Moving campaigns

Michelle Bond, Randy Altchuler and Italo Zanzi. Credit: James Escher, Heather Walsh, Michael E. Ach
Daily Point
On the carpet in CD1
Another election in New York’s 1st Congressional District brings another conversation about carpetbaggers.
This stretch of Suffolk County has long been a siren call for imported political hopefuls, with its inclusion of the second-home Hamptons and its partisan swinginess. Perhaps the prime recent example was millionaire Randy Altschuler, who lost in 2010 and 2012 and was assailed “as a carpetbagger who had moved here only recently after exploring a candidacy in New Jersey,” as Newsday reported at the time.
This time around, the newcomer was Michelle Bond, who lost her Republican primary bid on Tuesday. Bond highlighted her roots growing up in Miller Place, but only recently moved back to the district: She registered to vote in Suffolk in June, which was also around when she moved to Port Jefferson, she told The Point this summer.
She and her partner own “multiple residences,” including a place in Maryland.
It’s not the first time a native daughter or son returned to CD1 many years later. The 2006 GOP candidate was Italo Zanzi, whose family moved out of the county when he was a child. He returned to run for office after a sparkling career that included team handball accolades, professional soccer in Chile, and a leadership role in Major League Baseball. He lost to Southampton stalwart Tim Bishop.
Also on the list: Joseph Boyd, an aide to former Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, who lost his attempt in 1972. His opponent Otis Pike claimed “his tax bills for his Sag Harbor home are still mailed” to Manhattan.
More than a couple of wealthy self-funder types have eyed the district, including Ron Lauder of cosmetics fame.
Perry Gershon, the Democratic contender in 2018, also fought the outsider image given that he split time between NYC and East Hampton and registered to vote in the latter in 2017. But he had at least been tied to the district by the weekend/summer residence which he notes that he built and moved into in 2000. He’s currently a member of the East Hampton Democratic Committee.
The GOP winner on Tuesday was Nick LaLota, who has served in various roles in Suffolk government for years and went to high school in the district. He lives in Amityville, outside CD1, which was morphed due to the decennial Census and various lawsuits. LaLota has said he’s looking at houses within the district.
— Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano
Talking Point
Stone by stone across the map morass
The still-early redistricting process for the Nassau County Legislature, for new lines to take effect in 2023, appeared to advance a bit this week. But even that increment might not prove as simple as it looks at a moment of heightened tensions over partisan gerrymandering everywhere.
Next Wednesday, at the Theodore Roosevelt government building in Mineola, the charter-mandated Temporary District Advisory Commission — with five voting members from each major party — is due to convene.
Chairperson Frank Moroney announced that to be the first of six scheduled public hearings, with others to follow Sept. 8 in Manhasset; Sept. 14 in Glen Cove; Sept. 21 in Hempstead; Sept. 28 in Long Beach; and Oct. 3 in North Massapequa.
The lead Democrat on the commission, attorney David Mejias, has been publicly agitating for the panel to get going, while Kevan Abrahams, the Democratic minority leader, backs legislation to move up the redistricting deadlines to make them timely for next year’s primaries. .
But with Moroney’s schedule announced, Mejias says his side wasn’t consulted — and that a commission majority is supposed to vote before the public-hearing plans can take effect. Mejias is expected to raise unilateral action as a point of contention at Wednesday’s meeting.
Setting the tone is this: Republicans successfully reversed the actions of a Democrat-dominated State Legislature in Albany this year based on new procedures and standards. So Democrats in the Republican-controlled county are in turn trying to hold the GOP’s feet to the fire the same way.
Controversy also surrounds the bipartisan redistricting commission in the GOP-run Town of Brookhaven — where a map for its six council districts is due to be submitted by Sept. 15.
At least two hearings have attracted numerous residents who took issue with different aspects of a draft map submitted by a special counsel. There are eight commissioners on that panel and it takes six votes to send a plan for approval — which suggests the district-drawing drama has a ways to go.
While local ferment builds, the state redistricting morass of the decade remains incomplete.This week in Manhattan, state Supreme Court Justice Laurence Love heard opposing sides argue whether the pending rewrite of the state’s 150 Assembly districts should start with the bipartisan Independent Redistricting Commission.
In Albany this year, a deadlock on the IRC eventually led to a map of congressional and State Senate seats to be drawn by a court-appointed special master.
As for the Assembly, Love was quoted as saying, "I think there would be a preference to have the maps drawn by a full commission that goes through mandated hearings. Rather than have myself, through the benefit of a special master that I may appoint, just arbitrarily on their own create a map."
If Love taps the IRC for the task, the question would remain who gets final say over the lines — the court or the state lawmakers who under a 2014 constitutional amendment would ordinarily get to approve or reject IRC maps. While this year’s Assembly races proceed under the rejected lines, the road to future clarity remains clogged.
— Dan Janison @Danjanison
Pencil Point
Unforgiven

Credit: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Mike Luckovich
For more cartoons, visit www.newsday.com/nationalcartoons
Puzzle Point
Who said it?
This week, we’ll give you a different spin on our Friday quiz. Can you match the name in the news from the quote said this week? A link to the answers appears below.
1. Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio
2. Former Met and Baldwin resident Steve Dillon
3. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul
4. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer
5. Dr. Anthony Fauci
6. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson
7. MTA Chairman Janno Lieber
8. GOP Congressional candidate Nick LaLota
9. Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez
10. Tennis star Novak Djokovic
A “Let’s not forget that accountability also starts at the political level. We have a governor who has done nothing after five mass shootings but expand access to militarized weaponry.”
B. “Gridlock is bad for New York and New Yorkers.”
C. “Less taxes, not more, is the right way to fight inflation.”
D. “I’ll keep in good shape and positive spirit and wait for an opportunity to compete again.”
E. “Just so if I get a chance, an opportunity to get on the mound, I at least will present myself, that I was a pitcher for real.”
F. “We know there’s no replacement for in-classroom learning, and we’re going to make sure this year is a very different year.”
G. “We just can’t have so many people with bleak outlooks on their future because this debt is hanging on their heads.”
H. “I hope I can inspire them, but also give them some real life understanding of what’s ahead and how to be effective.”
I. “You can’t negotiate with a bear when it’s eating your leg or with a street robber when he has you pinned to the floor.”
J. “The idea of walking away from it obviously is bittersweet.”
For a key to the answers, click here.
— Randi F. Marshall @RandiMarshall