By Larry Gordon
What a difference a year makes. This year’s elections around Nassau County and the New York area in general make you kind of long for last year’s momentous and historic face-off between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. In a way, even though that election is now a year behind us, there seems to be a sense out there that the battle is still ongoing. In that context, the bottom line is that though there are important political contests next week, it is nothing like what we experienced last year at this time.
In case you are wondering where the Five Towns Jewish Times stands on some of these races, let it be clear that we are a publication that, while pragmatic, is also mostly conservative, leans right, is pro-Trump, detests what too many Democrats are trying to pull, and advocates for lower taxes, growing the economy, fiscal responsibility, and so on down the line.
That is why it is important that Nassau County residents, when voting next week, cast their ballots for Republican candidate Jack Martins for Nassau County executive. There are myriad philosophical differences between Mr. Martins and his Democratic opponent, Laura Curran, a member of the Nassau County Legislature since 2014.
I met with both candidates over the last few weeks and while both made a positive impression, after careful consideration, we are backing Mr. Martins, and it is vitally important that he emerge victorious on Election Day next week.
The Democrats will tell you that Nassau County features a broken system and that severe change is imperative. But their changes revolve mostly around increasing our tax liability in an era when the national movement calls for lower taxes, more jobs, and a stronger economy. The era of government dependence at all levels has hopefully ended with the conclusion of the Obama years.
Mr. Martins will readily admit that changes need to be made in the way that Nassau County is governed and that tax reform is necessary. As a state senator, Martins worked closely with Senator Simcha Felder, ensuring that companies that do business with New York State are not complicit in the economic boycott of Israel. It was Martins’s anti-BDS bill that was passed in the Senate but failed to be passed in the Democratic-dominated Assembly. Fortunately, Governor Cuomo took the elements of the Martins bill and turned them into an executive order.
Martins singlehandedly led the fight in Albany to stop taxpayer dollars from going to anti-Israel organizations—like Students For Justice in Palestine—that are nothing more than hate groups on many of our college campuses.
At a time when some communities in the New York metropolitan area have resisted efforts by the Jewish community to erect eiruvs to accommodate religious observance, Jack Martins, then the mayor of Mineola, assisted in putting up an eiruv for the Jewish community in that village. He did not do it because of any pressure. He did it because it was the right thing to do. Government should accommodate religious observance, not hinder it.
Ms. Curran is a former journalist who at different times in her career worked for the New York Post and the Daily News. Pollsters are saying up to this point that this race can go either way by 1 or 2 percentage points. It appears that Curran is not depending on Five Towns votes to push her into office but is rather intensely focused on communities like Hempstead and Elmont, where there are large blocks of African-American—usually liberal-leaning—voters.
On the other hand, for Jack Martins, the number of votes he gets here in the Five Towns and surrounding communities will most likely be the factor that determines whether he will be victorious or go down in defeat.
As it turns out, there has never been a greater dichotomy between Republican and Democratic visions and philosophies than there is today. Jack Martins supports President Trump on DACA and immigration issues and does not want to see Nassau County turned into a “sanctuary” with all the ramifications and consequences of that.
All this and more add up to our need for Jack Martins as county executive to ensure the continued growth and development of Nassau County and tax reform that makes sense and leads to a booming economy.
Santino vs. Gillen
Jay Jacobs, the head of the Nassau County Democratic Party, told the 5TJT last week that the party believes in Laura Gillen’s candidacy and is convinced that despite the odds against her, she can mount a come-from-behind-victory and upset the favorite, the popular incumbent Town of Hempstead Supervisor Anthony Santino.
Santino has deep roots in Nassau County politics and has the support of the overwhelming majority of Five Towns Jewish community leaders. Unfortunately, a schism has developed on the Republican-dominated Town of Hempstead board after Councilwoman Erin King Sweeney called for the appointment of an inspector general to root out corruption that may exist. Ms. King Sweeney believes—and she has been backed up by our good friend Councilman Bruce Blakeman and Sweeney’s father, Congressman Peter King—that the passage of a new code of ethics, by a 5–2 vote, was aimed at her and Mr. Blakeman to eventually prevent them from holding councilmember positions. The new code places a cap on outside income, which would disqualify King Sweeney and Blakeman from running for reelection because their incomes outside government exceed that of the new cap.
It is unfortunate that voters who need services from the town board have to be pulled into an internal political dispute like this one. Tony Santino has served Hempstead honorably for decades and is the consummate dedicated public servant. It would be best if all involved would resolve these differences and devote their energy, attention, and resources to continuing to serve the people who elected them.
As an outgrowth of these internecine battles, I had the opportunity to meet several times with Laura Gillen, an attorney who resides in Rockville Centre here on Long Island. Like Mr. Jacobs and others who support her, Ms. Gillen believes that it is possible to defeat Mr. Santino because of the support of Republicans like Blakeman and King Sweeney, who are popular in their respective districts and have the ability to motivate significant numbers of Republicans to cross party lines and vote for the Democrat, Ms. Gillen, who is well-spoken and talented but remains largely unknown. Pollsters say that the race is tighter than anticipated and if there is an upset in Nassau County on election night, this might be it.
In New York City
After 12 years of Mike Bloomberg as mayor of New York, who would have thought that city residents would turn to an extreme liberal—practically a socialist—Bill de Blasio? And who would have thought that after so much bungling and corruption that is currently in the process of being blown open, New Yorkers are getting ready to reelect him to another four-year term? We either live in crazier times than we thought or we really do not understand what is at stake and what we are doing.
The idea that it will be de Blasio once again because no one is running against him is patently absurd. There is a viable Republican candidate who is running hard, and that is Staten Island Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, who could put matters facing the city in order if only voters would make it their business to get out there next Tuesday and vote for prudent judgment and sane policies. Sadly, though, that is unlikely to happen.
There is, however, a possibility that the combination of low voter turnout on a day that is at present forecast to feature mostly rain and the Jewish community shunning our general apathy could pull Ms. Malliotakis over the finish line—an outcome that would be truly miraculous.
Events leading up to elections have a way of turning the tide and determining unforeseen outcomes. The local New York newspapers, radio, and TV stations are at present filled with detailed descriptions of a corruption trial that is of extra-special interest to the Jewish community. Coverage describes to us daily the fashion in which the mayor was bought off by a few wealthy young men glad to spread money around in return for political favors.
Liberal New Yorkers might not care about that so much—as wild as that sounds—especially when you consider the extent of continued support for the Clintons despite their involvement in corrupt activities that involved hundreds of millions of dollars.
Our friends at the Jewish Press endorsed Ms. Malliotakis last week by declaring:
“New York City faces major issues, including mushrooming public spending and taxation; meager job growth; declining economic infrastructure; failing educational and transit systems; wholly inadequate housing stock; increasing numbers of homeless people sleeping in the streets and the subways; and extraordinary public negativity toward the critical work of the NYPD, fueled in good measure by Mr. de Blasio.
“Indeed, these are the very themes Ms. Malliotakis continues to sound in her campaign. But rather than focusing on the real issues facing our city, the mayor seems more interested in burnishing his credentials as a card-carrying member of the political hard left, with its incessant and indiscriminate challenges to anything and everything emanating from the Trump White House.
“A vote for Nicole Malliotakis should be an easy decision for New Yorkers worried about the direction of the city and Mr. de Blasio’s hard-left inclinations and policy preferences.”
We agree, and we urge city residents to go out and vote for Nicole Malliotakis on Election Day.
Comments for Larry Gordon are welcome at editor@5tjt.com.
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