After major surgery, Jay Jacobs to appear at campaign event

Daily Point

Democratic leader recovering from emergency procedure, in good spirits 

The final battles of an election year usually have their generals marching in the field. But for Nassau Democrats, county leader Jay Jacobs recently was sidelined for more than a week with a serious brain injury that required emergency surgery at Northwell’s North Shore University Hospital, he told The Point. “I was diagnosed with a subdural hemorrhage requiring brain surgery followed by a procedure to ensure that it would not happen again,” he wrote, praising the care he was given.

Jacobs, who is the state and Nassau County Democratic chairman, will mark his return to the fight with an appearance Monday night at the Nassau County Democratic Party Fall Dinner for about 600 people at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury. At the pep rally will be Nassau’s slate of local candidates led by county executive nominee Seth Koslow, along with Attorney General Letitia James, who was recently indicted by Trump, and Rep. Dan Goldman, who was lead counsel for Trump’s first impeachment. He is now a second-term House member who represents the 10th Congressional District in New York City.

There were rumors in county political circles last week that Jacobs was very ill, possibly even having suffered a massive heart attack. Jacobs wanted to set the record straight about what happened and, in a trademark, self-deprecating joke about the brain bleed, he said he will wear his Giants cap, despite Sunday's debacle of a game.

“While I have no recollection of getting hit in the head, given the frustrations of the election system, who knows. Maybe it was self-inflicted,” he said.

— Rita Ciolli rita.ciolli@newsday.com

Talking Point

Polling the Santos effect on LI

Are Long Island Republicans worried about a backlash to President Donald Trump’s pardon of George Santos, the fraudster congressman who got a surprise get-out-of-jail card on Friday?

The release of Santos, who served 84 days of a 7-year sentence, was a lightning bolt hitting local campaigns as Democrats scrambled to capitalize on it in Nassau while Republicans appear to be trying to measure any possible backlash.

The above survey from Research-Polls, a national opinion survey firm that uses texts, was received earlier Monday by a Point subscriber who is a registered Republican in Nassau County. The text asked if Trump’s commutation would make them “more likely or less likely to vote for local Republicans?” Before Santos was sentenced in April, his negatives were about 75% in several polls.

Nassau Democratic officials denied it was their survey, while The Point got no response from Nassau Republican officials.

And with just five days to go until early voting, will there be enough time to either defend or capitalize on Trump’s October surprise for LI?

— Rita Ciolli rita.ciolli@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Another trumped-up story

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Quick Points

Epic fail felt on Long Island

• In just minutes Sunday, clever thieves pulled off the heist of the century and stole precious jewels from the Louvre Museum in Paris, an epic failure of security. That’s even quicker than the Giants’ collapse of the century later that day against Denver by allowing 33 points in the fourth quarter.
• Flight delays are increasing because of the government shutdown, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Sunday alone saw almost 8,000 delays. Flying’s getting as bad as trying to get to the North Fork to go pumpkin picking.
• Speaking of traffic, a live-fire demonstration by the Marine Corps in California prematurely detonated and dropped fragments onto vehicles, including ones that were part of Vice President JD Vance’s security detail, parked on a closed freeway ramp. That’s one way to keep scofflaw motorists out of the HOV lane.
• An AI bot called Truth Terminal made millions in cryptocurrency last year. Can Long Island governments use AI to avoid piercing the tax cap?
• Newsday reports a Floral Park man is on a quest to visit all 126 Long Island Rail Road stations. Will they all have open restrooms?
• The Amazon Web Services global outage Monday impacted millions of users and caused Snapchat, Fortnite, PlayStation and Roblox to reportedly go dark. Good thing kids didn’t have their cellphones in school.

— Mark Nolan mark.nolan@newsday.com

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