and the attempt to remove Jon Estreich as a county comptroller candidate did not include a comment from Suffolk County Republican leader Jesse Garcia. The party leader denies the claims that he threatened to purge Democrats from patronage jobs at OTB and the Board of Elections. Garcia said that he never made such threats, nor does he have such removal power. State law requires that any hiring or termination of a Board of Elections employee be agreed to by both the Democratic and Republican commissioners of a county.

Pencil Point

Blame-duck government

For more cartoons, visit www.newsday.com/nationalcartoons

Final Point

Is Trump heading to the House That Curran Built?

When President Donald Trump visits Long Island Friday, he's expected to join Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman at the David S. Mack Center for Training and Intelligence, a Nassau County Police Department complex that includes classrooms, auditoriums, physical training and emergency vehicle operations spaces, and a facility where sensitive and classified information can be discussed.

In a statement earlier this week, Blakeman noted that Trump was coming "to tour our outstanding, state-of-the-art law enforcement facilities and pay tribute" to first responders in the Nassau County Police Department and beyond.

But the center, which is located on Nassau Community College's campus, was built and funded during the years prior to Blakeman's leadership, when former County Executive Laura Curran led Nassau. In 2018, Curran announced capital plan amendments to fund the $54 million project and in 2019, she and other county officials held a groundbreaking ceremony for the 89,000-square-foot academy.

Then, in October 2021, Curran presided over the ribbon-cutting and opening of the center — just weeks before Blakeman defeated her reelection bid.

"From my very first day as County Executive, I have been pushing to get this academy built — and we got the job done," Curran said in a statement at the time.

So, why is Blakeman hosting Trump at a facility that has his predecessor's fingerprints over it?

Blakeman spokesman Chris Boyle told The Point it's "untrue" that the center was developed and built under Curran.

"This process was started by presiding officer Bruce Blakeman in 1998 to secure the land from Nassau Community College to be used for this purpose," Boyle said in a texted statement Wednesday. "Many years before Laura Curran came on the scene."

According to published reports, in 1996, Blakeman, then presiding officer, did push Nassau Community College to agree to renovate an existing college academic building called South Hall to house the police academy, at the time suggesting that a renovation was superior to a new building because it would cost less. Those plans ultimately didn't move forward. In 1998, Blakeman sought an agreement with SUNY-Old Westbury to place a police academy there. That, too, didn't come to fruition.

In his statement, Boyle also noted that under Blakeman's leadership, the Harry Singh, Bolla Charity Foundation Training Village was built on the same site as the Mack center. The training village, which opened last July, allows police officers to train in "real world" scenarios, in mock streets, sidewalks, restaurants, schools or a Long Island Rail Road platform. When Blakeman unveiled the village a year ago, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi joined in the ribbon-cutting. At the time, police officials said that federal agencies, including Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, had trained at the site.

The village, Boyle said in the statement Wednesday, "is perhaps the most state of the art training center for law enforcement in the world."

So, while the site now has both Curran's and Blakeman's imprints on it, perhaps it'll be the Training Village, rather than the rest of the intelligence center, that will garner Trump and Blakeman's attention come Friday.

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

Subscribe to The Point here and browse past editions of The Point here.