Instant fireworks in GOP gov showdown

Daily Point

Stefanik stings Blakeman early over past Hempstead intrigue

Political shots come at lightning speed these days. Rep. Elise Stefanik, now competing with Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman for the Republican nomination for governor, is showing that even before Blakeman’s announcement Tuesday she was prepared to start hurling shade.

In this arena, her congressional seasoning already comes into play. Her campaign team clearly knows how to conduct intrapartisan brawling.

There is also a potential generation gap between the contenders. Blakeman came from a local political world where bipartisan compromises were once recognized as necessary, and Stefanik rose amid partisan polarization. The contrast in styles became clear just hours after their new collision course was set.

The Washington Reporter website is already of use to her. Its website says it “was founded to provide right-of-center news and commentary to a D.C. audience,” and invites input from conservative political operatives.

On Tuesday, the same day Blakeman announced, the site touted an "exclusive" with the headline, "Elise Stefanik's primary opponent's lengthy history of endorsing and working for Democrats complicates his new 'vanity run.'"

On Long Island, the substance of the scoop has long been known. In October 2017, as a Hempstead Town councilman, Blakeman crossed party lines and endorsed Democrat Laura Gillen for town supervisor against the Republican incumbent, Anthony Santino (who passed away last month at 64). Gillen, who’s seeking reelection to Congress this year, went on to win one term and made Blakeman deputy supervisor.

The piece digs up and links to a letter addressed to Blakeman from the late Nassau chairman Joe Mondello. It says in part: “I am disappointed in any elected official from our party who would let personal feelings take priority over Republican principles, especially someone who has been given so much support by the party ...”

Mondello said that Blakeman’s believing himself to be above the organization was an “affront” and a “betrayal.” Since the piece is a well-aimed shot for a limited purpose, it omits the fact that other Hempstead Republicans had turned against Santino and that Blakeman two years later got behind Republican Donald X. Clavin Jr. who beat incumbent Gillen.

A “senior operative” unaffiliated with either campaign is quoted as saying: “Elise will win the primary handily because she has a strong record of being tough-on-crime and lowering the outrageously high costs in New York. But a vanity run from this Blakeman guy is still annoying and takes away focus that should be aimed at (Gov. Kathy) Hochul’s litany of failures.”

A longtime Republican activist who asked not to be quoted told The Point that Stefanik’s top political aide, upstater Alex DeGrasse, has proven himself especially alert and aggressive against her potential rivals, including the handling of opposition research. It is unclear who Blakeman’s campaign strategists may be. The Point texted Chris Boyle, his $147,393-per-year county spokesman, on Thursday asking who is running the state campaign, but he did not immediately reply.

Getting negative word around regarding Blakeman outside New York might not change votes in a coming primary. But this early, it seems intended to discourage those in the GOP donor class from helping Blakeman close the funding gap between himself and Stefanik — or for county GOP chairs to renege on their pledges of support for her.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

Pencil Point

North of the Pole

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

Data Point

Long Island nursing employment drops amid shortages

The Trump administration is pulling back minimum staffing requirements at nursing homes across the country, a move that has worried those who need such care and their families. New York already has such staffing standards. Long Island, however, struggles to maintain that required level of care amid a shortage of skilled staff for its growing aging population.

The staffing challenge is likely to get even more difficult. The Point’s analysis of workforce data shows that over the last five years, Long Island has employed fewer nurses in privately owned nursing homes. Assisted living facilities are not immune from the workforce woes. In the same period, the increase in hiring of skilled nurses in privately owned assisted living facilities was insufficient to meet the state’s staffing requirements.

Skilled nursing facilities include nursing homes, short-term inpatient rehab centers, and hospice care, where patients likely require 24/7 nursing assistance. Around 18,300 nurses were employed across Long Island in such facilities in the first quarter of 2020, the earliest available data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics before the full onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic. 7,954 of them were employed in Nassau County at 53 established facilities, and 10,340 worked in 42 similar facilities in Suffolk. By 2025, only around 16,303 skilled nurses were employed on Long Island, with a 14.6% drop in Suffolk alone.

Assisted living facilities on Long Island, which don’t necessarily provide 24/7 nursing assistance but are increasingly in demand by Long Islanders, employed 4,714 nurses in the first quarter of 2025. This was only slightly higher than the 4,480 nurses who held positions in the region in 2020. The average employed nurses in the first three months of the year was 2,390 nurses working at Nassau’s 38 assisted living facilities, while an average of 2,320 were employed by the 45 facilities in Suffolk in 2025.

Given that the largest growth in any population age group on Long Island has been that of seniors 65 or older, the paltry 4.9% increase in hiring is indicative of a snowballing labor crisis. And the data is indicative of just how difficult it is for the region to meet state requirements. State legislation passed in 2021 mandates that every nursing home provides 3.5 hours of care per resident per day, including 2.2 hours of care by a certified nurse aide, or CNA, and 1.1 hours by a licensed nurse. It’s unclear how many Long Island nursing homes are failing to meet that mandate.

Long Island’s high cost of living makes it harder to attract people for a job that is both difficult to do and requires expertise, with data indicating that establishments in the region pay higher than the state average to retain staff. The average weekly wage in the first quarter of 2025 for skilled nurses on Long Island was $1,250, while that of the entire state was $1,134.

Experts say the United States' nursing shortage will likely be exacerbated by some of the Trump administration’s policies, namely limiting access to federally supported student loans for nursing and other health care-related programs, and its campaign to reduce immigration.

An estimated 12.8% of health care workers in New York State are noncitizens, many without legal status, according to a report published in JAMA. While those individuals are mostly off the books, or working in private settings, deportations and the fear that comes with them exacerbate the staffing crisis Long Island likely will continue to experience.

— Karthika Namboothiri karthika.namboothiri@newsday.com

Subscribe to The Point here and browse past editions of The Point here.