'Civil war' brewing among Suffolk Dems

Daily Point

Suffolk clerk, comptroller races in question

In Suffolk, the Democratic Party candidate for county clerk has accepted a state Supreme Court justice nomination by the Conservative Party, The Point has learned, a move that all but ensures the reelection of County Clerk Vincent Puleo since Democrats aren't expected to name a replacement candidate.

Puleo is a registered Conservative who also represents Republicans on the ballot.

Last month, Anthony Portesy told The Point he was "in it to win it" and would step down as Brookhaven Town Democratic Party chair and from his $144,000-a-year position with Suffolk's Off-Track Betting Corp. if he won the clerk's race in November.

That changed last week, two sources said, when Portesy's OTB job was one of dozens of at-will positions threatened. Portesy couldn't be reached for comment. A review by Newsday's library team found his most recent voter registration address to be for a home in Melville as of July 30.

But the bigger move is the one that didn't happen. Sources told The Point that Jon Estreich, a major in the Army Reserve and the Democratic Party candidate for county comptroller, got a call while on duty in Watertown and was told to step down from his race. Estreich, sources said, refused.

That means Estreich will be on the November ballot for comptroller against Republican Dan Losquadro. The comptroller is the chief financial officer of the county's $4.3 billion budget. Sources said Suffolk County Republican Party chair Jesse Garcia wants the field cleared for Puleo and Losquadro to avoid even a remote possibility of defeat and he is taking no chances. 

The reason? Democrat Tricia Chiaramonte's ghost candidacy last year for Brookhaven Town clerk that rattled some Republicans. Chiaramonte didn't actively campaign and still garnered 45.4% of the vote against a well-known family name in Brookhaven politics in incumbent Town Clerk Kevin LaValle. And, in a midterm election year with a Republican president dropping in polls, local Republicans may be looking for every possible way to avert disaster, even if Losquadro has over $1 million in his campaign bank account compared with Estreich's $10,300.

The move to get Estreich off the ballot may, oddly, boost his credentials since now he can tout his inability to be bought by party leaders. Another source said it was easier for Estreich to resist since he doesn't have a patronage job or other leverage to be used against him.

The judicial district conventions are held through this Wednesday in New York, with Thursday being the last day to file a nomination. Sources said the play is to have Portesy nominated for a judgeship on the Conservative line so he can legally withdraw from the election for clerk. The last day to fill a vacancy after a declination is Aug. 21. Democrats, sources said, aren't expected to name a replacement for Portesy as part of a deal. 

"They don't even want paper candidates," a source said.

Another source said Portesy was not on the handouts of judicial nominees at the Republican meeting in Farmingdale recently. "The Conservative line is their vehicle," the source said of the maneuver.

Sources said Garcia upped the ante late last week by threatening to purge Democrats from patronage jobs at OTB and the county Board of Elections if Portesy and Estreich didn't withdraw. That led to them both getting calls to withdraw, and shock spreading through the party.

"It's like a bunker mentality," a Democratic Party source said. "No one knows who to trust ... people are scared. No one's answering their phones ... it's absolute hysteria."

Sources also said Garcia and Suffolk Conservative chair Mike Torres almost seem to be propping up Suffolk Democratic Party chair Rich Schaffer in his attempt to fend off a challenge from Southold Town Democratic Party chair Kathryn Casey Quigley to keep the cross-party deals open. The fear is that if Casey Quigley takes control of the Suffolk Dems, she will follow through on her promise to end cross-endorsements and backroom deals. 

Another Dem source was even blunter: "The reason the machine is fighting so hard to keep Estreich out and get Losquadro in is there's too much at stake."

"This all goes back to Toulon and Tierney," another source said of Schaffer's cross-endorsement deals to support the county's top two law enforcement elected officials, District Attorney Ray Tierney and Sheriff Errol Toulon Jr. Tierney had no Democratic challenger in his reelection campaign last year and Toulon ran on the Democratic and Conservative lines without a Republican challenger.

"It's upheaval," a source said. "It has all the makings of a civil war in the Suffolk County Democratic Party."

— Mark Nolan mark.nolan@newsday.com

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Falling

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Quick Points

Catch this 'fever' if you can

• A "fever" of stingrays — hundreds of the migrating marine creatures — was caught on drone footage last week. The annual spectacular scene of rays was seen off the coast of Water Mill, according to ABC News. At least that fever isn't tick-borne.
• Speaking of natural phenomena, the Perseids — when meteors at a clip of between 50-100 an hour are visible — reaches its optimal viewing window this week on Long Island. Weather permitting, skywatchers will also have a chance to see a partial solar eclipse Wednesday. Any coincidence the Pentagon keeps releasing UFO files?
• Suffolk reached yet another dubious milestone last week when it marked the 37th positive case of rabies in raccoons and stray cats in 18 months. On the bright side, the county said no pets or people were exposed. At this point, rabies almost seems tame compared to the Island's myriad afflictions.
• Regardless of ticks, rabies or stingrays, no Long Island neighborhood has it as bad as Boyle Heights, California. The Los Angeles community has been under a cloud of stink after a cold-storage warehouse was destroyed in a fire two months ago, leaving 85 million pounds of beef, pork, poultry and seafood to rot. Even an AI data center is preferable to that.

— Mark Nolan mark.nolan@newsday.com

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