Voters pick who is worse – Skelos or Blaz?
crucial April 19 state Senate special election on Long Island could turn on whom voters dislike more — Mayor de Blasio or disgraced former GOP Majority Leader Dean Skelos.
Senate Republicans, trying to keep their slim majority, have aggressively sought to link Democratic candidate Todd Kaminsky, a former federal prosecutor and current Nassau County assemblyman, to de Blasio and the city Democratic agenda.
The Democrats, meanwhile, are trying to tie GOP candidate Chris McGrath to Skelos, whose seat became vacant after he was convicted in December on federal corruption charges.
“Whoever is more successful in establishing the boogeyman might win — irrespective of the quality of the candidates,” said Baruch College public affairs Prof. Doug Muzzio.
McGrath in a new ad charges that if Kaminsky wins, “Bill de Blasio will be picking the pockets of each and every family in this district and on Long Island.”
Even before the ad was released, Kaminsky spokesman Evan Thies was telling the Daily News that Kaminsky’s ideology is closer to the more moderate Gov. Cuomo, who also happens to be more popular than the mayor in Nassau County.
“Assemblyman Kaminsky’s view of government is fundamentally different than de Blasio’s — and his record shows it,” Thies said. “Todd has consistently opposed the mayor on taxes, spending, and issues of critical importance to Long Islanders — and he will continue to put Long Islanders first as senator,” he said.
Kaminsky is not among 81 Democratic sponsors of an Assembly bill to raise taxes on millionaires that de Blasio supports in concept, Thies noted.
Kaminsky supported a Cuomo-backed bill to improve disability pensions for uniformed workers over a more modest version the mayor sought, and wrote to the city ripping a plan to place homeless people at a Queens hotel near the Nassau County line, Thies said.
Senate Republicans, who used de Blasio as a bogeyman two years ago in races across the state, accuse Kaminsky of distancing himself from the mayor because polls show he is unpopular outside the city.
“Todd Kaminsky votes like Mayor de Blasio and the New York City liberals, and if he wins this seat, it’s going to mean higher property taxes for hardworking Nassau County taxpayers, free college tuition for illegal immigrants, and more school aid for New York City at Long Island’s expense,” said Senate GOP spokesman Scott Reif.
In responding, Senate Democratic spokesman Michael Murphy focused on corruption issues in Nassau County, calling McGrath a “Skelos clone.”
Charging that McGrath will “protect the corrupt status quo,” Murphy attacked the GOPer for saying he’ll keep his outside job as a trial lawyer if elected.
Larry Levy, executive dean of Hofstra University’s National Center for Suburban Studies, said that ultimately, turnout for the presidential primary held the same day could have the biggest impact on the race. Cuomo’s team blocked an endorsement by his Women’s Equality Party of an Assembly candidate with ties to disgraced former
Speaker Sheldon Silver, insiders say.
Manhattan Democrats, at the urging of Silver’s wife, Rosa, and his longtime chief staff, Judy Rapfogel, recently selected Alice Cancel to run in a special election to fill the convicted Silver’s seat.
One insider said Cancel also sought the Women’s Equality Party line, “but someone inside the Cuomo operation completely shot it down, for obvious reasons.”
Acting party Chairwoman Rachel Demarest Gold said there was no endorsement because there were candidates with “very similar positions.”
A source close to the party notably invoked one of Silver’s favorite lines in discussing the situation: “It is what it is.” Bombastic Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino hasn’t mellowed since getting trounced by Cuomo in the 2010 gubernatorial campaign.
Upset at a recent column in this space that quoted an aide to ex-Gov. George Pataki saying that flame-throwers like Paladino and Donald Trump are dragging the state Republican party into irrelevancy, the man the News once branded “Crazy Carl” shot back Friday in a profanity-laced email.
Paladino, a Trump supporter who is considering another run for governor, wrote: “Always remember that once you are on my s--t list, you stay there and what goes around usually comes around and I’ll be
coming around.”