Who's betting on another Blakeman run?

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman. Credit: Newsday / Steve Pfost
Daily Point
GOP donations pour in amid poll on Nassau County executive race
Is Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman gearing up to run for another term?
That’s the prevailing wisdom — but Blakeman, and his spokesman Chris Boyle, have been a bit more coy. When Democrat Seth Koslow officially stepped into the ring, Boyle said the county executive hadn’t yet made a decision.
Donors, however, seem to be betting on Blakeman. Over the last several months, and especially in the weeks after President-elect Donald Trump won, campaign finance records show that several significant Blakeman donors, and some who might be looking to the county executive for support and consideration, have put big money on Blakeman.
In response to The Point’s queries, both Boyle and Nassau County Republican chairman Joseph Cairo seemed to push forward the assumption that Blakeman is running.
"Bruce Blakeman has given indications that it is his intention to seek reelection and he is grateful for the tremendous support he has received both emotionally and financially," Boyle told The Point Thursday.
Cairo went further, calling Blakeman "an immensely popular and dedicated public servant" in a statement that highlighted a host of issues, including Blakeman's ban on transgender athletes, his pushback against Gov. Kathy Hochul's housing compact, and his focus on public safety.
"Bruce Blakeman is intently focused on his re-election campaign for County Executive, and I am confident that he will be re-elected by an impressive margin, along with his Republican team of public officials at the county, town and city levels in November," Cairo said in the statement provided to The Point.
Cairo was among Blakeman's recent donors, giving the county executive $2,500 in November, and a total of $2,000 more earlier in the year.
There were the other, even bigger donors. Nassau University Medical Center chairman Matthew Bruderman gave Blakeman $20,000 at the end of November, just weeks before the NUMC board officially voted to make permanent Bruderman’s choice for NUMC chief executive, Megan Ryan. Bruderman gave an additional $1,000 to Blakeman last February, and $10,000 back in January 2022, just months before he was appointed to the NUMC chairmanship.
NYU Langone board chairman Kenneth Langone donated $20,000 to Blakeman in November, too, as conversations swirl about NYU Langone’s interest in putting a medical facility on the campus of Nassau Community College.
In recent months, thousands of dollars have come in from developer Scott Rechler, tax appeal firm founder Shalom Maidenbaum, Nassau Metropolitan Transportation Authority board representative David Mack, the Nassau County Republican Committee, and Cairo, along with both Armand and Christopher D’Amato, brother and son of former Sen. Alfonse D’Amato.
Even Charles Kushner, father to Trump’s son-in-law Jared, and recently chosen by Trump to serve as ambassador to France, gave Blakeman $10,000 back in August.
And yet, despite the robust fundraising, questions are swirling, especially in light of an online poll that emerged recently. Labeled a "New York Opinion Survey," the poll asks for views on Blakeman and Koslow, but expands its reach further, asking whether respondents have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Nassau County Police Commissioner Pat Ryder and former state Assemb. Mike LiPetri, who most recently lost a bid to unseat Rep. Tom Suozzi.
It’s unclear who commissioned the poll, though both Nassau Democratic and Republican committee sources say it wasn’t them.
Could Nassau’s political players be hedging their bets, evaluating other choices in case Blakeman bows out of the race, or gets a job in a Trump administration?
Perhaps the poll results will tell more.
— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com
Pencil Point
Elephant in the room

Credit: FloridaPolitics.com/Bill Day
For more cartoons, visit www.newsday.com/0101nationalcartoons
Reference Point
The entertainers

The Newsday editorial on Jan. 16, 1968.
For anyone worried about the mushrooming cost of running for public office, Newsday’s editorial board was all over the topic — back in 1968.
In a piece that ran on Jan. 16 of that year called "Theater of the Absurd," the board cited calculations of the newspaper’s Washington bureau chief, Nick Thimmesch, that the upcoming 1968 campaigns on all levels — national, state and local — were expected to cost $250 million.
It’s a hefty sum, for sure, the equivalent of about $2.3 billion nowadays. But those 1968 concerns seem quaint at a time when the nonprofit campaign watchdog OpenSecrets estimates campaign spending during the 2024 federal election cycle at about $16 billion. Even that fell short of the 2020 record of around $18 billion.
But Newsday's board in 1968 seemed even more concerned about the nature of all that spending.
"If all of this were to be spent upon a serious elucidation of the issues, perhaps it would be money well spent," the board wrote. "When, however, it is used to foster the sort of foolish business now going on in New Hampshire, in advance of the primary election there, it is only fair to ask whether campaign contributors are getting full dollar value."
The board was piqued by videos and photos of Republican candidate George Romney, the governor of Michigan, throwing snowballs at TV cameras and skiing, lamenting that "the inexhaustible demands of the communications media for ‘action’ and the insatiable desire of campaign staffs for publicity often encourage presidential candidates to behave like clowns."
Nowadays, such actions — including the eager eating of regional specialties — are supposed to serve as evidence that a candidate is "regular folk."
Judging from recent races, the board was prescient in its worry about the showbiz aspect of politics, as it demonstrated in its now 56-year-old conclusion:
"In these difficult times, we need a President with great intelligence, deep humility and infinite skill at threading his way between Scylla and Charybdis," the board wrote. "Certainly we are not going to elect a man on the basis of his entertainment value. The New Hampshire primary simply illustrates how silly the electoral process has become. Can’t the candidates simmer down before elections become a Nielsen poll of TV actors and shows?"
— Michael Dobie michael.dobie@newsday.com
Subscribe to The Point here and browse past editions of The Point here.