Crypto cash PACs a punch for Gillen, Lafazan?

Daily Point

Incoming crypto cash?

Two recent congressional endorsements from a pandemic prevention group could signal some big money on the way to CD3 and CD4.

The organization, Guarding Against Pandemics, has given its seal of approval to Nassau County Democratic Legis. Josh Lafazan in a tight CD3 race and former Hempstead Town Supervisor Laura Gillen, who is seeking the Democratic nomination in CD4. The group itself screens House and Senate candidates and can make small direct contributions, but the source of the real money would be a super PAC called Protect Our Future, which is largely bankrolled by crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried to the tune of over $20 million.

Guarding Against Pandemics, whose structure allows it to interview and identify candidates, was founded by Gabe Bankman-Fried, who has a background in politics and is the brother of the other Bankman-Fried. Protect Our Future, which spends a lot of the crypto brother’s money, can’t talk to candidates but looks at the other group’s list of “champions.”

“Protect Our Future, when making spending decisions, takes the endorsements of Guarding Against Pandemics very seriously and weighs them quite heavily in deciding which races are potentially worth getting involved in," says Mike Levine, who works for a communications firm that represents both groups.

The money can be significant: Protect Our Future has logged over a million dollars in independent expenditures in individual congressional primaries to support Guarding Against Pandemics candidates.

A Guarding endorsement doesn’t mean the super PAC definitely swoops in. The super PAC ruffled Democratic feathers when it spent more than $10 million to support Oregonian Carrick Flynn, a political-novice congressional candidate whose background in pandemic research may have interested the super PAC. Flynn lost.

Still, the prospect of big outside spending could change the dynamics in these two hot Long Island primaries.

Levine said that POF is trying to support candidates who will be "champions of pandemic prevention once in office," including in the form of additional funding and more stringent regulation of certain kinds of research. The group is looking for candidates who “have a decent likelihood of winning their race” and has been putting much of its efforts into candidates with contested primaries.

One New York Democratic source observed that the groups seem to be looking at candidates who have a “clear path to victory” and fit the district: hence, candidates in CD3 and CD4 who “have real credibility with law enforcement.”

Gillen and Lafazan’s websites both have sections about pandemic preparedness or prevention, something that is becoming more common: So does the site of Lafazan opponent Robert Zimmerman, for example. Lafazan has also been a big crypto booster, once tweeting, “I believe strongly that #crypto is a positive force for good in the world.”

Levine says crypto is not part of the criteria for either group’s work.

Might Gillen or Lafazan wake up to some big super PAC help from POF before their Aug. 23 primaries? Levine said there have been “discussions” but final decisions haven’t been made.

— Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Talking Point

A moment of 'Kumbaya'

What a difference a year makes.

Monday morning, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials came to Garden City, celebrating the completion of work on the Denton Avenue bridge — the last of the rebuilt bridges that are an essential component of the Long Island Rail Road’s Third Track project.

Standing with LIRR interim president Catherine Rinaldi in front of the new bridge were North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena and Garden City Mayor Cosmo Veneziale.

Both have had their differences with the MTA — DeSena more recently over changes to the Port Washington branch schedule, and Veneziale over the bridge project itself, which he and other Garden City officials opposed for more than a year, even taking the battle with the MTA to court and last July demanding $10 million in exchange for the necessary permit.

But Monday, everyone was on the same happy page — sort of.

“I want to welcome all to Garden City,” Veneziale said. “The cooperation between the Village of Garden City and the Long Island Rail Road made this reconstruction possible.”

But Veneziale made sure to note that the new bridge contained some of the granite blocks from the old bridge “per my direction and after much discussion and cajoling.”

He didn’t discuss how much “cajoling” had to happen to get the village to allow the MTA to do the work, which began earlier this year.

DeSena, meanwhile, whether intentionally or not, flicked at the problems in Port Washington, too.

The “exciting day,” she said, was “the result of a lot of conversations … [and] a lot of people who had to have tremendous foresight to sit down, make compromises and listen to the residents.”

Was that a nod to what was missing in North Hempstead for more than a decade, as the town decided not to move forward with an expansion of the Port Washington rail yard — resulting in the limited service about which residents and DeSena are now complaining?

Or, perhaps, a message to the MTA — that she’s open to such foresight and compromises.

“Now we’re finally seeing a wonderful product,” DeSena said. “I look forward to continuing the work with the Long Island Rail Road and the MTA.”

Rinaldi noted that the nearby Merillon Avenue station, now almost done with a Third Track-related renovation, had 53 trains stop each day before Third Track and the East Side Access connection to Grand Central Terminal. The new schedule will include 95.

Perhaps her own message to DeSena and the residents of Port Washington.

— Randi F. Marshall @RandiMarshall

Pencil Point

Turbulence ahead

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Quick Points

Second-act drama

• President Joe Biden tested positive again for COVID-19, three days after testing negative following his first bout with COVID. Not exactly the rebound he was hoping for.
• As the McKinney fire exploded over the weekend to become California’s largest wildfire this year, the most daunting figure was not the number of acres that had burned — 51,468. It was zero — as in, the fire was 0% contained.
• Infowars host Alex Jones infamously claimed the Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax. Now the damages part of his trial is about to begin in a $150 million suit from Sandy Hook parents, and Infowars’ parent company has declared bankruptcy. What a coincidence.
• Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has asked government and other workers to not wear neckties to work to stay cooler and reduce electricity use for air conditioning amid brutal summer heat. If Sanchez is serious about lowering the AC, why stop at neckties?
• Will Smith apologized again to Chris Rock for slapping Rock during the Oscar telecast in March and said he’d reached out to Rock but was told the comedian wasn’t ready to talk. That makes one apology delivered via statement and one delivered four months after the incident. No wonder Rock isn’t ready.
• Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana criticized the climate and tax-the-rich bill negotiated by Sens. Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin, saying it would introduce “an incredible amount of uncertainty into the economy.” Then Cassidy proceeded to incorrectly describe what the bill would do. Speaking of uncertainty.
• He won 11 NBA titles in 13 years, was the first Black coach in major American sports, and became a prominent voice for civil rights. She was an actress who broke ground as a Black woman playing someone in a role of authority who shared one of TV’s first interracial kisses. Two trailblazers, now gone. RIP, Bill Russell and Nichelle Nichols.

— Michael Dobie @mwdobie