In CD4 Dem primary, Corbett plays 'defense'

Daily Point

Defender of the realm

CD4 Democratic primary candidate Keith Corbett wants potential voters to be impressed with his clients.

Literature sent by the Malverne mayor’s congressional campaign and obtained by The Point includes a picture of President Barack Obama with the text, “KEITH CORBETT DEFENDED PRESIDENT OBAMA IN COURT AND WON!”

The piece also contains pictures of Obama, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Rep. Tom Suozzi, under the phrase, “They trusted Keith Corbett to fight for them.”

What exactly were those fights and how significant were they? Corbett and his campaign did not return requests to discuss. But a search of legal records did show that Corbett was listed as a representative for defendants Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden in a state court proceeding decided in 2013, at the center of which was an allegation by a pro se plaintiff that “defendants President OBAMA and Senator McCAIN, despite not being ‘natural born’ citizens of the United States according to plaintiff's interpretation of Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution, engaged with the assistance of other defendants in an extensive conspiracy, on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church to defraud the American people and usurp control of the Presidency in 2008.”

Other objects of the plaintiff’s ire included then-Sen. John McCain, George Soros, and the Socialist Workers Party, all of whom needed to be defended (not by Corbett).

Perhaps not surprisingly, the court found that the plaintiff engaged in "frivolous conduct.”

As for Corbett’s potential history with Suozzi and Hochul, the mayor’s bio with law firm Harris Beach says that as the “Law Chair of the Nassau County Democratic Committee, Keith routinely interposes and defends various election law proceedings under the New York State Election Law.” The bio goes on to say that he has “represented the Governor of the State of New York, United States Congressmen and various state and local officials in election law proceedings.”

Apart from the particular legal work Corbett is trying to highlight, there’s another issue here: The recipient of this literature might be forgiven for thinking Corbett has been endorsed by the pictured candidates.

Suozzi’s campaign says the congressman has not endorsed in the race. And Hochul campaign spokesman Jerrel Harvey said the same, adding that the campaign “did not authorize the mailer.”

— Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Talking Point

Suffolk’s latest map jam

Suffolk County is reaching a familiar stage as redistricting time nears for its 18 legislative seats.

Earlier this year, New York State’s first Independent Redistricting Commission deadlocked between its GOP and Democratic members. That led to maps drawn by legislators that the courts struck down and recast. And what a chaotic affair the 2022 elections have proved to be.

Now members of Suffolk’s own reapportionment panel may be in a 4-4 partisan standoff in preparation for the 2023 county elections. As legislative counsel Bob Duffy tells it, the commission hired a consultant who prepared a plan, and Democrats had an alternative drawn up, and that’s pretty much where it stands.

Dueling plans have yet to be resolved and the county lawmakers recently voted, 18-0, prompted by a commission request, to extend the deadline for its map submission to Sept. 30. As a result, earlier-scheduled public hearings have been postponed and will be scheduled during the lengthened period.

Early next year, the legislature is due to approve a plan and submit it to County Executive Steve Bellone for his signature.

This process was supposed to get going last year but it did not, and the Democrats then in charge of the legislature approved lines of their own before falling out of the majority in January. Bellone vetoed those lines and the commission was picked, with the GOP now in control of the body.

If the past is prologue, the road ahead looks rocky, which can happen especially when a body is divided down the middle between the major parties.

— Dan Janison @Danjanison

Pencil Point

Taking the heat on Taiwan

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Final Point

Writing 9/11

These days Long Island readers may be familiar with Joe Calderone’s name from the information he has provided about the COVID-19 pandemic as a spokesman for Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital.

But the former journalist also helped cover the wake of 9/11, the region’s last tragic disaster of such scale.

Now Calderone has a novel out, “Don’t Look Back,” about the firefighters who died at the World Trade Center and the New Yorkers who wanted to uncover some of the operational and communications challenges they endured in their last moments.

The book includes harrowing scenes, such as firefighters struggling to carry a man in a wheelchair down to safety. It also may have some readers playing a guessing game about who’s who. A crusading journalist character works at the News of New York, which has similarities to the Daily News where Calderone reported and edited at the time of 9/11. A real estate tycoon publisher, Kenneth S. Schwartz III, bears resemblances to former News owner Mortimer Zuckerman. Then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani, naturally, goes by his own name.

Then there’s lots of what appear to be composite characters in the city’s journalistic and political class, unsurprising for a former reporter who covered Mayors Koch, Dinkins, and Giuliani from Calderone’s Newsday and New York Newsday days onward.

Calderone told The Point that he used facets of his own reporting and also the sometimes-overlooked Chapter 9 of the 9/11 Commission Report that dealt with some of NYC’s lack of preparation for the emergency to come, including radio communication problems experienced by the FDNY.

He says that despite the widespread, worldwide coverage of the attacks, he always felt that the story of what happened to the firefighters “was not fully told.”

The book ends on another facet of 9/11 that only continues to unfold: the appearance of cancers by those who worked The Pile.

— Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano