CD3 scenarios, as Kaiman sees them

Daily Point

Kaiman on Kaiman

For a guide to some of the twists in the path of Jon Kaiman’s bid for New York’s 3rd Congressional District, look no further than the hard-nosed political predictions presented by … Jon Kaiman.

The current Suffolk deputy county executive and 2022 CD3 Democratic hopeful took up the subject of his own future last week on the “Conversations” podcast with Rae Arora, a commercial real estate broker and Democrat who ran unsuccessfully against Rose Walker for Nassau County Legislature in 2017.

Kaiman said he was interested in running again for the House, but noted the peculiarity of a special election if one were to occur for the seat held by the discredited Republican Rep. George Santos. In that instance, there would be no primary: Party leaders would pick the candidates to run on their respective lines.

“I can wait around and hope that I get picked, and if I don’t, someone else will be the congressman,” Kaiman said. “That person will then be the incumbent” for the next cycle.

If there is no special election, then Kaiman predicts there would be “another messy primary” with a “significant field,” and he’d have to figure out whether he wants to go through that experience again after coming in second during a similar situation in the 2022 Democratic primary.

Then, he said, the question becomes, “Do I look to local options, do I look to the private sector?”

One of those local options could be a return as North Hempstead Town supervisor, a role Kaiman held from 2004 until he stepped down in 2013 to serve in a state storm recovery role post-Sandy. The office is currently held by Jennifer DeSena, who caucuses with Republicans and would have to run for reelection this fall.

“North Hempstead supervisor is a race that will begin shortly and so that is an option for me,” Kaiman told Arora. “And it’s no secret that people have talked to me about it.”

Kaiman went on to say, “The question for me is do I do something looking backwards or do I move forwards.” He quickly answered that running for supervisor would indeed be “looking forwards” since he’s a different person than he was during his previous tenure, that the community is different, and that “the world has changed.”

Part of that change, of course, is the arrival and explosion of Santos himself, whose presence was a ghost over the conversation in more ways than one.

Arora ended the podcast by asking Kaiman somewhat apologetically to “certify” his education, including his degrees from Hofstra and Harvard. Kaiman did.

“Maybe this is the new norm now,” Arora said.

— Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Talking Point

Sands goes to school

It’s the tale of two schools.

To the west, there’s Hofstra University, whose president, Susan Poser, already has announced her opposition to plans for a casino resort at the Nassau Hub.

But to the north, Maria Conzatti, the acting president at Nassau Community College, has taken a very different tack.

Monday, Nassau Community College and Las Vegas Sands announced a partnership that would allow the college to become the primary training center for employees of the resort, while Sands will provide internships and other opportunities for NCC students.

The agreement will establish new programs in hotel and casino management, security and surveillance, meetings and banquets, entertainment, and food and beverage. Some of those efforts will build on existing Nassau Community College programs. The school, for instance, already is renovating a building for its culinary arts program. In a statement released jointly by Sands and the college, the chair of the college's Hospitality Business Department is quoted as calling the partnership “a winning combination for our current and future students as well as for Nassau County.”

Could Sands win over Hofstra and find similar middle ground there?

Poser previously told The Point any change of heart was “hard for me to imagine.”

— Randi F. Marshall @RandiMarshall

Pencil Point

At work, guns blazing

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

Quick Points

Second thoughts

• The special unit disbanded by the Memphis police chief after five of its officers beat motorist Tyre Nichols to death was called the Scorpion unit. In retrospect, perhaps making a deadly arachnid the namesake for a police unit, whose mission was to restore peace in troubled neighborhoods, was a bad idea.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced punitive steps against Palestinians like beefing up Jewish settlements on the occupied West Bank, which was in response to Palestinians killing seven Israelis in two shooting attacks, which was in response to an Israeli raid that killed nine Palestinians, which was in response to …
• Surgeon General Vivek Murphy says 13-year-olds should not go on social media because it might harm their views on relationships and their sense of self-worth. You could say the same about lots of other ages, too.
• Asked about assigning extremists and conspiracy theorists like Marjorie Taylor Greene to key House committees like one to investigate the origins of COVID-19, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said, “I think what the American public wants to see is an open dialogue in the process. This is a select committee where people can have all the questions they want and you'll see the outcome.” Funny, that’s what Democrats are hoping, too.
• Fifty-five percent of job seekers responding to a recent survey admitted they lied on their resume. If they were telling the truth.

— Michael Dobie @mwdobie