Abortion bill fuels Twitter spat in CD4

Daily Point

CD4 Twitter tiff taps into D.C. abortion furor

The Republican push for abortion bans had already pumped adrenaline into the national Democrats’ electoral drive to keep their House and Senate majorities once the Supreme Court in June struck down abortion rights by voiding the Roe v. Wade case of a generation ago.

Suddenly this week, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) — apparently not satisfied to let states decide the new rules — fueled further national ferment when he introduced a bill to create a federal ban on abortions at 15 weeks. Especially in blue states like this one, Graham created a new lightning rod for protest with a proposal that right now is extremely unlikely to succeed even among his GOP colleagues.

So in Long Island’s newly redrawn 4th Congressional District, Democratic candidate Laura Gillen saw fit to jump on the renewed issue in real time by taking it to GOP opponent Anthony D’Esposito on Twitter. Her tweet, and D’Esposito’s response on Tuesday, provided a quick preview of how a debate between the two might shape up in their purple-ish district as they strive to succeed departing Democratic incumbent Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City).

At 1:50 p.m., Gillen posted: “Does extreme Republican @ANTHONYDESPO support the @GOP’s radical National Abortion Ban, which makes abortion illegal everywhere — even in NY — & strips away a woman’s right to make our own decisions? His silence is deafening. Keep your hands off of our bodies! #RoeIsOnTheBallot."

Esposito replied to @LauraAGillen at 4:11 p.m.: “Nope. I don’t. Try again Laura. Should ask you the same thing about renouncing the entire platform from radical WFP because you’ve run on their ballot line. Defund the police, cashless bail, open borders, higher taxes, spending and inflation. Your turn.”

In another posting, Gillen said of Graham’s earlier statement that states should regulate abortion, “So how many other extreme @GOP politicians does this remind you of?” That carried the hashtag #VoteBlue2022.

On his own feed Tuesday, D’Esposito more conventionally touted his support from former Rep. Peter King, Lawrence Mayor Alex Edelman, and Cedarhurst Mayor Ben Weinstock.

All of which, along with alternatively supportive and snarky responses on all sides from the tweeting public, is a momentary sampler of how local instantly dissolves into global in cyberspace on one deeply resonant issue that isn’t going away before November.

— Dan Janison @Danjanison

Talking Point

Operation Clean Slate finds some dirt

When Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman ordered the full shakedown and search of the Nassau County Correctional Center in East Meadow that began Monday, he was setting in motion a fairly normal process. Blakeman replaced former Sheriff James Dzurenda, who resigned last week, by naming Anthony LaRocco acting sheriff, and named former Sheriff Michael Sposato commissioner of correction, overseeing the jail.

Multiple sources say it’s normal for a new regime to order that kind of search, and “Operation Clean Slate,” the moniker chosen, is apt: The point is letting new leadership start off knowing they have a contraband-free facility.

What is unusual is the politics surrounding the Sheriff’s Department right now. Usually when county officials spread contraband across a table, they’re showing off what county cops took from criminals. In this case, they were showing off what their own county correction officers allowed to be brought into the jail for and by prisoners.

And it wasn’t all that much, diluting any criticism the raid could have generated of Dzurenda’s leadership.

Blakeman just saw a contract that he and COBA president Brian Sullivan had agreed to voted down by its members. And he is under fire from the union for elevating Sposato, who depending on whom you ask, is disliked by the union for either running an unsafe jail riddled by inmate deaths during his tenure, or because he has a history of cutting overtime to the bone, or both.

Blakeman announced the confiscation of several jail-made weapons, a few razor blades, some paper potentially laced with narcotics, and some pills. No one was attacked politically, save the state legislators who passed the HALT Act, which officials with the county and COBA say makes it harder to enact safeguards like solitary confinement, and endangers prisoners and guards.

Sullivan was furious at Sposato’s appointment, but he had no issue with the search and thinks it ought to be done more, telling The Point the jail hasn’t had a full shakedown in two years.

“I think the jail should be shaken down twice a year,” Sullivan said. "I pushed Dzurenda to do it, and I chased Mike Sposato around trying to get him to do it when he was sheriff. The reason they don’t is that it’s expensive, it generates overtime. But it definitely makes the jail safer for prisoners, and guards.”

— Lane Filler @lanefiller

Pencil Point

No choice

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Final Point

Time to ante up

As they do every year, Long Island business and community leaders gathered Tuesday for the Long Island Association’s annual poolside reception at the Crest Hollow Country Club.

But this year, a Las Vegas resident was among those networking around the pool.

Ron Reese, senior vice president for global communications and corporate affairs at Las Vegas Sands, and other Sands executives have been having conversations with New Yorkers about the potential for downstate gaming since 2016. Those conversations now have picked up speed.

Reese’s networking efforts come just weeks before the state’s Gaming Commission has to appoint a Gaming Facility Location Board. That board is supposed to be chosen by Oct. 4, and then will have 90 days to issue a request for proposals for gaming companies — like the Sands — to respond to. Any applicant also must gain the support of a local advisory board that will be established for each potential site.

Casino giants will be vying for three downstate licenses. But already, the cards seem to be indicating that Genting Group could get one of those licenses for its Resorts World site at Aqueduct Racetrack, and that MGM Resorts could get another for its Yonkers Raceway Empire City Casino location. So there’s potentially only one license that’s truly up for anyone’s bet.

Big players like Sands, Wynn Resorts, Hard Rock, and others are eyeing the entire downstate region, with potential sites in Manhattan, the outer boroughs, and Long Island among the contenders. Citi Field is among the locations with considerable interest behind it, especially since New York Mets owner Steve Cohen is reportedly on board with the idea.

As for Long Island, it’s anyone’s guess as to where a potential casino could go — or whether Nassau or Suffolk counties would get a site at all. Among the locations that have been rumored to be under consideration: the Nassau Hub, or the Long Island Marriott next door.

The Sands, which earlier this year sold The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas for $6.25 billion, has a bit of a Long Island connection even without Reese’s recent conversations. Former governor and Nassau County native David Paterson is a senior vice president for Sands. Paterson, some might recall, was a supporter of the Lighthouse Project, former New York Islanders’ owner Charles Wang’s effort to build a new Nassau Coliseum and other development at the Hub. That effort failed.

Could Paterson finally get a blackjack at the Hub — or elsewhere in Nassau County — this time around?

— Randi F. Marshall @RandiMarshall