DON DEMS’ CASH COW
Trash GOP nominee to raise $
ALBANY – In the fight for control of the state Senate, Democrats have begun aggressively using Donald Trump as their bogeyman to help raise money for their candidates in crucial Long Island races.
The new fund-raising emails and digital ad campaigns seek to tie Nassau County’s Republican Senate candidates to Trump, who polls show is extremely unpopular in New York.
Democratic candidates Ryan Cronin, Adam Haber and James Gaughran all sent emails to donors last week trashing Trump and tying their opponents to Senate GOP Majority Leader John Flanagan’s comments that he is “passionately supporting” the bombastic billionaire.
Cronin, who is facing longtime incumbent Sen. Kemp Hannon, wrote that “it’s so disheartening to hear all of this hatred, divisiveness, and disrespect from Donald Trump day in and day out.”
“What's even worse, my opponent Kemp Hannon and the Long Island Republican Machine are ‘passionately supporting’ Trump and his dangerous beliefs.”
A digital ad that will run on social media has a picture of Hannon and Trump, with the heading “Kemp Hannon Loves Trump’s Radical Ideas.”
Haber, seeking the seat being vacated by GOP Sen. Jack Martins, who is running for Congress, sent a fund-raising email saying that “Donald Trump is imploding and yet local and state Republicans supporting my opponent’s campaign are still with him.”
Long Island, whose nine-member Senate delegation boasts eight Republicans, is considered a key battleground in the bitter fight for control of the chamber this fall.
A recent Siena College poll found that 62% of voters statewide — including 56% in the suburbs — believe that Trump will hurt, not help, the GOP effort to maintain its Senate majority.
Senate GOP spokesman Scott Reif accused the Democrats of having a “complete and utter fixation on Donald Trump” to mask their record when they briefly controlled the Senate in 2009 and 2010.
“When you are wrong on all of the issues that Long Island taxpayers and their families care about — and the Senate Democrats are thoroughly and utterly wrong — you look for anything else to put in front of voters,” Reif said.
lll With Trump still telling his people he wants to compete in his home state of New York despite polls showing him trailing badly, a source says his local team has developed a plan to do it that would include three in-state visits from the candidate.
Under the plan submitted to the national campaign for approval, Trump would hold fund-raising events and rallies in Long Island, Albany and Buffalo. The money raised would help fund targeted mailings and aggressive canvassing operations in New York, the source said.
“The plan calls for a full-fledged effort,” he said.
lll The Working Families Party’s recent endorsement of Hillary Clinton hasn’t ended its love affair with her Democratic primary opponent, Bernie Sanders.
Sanders will headline the minor party’s 18th annual dinner in New York City on Sept. 15. The Working Families Party had supported Sanders over Clinton and only endorsed her after the Vermont senator conceded the fight.
lll The state Hotel and Motel Trades Council is set to take an active role in a much watched four-way upper Manhattan Democratic Senate primary, a source says.
HTC will not only be endorsing Marisol Alcantara, but also provide volunteers and help her raise money, the source said.
HTC will work closely with the Senate Independent Democratic Conference, a group of five breakaway Dems who sources say are prepared to spend upwards of $200,000 on the race.
Alcantara, a union organizer, is set to square off in the Sept. 13 primary with ex-City Councilman Robert Jackson, former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman Chief of Staff Micah Lasher, and activist Luis Tejada.