Assembly of Albany help
Big-bucks aid to a Senate Dem
ALBANY — Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has directed hundreds of thousands of dollars in Assembly pork money to help a fellow Democrat with his reelection effort, the Daily News has learned.
What makes this a rare move is that this time, the Assembly powerbroker is assisting a member of the state Senate.
Heastie worked with Senate Democratic Conference Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins to direct between $500,000 and upward of $1 million to schools and libraries in the Nassau County district of Sen. John Brooks, who is considered the most vulnerable of the incumbent Democrats.
While speakers in the past usually steered clear of Senate races, Heastie previously told the Daily News he would work this year to help flip Senate control to the Dems.
“Assembly Democrats are proud to support public schools and libraries throughout the state, and the speaker has worked with both (Assembly GOP) leader (Brian) Kolb and Leader Stewart-Cousins to provide much needed resources,” Assembly Democratic spokesman Michael Whyland said Sunday. “Senate Republicans have shortchanged certain districts, so we will work wherever we can to ensure these needs are met.”
Senate GOP spokesman Scott Reif called the Heastie move a “Hail Mary” to save Brooks and an “unprecedented, and purely partisan, political maneuver.”
“If the New York City Democrats are successful in influencing this suburban Senate race, they own John Brooks. So much for Long Ismore land,” Reif said.
With the Senate GOP providing no local project money to the Dems, Brooks was unapologetic in seeking help from the Assembly and his own leader.
“I went to the state Senate to get results for my constituents,” he said.
The first-term senator said the $500,000 of additional state education funds “will help school districts impacted by the disastrous federal tax plan and will ensure Long Island students receive a high-quality education. I am very proud of my efforts to secure this aid.”
Brooks, 68, faces an aggressive challenge by Republican Jeff Pravato, the mayor of Massapequa Park, in the GOP-heavy South Shore district.
One of the few previous times an Assembly leader overtly got involved in Senate races was in 1999, when then-Speaker Sheldon Silver sought to help the Dems win a highly contested seat in Rockland County by agreeing to move a bill to do away with a commuter tax that largely affected suburban communities in the MTA region.
The effort backfired: The Democrats lost the Senate seat and the MTA was starved of a major revenue source going forward.