Driscoll emerges as likely GOP challenger to CD4's Gillen on eve of deadline

Daily Point

On deadline eve, will luck of the Irish fill a candidate vacancy?

The game of musical chairs within this year's Nassau County GOP candidate pool continues to play out, as Tuesday's deadline to fill a vacancy after a candidate declines quickly approaches.

A Democratic source told The Point Monday the latest speculation centered on Hempstead Receiver of Taxes Jeanine Driscoll becoming the Republicans' candidate to go up against Rep. Laura Gillen. Driscoll, a Bellerose resident, was first elected to the position in 2023.

Fueling the Driscoll chatter is what happens when Driscoll's receiver of taxes campaign Facebook page pops up on a Google search.

"I received the Republican nomination for #NY04. I'm honored — and ready to keep Long Island & Congress RED come November. Help me keep this seat. Donate today ..." it says.

When clicking on Driscoll's campaign Facebook page, however, that message does not appear — yet.

If true, it wouldn't be the first time a Hempstead receiver of taxes rose in the ranks. Former Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin preceded that role with 18 years as receiver of taxes. And perhaps most notably, former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato served as Hempstead Town receiver of taxes in 1969.

Driscoll, sources said, is a well-known, well-regarded face in the Town of Hempstead. One source noted that in Driscoll, county Republicans also are returning to the familiar playbook, choosing a woman with an Irish Catholic name has historically run well in this part of the Island; think Anne Donnelly, Carolyn McCarthy, Kathleen Rice, Laura Curran, Maureen O'Connell and Kate Murray. And of course, incumbent Gillen.

That's particularly important in the critical Republican bastion of Hempstead, where Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman will need votes in his run for governor and John Ferretti for reelection as town supervisor.

But Gillen seems to be lining up her support, too. On Monday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was expected to head to Elmont, joining Gillen at a roundtable with Haitian American leaders. Sources told The Point that the roundtable is an event planned in conjunction with a vote that's expected this week on extending Temporary Protected Status for Haiti. Gillen was the lead on the bill.

Meanwhile, Democrats are also keeping an eye on North Hempstead, where Republican State Sen. Jack Martins' last-minute decision to decline his designation may ripple through the political landscape there. Without Martins, political insiders said, the State Senate seat could be up for grabs, since Assemb. Jake Blumencranz, who's now expected to campaign against Democrat Rory Lancman, might have a tougher fight than an incumbent would. That, in turn, could make the North Hempstead supervisor race a tighter battle, too, as incumbent Jennifer DeSena, a registered Democrat who runs on the Republican line, is expected to face Port Washington Police Commissioner Sean McCarthy.

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

Pencil Point

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Final Point

Orbán ouster spotlights LI's diplomat-in-waiting

With a landmark transition of power now underway in Hungary, and 15 months into Donald Trump's second term, the United States has no ambassador there. Nominee Benjamin Landa, a nursing home businessman from Lawrence and major Republican donor, still awaits Senate confirmation. He was tapped for the post in October. Due to his extensive business interests, vetting Landa takes time, one source told The Point. No predictions were available Monday for when Landa might begin in the position.

Since last month, the American Embassy in Budapest is temporarily headed by Robert Palladino, a career U.S. Foreign Service official, who has previously been posted in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

But suddenly, the Hungarian climate shifts from warm to cold for the next envoy. Over the weekend Viktor Orbán, the 16-year prime minister who's been allied with both Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, lost in a landslide to Péter Magyar whose party took 138 out of 199 parliamentary seats. Magyar campaigned on his country's stagnant economy, inadequate health care and high-level corruption. Orbán, an irritant to European Union leadership, warned that Hungary could be drawn into the Ukraine war.

During his long tenure Orbán restricted his nation's judiciary and took steps to muzzle the news media and curtail LGBTQ rights and curb immigration.

Israel also loses a strategic EU ally. Orbán repeatedly blocked EU measures opposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. One year ago, Landa hosted Israel's national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, in his Five Towns home, so Orbán's government was expected to have welcomed Landa.

For years, on the homefront, Landa's businesses have been embroiled with and sued by New York State regulators over management and care which made Attorney General Letitia James a nemesis. But the friction hasn't been limited to New York.

One month after Trump nominated Landa, the inspector general of Trump's Department of Health and Human Services estimated in an audit that a Bronx nursing home in which Landa was a co-owner was overpaid $31.2 million in Medicare funding.

To keep the feds from clawing back the money, the company that operates the Pinnacle Multicare Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in the Bronx filed a federal lawsuit, as first reported by ProPublica. The complaint names among its defendants HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Mehmet Oz, and the HHS IG, Thomas March Bell.

Lawyers for Pinnacle said in court filings that at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when the alleged overcharging occurred, it was "consistent with state and federal directives to put patients over paperwork," and that the company did so, and "it saved lives."

Earlier this month, Crain's New York Business reported that Landa is seeking to offload his stake in the Co-op City facility that sued the Trump administration. So far that mess remains unsettled, and it is unknown if, or for how long, Landa's confirmation might be affected.

In Budapest, Magyar is due to be sworn in early next month — much to the chagrin of the White House that so fervently promoted his opponent for so long.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

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