Thousands packed Cedar Beach in Mount Sinai for the Town of Brookhaven’s ninth Polar Plunge, an annual event in which brave souls dive into icy waters to raise money for the Special Olympics. All funds raised by the event go toward sports training and competition, health and inclusion programs for individuals with intellectual disabilities looking to compete.
With the 2018 midterm elections over, both New York State and the U.S. as a whole saw a major upset. Despite local leaders like U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) and state Sen. John Flanagan (R-East Northport) keeping their seats, both the state Senate and U.S. House of Representatives flipped over to the Democratic Party after years of Republican majority control.
They have forgotten about ‘We the People,’ and now it’s all about themselves.”
— Rich Jiranek
Despite these changes, many local residents said they expect to see more gridlock and political divisiveness for the next two years.
“I thought that it was the point of politicians to care about the people, but it’s not,” said Miller Place resident Rich Jiranek. “They have forgotten about ‘We the People,’ and now it’s all about themselves.”
Jiranek, a Republican, said he didn’t see his party accomplish much of anything in the 18 months they controlled both the U.S. Congress and the presidency. Now he said he sees the ongoing push for recounts in the Florida governor’s and senator’s races and Georgia governor’s race as just a prelude to more political bickering.
“It’s just not right,” he said. “There’s nothing fair about it anymore.”
The sense of foreboding over potential partisanship was shared by people of all different political ideologies. Steve and Christina Dierlam, both Lindenhurst residents, sat at one of the outside tables at the Port Jeff Brewing Company on a cool fall afternoon, thankful for the day off with their young child because of paid family leave, a law signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) in 2016 and enacted at the beginning of 2018.
“Everything is just going to grind to a halt at this point,” Steve Dierlam said “I think that is what we’re dealing with. It’s pretty terrible that we’re the only two districts that went Republican when the rest of the districts in New York went Democrat.”
Christina Dierlam agreed and said that while she and her husband have voted for Democrats and agree with a lot of Democratic legislation, she believes government will come to a major impasse.
“Whoever is the speaker, the Democrats are going to shoot down any legislation the Trump administration or the Republicans try to implement, which I’m happy about, but it will just present more gridlock,” she said.
“This party wants to do that; the other party wants to do this. As bad as that sounds, that has been happening for a long time before this election.”
— Patrick Leahy
Mount Sinai resident Anna Hill said she expects to see even more conflict, especially with recent comments by the now expected majority leader in the House Nancy Pelosi (D) about re-opening the investigation into Russian involvement during the 2016 presidential election and ties to the Trump campaign. Trump has tweeted that if his campaign is investigated, he will challenge the Democrats in the House.
“I think what’s going to happen is there’s going to be more conflict, and Trump is going to be bullying people in the House of Representatives, and that’s going to make it harder to get things done,” Hill said. “I see more chaos, unfortunately.”
All those interviewed said that they disagreed with the political discord and partisan squabbling, but it was hard to say how or when it could ever stop. Stony Brook resident Patrick Leahy said that not enough attention gets paid to local laws that impact people on a day-to-day basis, and the political divisiveness has gotten to the point where people will move from their homes just to live in areas that agree with them politically.
“A person’s actions define their character, not what they say,” Leahy said. “This party wants to do that; the other party wants to do this. As bad as that sounds, that has been happening for a long time before this election.”
Though not all is doom and gloom, according to Port Jefferson Station resident Tara Braaten. This midterm election saw some high turnout all across the country. The New York Times reported that, by current estimates, 113 million people came out to vote in these midterms, encompassing 48 percent of the eligible voter population. This is up from the 2014 midterm elections, which saw only 83 million votes cast.
“I just feel that raising awareness and people being more active and proactive participating is going to have more of a difference to whatever decision being made or outcome,” she said. “We have to have constant vigilance, and it’s still up to us, despite who’s sitting in the chair.”
By Daniel Dunaief
Sam Aronson, the retired head of Brookhaven National Laboratory, has set his sights on a new project far from Long Island.
Teaming up with Acacia Leakey, the project management and engineering consultant of a company called SOSAED and a member of the famed family that has made seminal discoveries about human evolution in Kenya, Aronson would like to stimulate the growth of businesses through the use of solar power that provides products and services.
“This [part of Africa] is an area where there’s really little infrastructure,” Aronson said. “We’re looking to help people get up on the economic pyramid.”
The people Aronson and Leakey would like to help are representative of the one billion people without access to electric power. Two-thirds of them live in sub-Saharan Africa.
Through SOSAED — which stands for Sustainable Off-grid Solutions for African Economic Development — Aronson and Leakey are working with the Turkana Basin Institute of northern Kenya, Stony Brook University, Strathmore University in Nairobi and other Kenyan educational institutions and businesses to integrate business creation in off-grid areas into the larger Kenyan economic ecosystem.
The group would like to create a business model, using local workers and managers, for a range of companies, Leakey explained.
SOSAED plans to start with a small-scale solar-powered clothing production business, which would create affordable clothing for the heat, including skirts, shirts and shorts. SOSAED expects to build this plant adjacent to the TBI research facility.
Ideally, the manufacturer will make the clothing from local material. The clothing business is a pilot project to see whether the model can work for other types of projects in other areas. The Turkana Basin Institute will provide some of the infrastructure, while SOSAED will acquire the equipment and the raw materials and training to do the work.
SOSAED hopes the project will become “self-sustaining when it’s up and running,” Aronson said. “To be sustainable, it has to be the work of local people.” He hopes what will differentiate this effort from other groups’ attempts to build economic development is the commitment to maintenance by people living and working in the area.
“To an extent, the suitability of technology is rarely rigorously considered when humanitarian or generic development projects are implemented,” Leakey explained in an email. “Not only are the skills required for maintenance an important consideration, the availability of spare parts and the motivation and ability to pay for these are also important.”
Developing a system that includes upkeep by people living and working in the area could “make a project move ahead on its own steam,” Aronson said. The area has limited infrastructure, although some of that is changing as new roads and government-funded water projects begin.
Leakey suggested that a long-term project would need extensive participation of the users in every step of the development and implementation. “The project will likely look very different once complete to how we envisage it now, and part of our success (if it comes) will lie in working in a way which allows a great degree of flexibility as it is unlikely we’ll design the ‘right’ system the first time around,” she explained in an email.
In areas with mature systems, Leakey suggested that some organizations had difficulty changing direction, retrofitting existing systems or adapting new technology. New York, she explained, is struggling to adopt sustainable technologies to the extent that it could. “Legislative and physical infrastructure imposes unfortunate roadblocks in the way of clean technologies,” she wrote in an email. “We’re fortunate that with electricity provision we have a fairly blank slate” in Kenya and that the “Kenya government also recognizes the value of off-grid initiatives.”
Leakey appreciates the support TBI played in helping to create SOSAED and is grateful for the ongoing assistance. Through Stony Brook University, SOSAED is beginning to engage business students on economic questions. In the future, the group may also work with engineering students on technological challenges.
“Research may include developing new productive uses of solar power, optimizing the existing system and using the site to rigorously test technologies developed at Stony Brook,” she explained.
Aronson’s initial interest in this project came from his technological connection to Brookhaven National Laboratory, where he retired as the director in 2015. He has been eager to bring new technology to a population he is confident they can help in a “way that makes sense to them and addresses their needs.”
With the support of the Turkana Basin Institute and Stony Brook, Aronson hopes to have a functioning solar hub and factory near TBI that serves a few surrounding villages within the next 18 months. “That’s a very ambitious goal,” he acknowledged. “We’re working in an environment that, because of the history and development, people you’re trying to serve are somewhat skeptical that you’re serious and that you have the staying power to make something that looks like what you’re talking about work.”
While Aronson and Leakey are continuing to make connections in Kenya with government officials and residents interested in starting businesses, they are searching for ways to make this effort financially viable.
SOSAED is raising money through philanthropic grants and foundations to get the project going. Eventually, they hope to approach venture capital firms who are patient and prepared to invest for the longer term in a number of projects.
After they have an initial example, they will approach other financial backers with more than just a good idea, but with a model they hope will work in other locations.
Aronson lauded the effort and knowledge of Leakey. “We wouldn’t be making much progress right now for a variety of reasons in Kenya if [Leakey] hadn’t come on board,” Aronson said. “I value in the extreme her ability to get the work done.”
SOSAID would like to submit proposals to funding sources that can drive this concept forward.
If this effort takes root, Aronson believes there is a “tremendous market out there.” That would mean this would “become a much bigger organization.”
Since Rocky Point High School was built in 1971, its graduates have gone on to become musicians, scientists, college athletes and more; but many also have gone into the armed services.
Now, the Rocky Point school district is looking to show its appreciation for those graduates turned veterans by creating a new Wall of Honor featuring the faces of close to 60 men and women who made the choice to serve after high school.
“We recognize the students for so many different things throughout the school year, whether it be academics, sports-related accomplishments, clubs — and this is just one thing that it’s nice to recognize these students for all they’ve done for our country,” Rocky Point High School Principal Susan Crossan said.
Crossan had seen similar walls in other school districts such as Longwood and Comsewogue and said she figured it was time her school also honored its homegrown veterans. She originally pitched the idea to a number of history teachers at the high school, including Jamie Mancini and Heather Laughlin-Cotter, who came to appreciate the idea very quickly she said, though it was high school social studies teacher Richard Acritelli, himself a nine-year army reservist veteran, who truly picked up the idea and ran with it.
“Rocky Point is a blue-collar area with a lot of men and women in the service community, a lot of policemen, firemen and many who served in the armed services,” Acritelli said. “We have strong ties to the defense of this country.”
Since spring, many Rocky Point teachers and students worked together in an effort to find and contact the district’s veterans. Acritelli said it was a balancing act, doing their best to get students who attended Rocky Point High School many years ago in addition to ones who only graduated recently.
“We have a variety of veterans up on the wall, such as those in military academies, those who served in the Cold War, those in the War on Terror, young people in ROTC programs, and those who literally just left the school,” Acritelli said. “In a short period of time — with the number of names we were able to get compiled — it’s going to be really tastefully done.”
Acritelli said almost all funding was provided by local sponsors, including the Rocky Point Teachers Association, the Rocky Point Athletic Booster Club, the Rocky Point VFW Post 6249 and the nonprofit Feal Good Foundation.
The wall is being constructed by Ronkonkoma-based Fricke Memorials, and each plaque will include a picture of the veteran, their name, rank and branch of armed service. Along with the plaques the wall will include black granite etchings and bronze emblems representing each military branch.
Some of the Rocky Point graduates named on the upcoming wall go back more than 50 years, before Rocky Point High School even existed, when students who graduated from the middle school instead traveled all the way to Port Jefferson to finish their education. Crossan said she expects more names to be added to the wall as the news of it in the community spreads.
“It’s very important that we show loyalty to the students who have served, that they know that their school has recognized their services at home and abroad,” Acritelli said.
The Wall of Honor will be located just to the right of the main entrance to the high school past the main auditorium entrance.
Crossan said the wall will be installed this coming weekend, and all plaques will be put up on the wall Nov. 12. The school will be hosting a school assembly celebrating Veterans Day Nov. 16, which will be followed by an unveiling of the wall.
The Shoreham-Wading River school district is looking to get smart, with the help of New York State funds.
The district is finalizing plans to use the state’s Smart School Bond Act, which makes up to $2 million available for every school district in the state to improve its technology and security infrastructure. The district has been allocated $1,003,429 to make improvements to district computer server infrastructure; purchase new computers, projectors, security cameras; and to install a new security booth at the entrance of the high school parking lot.
The district laid out its plans at an Oct. 23 board meeting, where Peter Esposito, the director of technical services, said the district plans to replace several pieces of data storage equipment to maximize storage capability in switch closets for $430,000. The district also plans to replace all district computers, 450 in all, last upgraded in 2013, with more modern machines for $425,000. The district will replace its 120, 10-year-old classroom projectors with new LCD projectors for $65,000 and add additional security cameras for $18,000.
“It’s been on my desk for the last three years, so it would be good to move forward with this,” Esposito said.
A prefabricated visitors booth for the high school parking lot will be installed for $65,000. While Superintendent Gerard Poole said the district is still working out the final plans for the booth, it could possibly be located along the high school driveway where the road forks to the administration entrance and to the main parking lot. The booth could include a guard-operated gate so school officials can monitor who is entering the high school grounds, even if they are going to use the trails to the south of the school or the North Shore Public Library.
“The way we envision it is it will help somebody get to the high school, get to the library or make the left to come up to administrative offices,” Poole said.
The final version of the plan will be submitted to New York State by the end of November, but Poole said the committee that reviews the plan has been taking about one year on average to approve those documents. He said he expects the visitors booth to be installed sometime after the district revitalizes the high school parking lot over the summer as part of a 2015 capital bond referendum, but that those plans will be changed to allow for the new booth.
At prior board meetings residents have expressed frustration about new speed bumps installed on the driveway to the high school, saying they’re so hard and short that it forces most cars to slowly roll over them. Residents have said the slowdown has increased traffic going into the school, especially in early mornings, but the superintendent said the speed bumps are working as intended to slow down traffic to 15 mph or less. He added the school has had no problem getting all students in class by first period, though officials will be reviewing the safety protocols for the guard booth as the district develops plans for the new parking lot, with that stage of the bond project going out to bid in January.
At the October meeting, board President Michael Lewis asked if the computers the school would be buying would have to be replaced in another eight years. Alan Meinster, the assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction and assessment, said there was no way to tell where technology would go in that amount of time.
“I can promise you if you do this in another eight years you will have the same budget,” Meinster said. “I don’t know where we’re going to be in the next eight years technology wise — what we’re going to be using later on.”
Glen Arcuri, the assistant superintendent for finance and operations, said the school could pay for future technology through capital reserve funds.
The investment plan is available to view on the district’s website, and district officials are currently asking for feedback on the proposal. The board will vote on the finalized version of the plan at its Nov. 27 board meeting.
Nationally the Democratic Party experienced a successful night, winning enough Congressional races to flip the House of Representatives from Republican control.
The long-billed blue wave petered out on the North Shore of Long Island however, as two-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) fended off a challenge from first-time candidate Democrat Perry Gershon, an East Hampton resident and commercial real estate lender, winning re-election by securing more than 52 percent of the vote.
“This was the clear contrast of results versus resistance, and results won today,” Zeldin said from the podium at Stereo Garden in Patchogue after results were in Nov. 6. “It’s important we get to people’s business and deliver results.”
As many — if not all — House races did across the country, Zeldin and Gershon’s battle took on a nasty tone, largely focused on their opinions of President Donald Trump (R) and his job performance thus far.
“Our country needs to do much better uniting,” Zeldin said. “We also need to make sure our scores are settled at the ballot box, and that next day we wake up to govern.”
He thanked his opponent for running a tough race.
“It’s not the outcome we wanted but life goes on,” Gershon said when his fate appeared sealed from IBEW Local 25 Long Island Electricians union headquarters in Hauppauge. “We’re so much better off than we were two years ago. We showed the Democratic Party has a heart here in eastern Suffolk County.”
Both candidates’ respective Suffolk County party chairmen applauded their efforts.
“He worked very hard and developed a grassroots campaign,” Democratic Party Chairman Rich Schaffer said. “We have not heard the last of Perry Gershon.”
John Jay LaValle, Republican Party chairman for the county, dismissed the idea Election Day 2018 was something to be celebrated by Democrats locally.
“There was no blue wave in Suffolk County tonight, in fact the only thing blue tonight was my tie,” he said.
Incumbent 3rd District U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) secured 58 percent of the vote against Republican challenger Dan DeBono to secure another term as well.
“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!” Suozzi posted on his campaign Facebook page. “It is an honor to serve.”
Despite LaValle’s assertion, the blue party scored major victories in several statewide battles, enough to flip the New York State Senate to Democratic control, meaning all three houses of the state government are controlled by the same party. Nearly all incumbent state legislators from both parties held serve on the North Shore though.
The 2nd District state Sen. John Flanagan (R-East Northport) won re-election to continue his more than 30 years in the Senate, defeating challenger Kathleen Cleary by about 11 percentage points. Flanagan will relinquish his spot as Senate Majority Leader with the Democrats seizing control. He could not be reached for comment by press time Nov. 7.
“I did not win but we made sure that the issues important to us: women’s reproductive health, the Child Victims Act, ERPO, [the New York Health Act] were discussed and now that the [state] Senate has flipped to blue these bills will be passed,” Cleary said in a post on her campaign Facebook page.
State Sen. Ken LaValle (R-Port Jefferson), who has represented the 1st District since the 1970s, easily won another term, besting Democrat Greg Fischer for a second consecutive cycle, this time by 17 percentage points. LaValle could not be reached for comment Nov. 7 either.
“It’s very difficult to unseat a long-term incumbent,” Fischer said. “Like it or not, the system is filled with or based on lots of favors, so there’s always that tendency to reward people for their past performance.”
Democrats Jim Gaughran and Monica Martinez won surprise upsets in nearby Long Island state Senate districts, defeating incumbent Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset) and Assemblyman Dean Murray (R-East Patchogue) in their respective races, which were major contributors to the shift of power in New York’s legislative branch.
In the state Assembly, Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) was easily returned to his longtime post representing the 4th District, earning 60 percent of the vote to his challenger Christian Kalinowski’s 40 percent.
“I’m looking forward to getting back to the task at hand, protecting the environment, the quality of life of our community and enhancing it, making sure we have adequate funding for our schools and for the next generation,” Englebright said. “We have a lot to do.”
Englebright’s Assembly colleagues from across the aisle on the North Shore will all be returning to Albany as well.
The 2nd District Assemblyman Anthony Palumbo (R-New Suffolk) blew out first-time candidate Democrat Rona Smith to earn a third term, winning about 60 percent of the vote.
“It’s great to see we won by a nice margin — it validates we’re going on the right direction,” Palumbo said. “I will try to discuss some issues raised by my opponent, including the issue of health care with the 5 percent uninsured rate.”
Assemblyman Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Smithtown) will head to Albany for another term after beating Democrat and first-time candidate David Morrissey handily, 61 percent to 39 percent.
“I’m going to continue to pursue my objective of being a strong voice for mandate relief and strengthening the private sector to make people aware of the need to slow down the growth of taxes,” Fitzpatrick said. “We are losing too many people — too many retirees, too many young people. Too many people in the middle class are looking elsewhere as the cost of living is getting too high.”
Republican for the 12th Assembly District Andrew Raia (R-East Northport) will continue his tenure, as will Democrat Steve Stern (D-Dix Hills), who captured the 10th Assembly District seat in a special election in April.
Though members of Brookhaven Town’s board were not on the ballot this year, voters overwhelmingly passed a back-of-the-ballot proposition that extended officials terms in office from two years to four, and limited officeholders to three terms. A total of 58 percent voted in favor of that measure with 42 percent opposing.
“We felt that this was the right time to put out this proposition, especially with all the talk about the president stimulating turnout,” said Councilwoman Jane Bonner (C-Rocky Point).
Reporting contributed by Sara-Megan Walsh, Rita J. Egan and Kyle Barr.
Polls closed in New York at 9 p.m.
Check back for updated results as they come in.
Check out results from the state, federal and local North Shore races as they come in on election night. Follow @TBRnewsmedia on Facebook and Twitter for the latest and search the hashtag #TBRVoters. All results are courtesy of the Suffolk County Board of Elections and the New York State Board of Elections.
1st Congressional District
Lee Zeldin (R): 52.47%; 130,919
Perry Gershon (D): 46.41%; 115,795
“This was the clear contrast of results versus resistance, and results won today,” Zeldin said. “It’s important we get to people’s business and deliver results.”
3rd Congressional District
Tom Suozzi (D): 54.33%; 49,448
Dan DeBono (R): 45.64%, 41,571
New York State Assembly 2nd District
Anthony Palumbo (R): 60.20%; 29.340
Rona Smith (D): 39.78%; 19.386
“It’s great to see we won by a nice margin,” Palumbo said. “It validates we’re going in the right direction. I will try to discuss some issues raised by my opponent”
New York State Assembly 4th District
Steve Englebright (D): 60.15%; 25,742
Christian Kalinowski (R): 39.84%; 17,050
New York State Assembly 8th District
Mike Fitzpatrick (R): 61.42%; 30,383
Dave Morrissey (D): 38.58%; 19,086
“I’m going to continue to pursue my objective of being a strong voice for mandate relief and strengthening the private sector to make people aware the need to slow down the growth of taxes,” Fitzpatrick said. “We are losing too many people — too many retirees, too many young people, too many people in the middle class are looking elsewhere as the cost of living is getting too high.”
Steve Stern (D): 59.48%; 26,687
Jeremy Williams (R): 40.51%; 18,176
New York State Assembly 12th District
Andrew Raia (R): 55.88%; 26,705
Avrum Rosen (D): 44.11%; 21,080
New York State Senate 1st District
Ken LaValle (R): 58.32%; 65,933
Greg Fischer (D): 41.64%; 47,084
New York State Senate 2nd District
John Flanagan (R): 55.36%; 62,748
Kathleen Cleary (D): 44.63%; 50,581
New York State Senate 5th District
Jim Gaughran (D): 53.23%; 62,933
Carl Marcellino (R): 44.73%; 52,883
Smithtown Town Board
Tom Lohmann (R): 57.95%; 26,428
Amy Fortunato (D): 42.03%; 19,170
Huntington Town Board
Joan Cergol (D): 53.16%; 40,741
Jim Leonick (R): 46.83%; 35,884
Brookhaven Town Proposal 1
Yes: 58.15%; 80,250
No: 41.85%; 57,747
***Totals are not final.
Updated Nov. 7 at 12:10 a.m.
Updated Nov. 7 at 3:30 p.m.
People across the United States have been motivated to enter into politics and pursue government office for the first time in their lives during the current election cycle and the prior one in 2017. When asked, many of those candidates tend to cite the current state of things in national politics.
In the race to represent New York State’s 2nd Assembly District, candidate Rona Smith, a 73-year-old first-time candidate who serves as the Housing Advisory Commission chairwoman for the Town of Southold, is making her first run for office. We admire that someone would be inspired to make an effort at fostering greater good despite having carved out a nice living for herself and having nothing personally to gain from pursuing the seat.
This is not to say incumbent Anthony Palumbo (R-New Suffolk) doesn’t have his heart in the right place and hasn’t helped accomplish tangible things for the district, like co-sponsoring legislation for the state to acquire and preserve about 900 acres of green space in Shoreham.
Still, with a Democrat majority in the Assembly that is unlikely to go away any time soon, we would like to see Smith given a chance to bring some of her fresh ideas and tenacity to Albany to join a conference with the political clout to get tangible results locally and statewide.
Smith is educated, hard-working, has government experience in a critical area to the future prosperity of Long Island — namely affordability of housing.
We appreciate the years of dedicated service Palumbo has given the district, but we’ll be voting for Smith Nov. 6.
U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) is a family man, a veteran and a classy, dedicated advocate for the district he has represented since 2014. He is also a member of the Republican conference that has collectively decided to be an enabler of President Donald Trump’s (R) lesser behaviors and tendencies — rather than serving as a check on presidential power as the authors of the Constitution intended. Zeldin’s dedication to and knowledge of local issues make him exemplary, but he has been indiscriminate in his duty to stand up to the president on the national stage. He has backed a GOP and White House initiatives 86 percent of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight.com.
While there are some positives to the two years Trump has been in office — the economy being perhaps chief among them — some nakedly partisan and intellectually dishonest arguments would be required to justify some of what he has done and said, like instituting a zero-tolerance policy for immigration infractions as a means to separately detain adults and their children crossing the southern border illegally and to deter individuals from seeking refuge in the U. S.
To his credit, Zeldin said he opposed that policy, but his voting record and social media accounts offer little to no pushback on a president who seems clueless about bringing the country together. We fear the power and promises of D.C. politics may cause him to stray from sticking firm to what’s best for us, here on Long Island.
The Constitution was written in such a way as to build in checks and balances into our government. We believe that most Americans are uncomfortable with one-party rule, regardless of which party. There have been little checks on some of the most outlandish orders put forth by our duly elected leadership and the total partisanship of the Congress is largely at fault.
For all Americans’ best interest and for the possibility of restoring some semblance of reason and civility in our politics, we endorse Perry Gershon with the hope Democrats succeed in flipping the House to restore a sense of checks and balances on our nation’s government.
The North Shore’s easternmost New York State Assembly District — which juts as far west as Mount Sinai and portions of Port Jefferson — has been represented by an incumbent Republican since 2013, and a first-time candidate for political office is seeking to unseat him.
Assemblyman Anthony Palumbo (R-New Suffolk) was elected in a special election to represent the 2nd District in 2013 and won subsequent races in 2014 and 2016. The 48-year-old practicing lawyer will be challenged this Election Day by 73-year-old Democrat Rona Smith, a newcomer to politics from Greenport with government experience, as she currently serves as the chairwoman of the Housing Advisory Commission for Southold Town.
The candidates sat down for a debate at the TBR News Media in Setauket in October to discuss issues impacting the district.
Health care
The future of health care is at the top of minds for candidates in federal and state races alike this cycle, likely because it’s on the minds of their common constituents. State law can be used in conjunction with federal law regarding health care, meaning the legislative houses of New York’s government will have an opportunity to stabilize health care policy for its residents as the federal Affordable Care Act waits in limbo for a bipartisan solution in Congress.
Democrats in the Assembly have passed a single-payer health care bill — meaning essentially everyone in the state would pay into a pool and everyone would be covered — which has gotten no traction in the state Senate, controlled by Republicans, and appears unlikely ever to become the law.
As the ACA suffers, Palumbo said he would suggest some simple tweaks to improve the current system, rather than implementing a single-payer bill, which he said he believes will be too expensive.
“When you think about the numbers, we’re talking about 900,000 people in New York state are uninsured — they’re between the Medicaid gap and the private insurance gap — that’s 5 percent,” he said. “Not a lot I think, generally speaking.”
He suggested bringing back the Family Health Plus option, a subsidized plan for low-income individuals, which wasn’t available under the ACA, rather than “overhauling” state tax code to afford a single-payer scheme.
“Nothing comes off the shelf perfect,” Smith said of both the ACA and the single-payer bill passed by the Assembly. “They’re not perfect, they’re attempts to try to make sure that everybody — rich, poor, old, young — has health insurance they can depend upon for any health need that comes up. We have got to figure out how to do it.”
Affordability and opportunity
The candidates agreed there are obstacles for people — but especially recent college graduates — for being able to live and prosper both in the district and in the county as a whole. The problem will only be exaggerated going forward by the capping of state and local tax deductions, a component of the new federal tax code bill that will disproportionately impact homeowners in high-tax states like New York.
Smith said she would home in on reducing student loan debt as a means to foster more affordability, in addition to investment in more affordable housing projects for low-income individuals, a plan she said Democrats in the Assembly are already working on.
She said students need access to mandated, objective advice when it comes to borrowing and affording college, rather than just input from for-profit loan collection businesses.
Palumbo said New York’s susceptibility to outward migration can be traced to out-of-control budgeting and spending.
“It’s conservative fiscal values that we need to have,” he said.
He said the Assembly has been working on a solution to mitigate the capping of the SALT deduction at $10,000, though so far the IRS has not blessed any of the fixes.
Infrastructure investment
Investing in projects that could stimulate the local economy is seen as a solution by members of both parties. Currently legislators in New York are gathering funds to study the feasibility of electrifying the Long Island Rail Road east of Huntington on the North Shore line, an idea many have suggested to increase opportunities for people to live and work in the area.
“I think investments in infrastructure always come back in salaries and benefits for people,” Smith said. “It might make housing more accessible.”
She said electrification might be the answer, but the state’s economy could be better served by using the LIRR to ship freight, an idea that would allow farmers and vineyards on the East End to ship fresh products beyond the direct vicinity.
Palumbo said he would go in another direction instead of committing major funds to electrify the LIRR line. He said he would like to see the results of a study examining LIRR ridership to the East End before going down that road and would prefer to see smarter leadership from the Metropolitan Transit Authority when it comes to train schedules and usage.
He also called on school districts to examine ways to scale down spending, which is the largest driver of increasing property taxes.
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