Endorsement deals for judges upended by Dems' infighting

Daily Point

Suffolk ballot still in flux as GOP pushes for a better deal

Nassau and Suffolk voters will choose eight state Supreme Court justices in November and the big surprise this year is that they might actually have some choices.

In 2021, 2022 and 2024, there were a combined 22 state Supreme Court justice seats up for election. All 22 candidates who ran were unopposed on the Democratic, Republican and Conservative lines. And downballot judge races in recent years have a similar pattern of cross-endorsed and unopposed candidates.

But the long-criticized process of cross-endorsements of judges has gone operatically sideways in Suffolk this year. The time-honored deals spectacularly frayed after one Democratic candidate for a countywide seat accepted a deal to step down from his race while another did not.

Democratic candidate for county clerk Anthony Portesy now will appear on the ballot on the Conservative Party line for a judgeship in exchange for withdrawing from the clerk's race. He acknowledges that he will lose. But his patronage job at Suffolk's Off-Track Betting Corp. will remain secure. And Democrats aren't naming a replacement candidate in the clerk's race, sources say, clearing the path of incumbent Vincent Puleo, a Conservative who also runs on the Republican line.

But the Democratic candidate for county comptroller, Jon Estreich, is refusing to budge, at least for now.

It's a bit of a pinball game, so follow along.

New York State law combines many adjoining counties into judicial districts; Nassau and Suffolk are in the 10th with eight seats on the ballot in 2026. Of those, two are assigned to Nassau and incumbents Joy Watson, a Republican, and Leonard Steinman, a Democrat, are assured of reelection to another 14-year term. Nassau's GOP leader Joseph Cairo and Democratic leader Jay Jacobs kept their tradition of cross-endorsing the other party's selections.

But an intraparty fight for control of the Suffolk Democratic Party upended the plans in the county next door.

Sources have said that Suffolk County Democratic leader Rich Schaffer felt internal heat to run strong candidates for comptroller and clerk this year to refute complaints that he cuts too many deals and is satisfied with the status quo. Southold Town Democratic chair Kathryn Casey Quigley is aggressively challenging Schaffer for control of the county party.

But tying Schaffer's hands may have cut against the grain of a purported earlier deal with Suffolk's Republican leader Jesse Garcia, leading to the fracas over cross-endorsing judges.

As of now the entries on Suffolk's race card will be running on a very muddy track. Only Richard Ambro, an incumbent Democrat, has been given the blessing of staying on the Republican line.

The rest is caught up in a byzantine process with the outcome unclear until next week.

At the Republican nominating convention on Friday, party members Karen Wilutis and John Iliou got the nod, along with Democrats Ambro, William Wexler, Mary Porter and F. Scott Carrigan.

The Democrats at their Monday night convention named their six Suffolk contenders: Ambro, Wexler, Porter along with Stephen Ukeiley, Eric Sachs and John Kelly. Sources said the Democrats without the GOP nod would likely have declined the nominations to allow the party to make cross-endorsement deals for Republicans Wilutis and Iliou and perhaps another candidate.

But by Tuesday, Democrats Wexler, Porter and Carrigan declined the Republican nominations, according to Board of Election filings. Garcia apparently withdrew his support of them because of Estreich's refusal to buy into the dealmaking process.

That leaves the GOP's committee on vacancies with three spots to fill and party officials were running through some familiar names Thursday that would give some an unexpected chance for a coveted Supreme Court seat.

The denouement in this drama depends on Estreich. He has defiantly and publicly said he will not accept the Conservative Party's nomination for a judgeship. But as of now he is officially the Conservative Party nominee according to Board of Elections filings. Unless he notifies the BOE by Monday's deadline that he is declining the nomination he will automatically be placed on the ballot as a Supreme Court nominee — a contest he is very likely to lose. As part of that process, he would be removed from the Democratic line for county comptroller. With no opposition, a victory would be guaranteed for Republican Dan Losquadro, the main outcome Garcia wants to secure.

The Democrats' convention for the 10th Judicial District took place at the Plainview Holiday Inn and was chaired by Schaffer who opened the meeting by thanking everyone for attending. One Nassau Democrat said, "It was the first time he showed up in years."

— Rita Ciolli rita.ciolli@newsday.com, Mark Nolan mark.nolan@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Concepts of an exit

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Reference Point

Meeting the 'transit needs of the future' takes a long time

Sixty years ago today, the editorial board praised the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Authority for "establishing a pattern of aggressive, far-sighted planning for the future."

That planning was for new East River tunnels for Long Island Rail Road access, which indeed became reality at a way later date in the next century. The idea for a new tunnel under the East River was first formally proposed in 1963 and three years later it was expanded to include a four-track tunnel — with two tracks to be used exclusively by LIRR trains. The MCTA was the prior incarnation of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) before it was renamed and expanded to include the New York City Transit Authority.

"MCTA studies showed that commuter travel to the East Side was going to increase greatly in the future," the board wrote on Aug. 13, 1966. It added, "At present about 40,000 of the LIRR's 90,000 daily commuters are forced to take roundabout or inconvenient routes to their jobs on the East Side. The plan for rapid, direct service to the East Side through the 63rd Street tunnel, therefore, will be a real benefit to a substantial group of commuters."

The plan then was to build a new East Side rail terminal, but lack of funding throughout the 1970s stalled the project. When it was revived decades later in the 1990s, the new design detoured the tunnel tracks deep under Grand Central Terminal instead.

The board back then saw enormous benefits for Long Island with this access, in that it would attract new residents who would have chosen Westchester County instead for its established transit route to the East Side.

"The MCTA, under its able chairman, William J. Ronan, is displaying real zest for its job," the editorial said. "It is moving now to meet the transit needs of the future."

Today, between 72,000 and 80,000 LIRR passengers commute daily to Grand Central Madison, which opened in 2023, making up about 40% of all LIRR traffic to Manhattan. This is significantly less than the MTA's original projections of 162,000 daily commuters.

The board didn't address the funding of this "fine effort," which is in part what ultimately held up the project for so long. The MTA still faces significant financial challenges, including an operating shortfall of $300 million by next year, thanks to rising fuel, benefits and employee contract costs. That could swell to $900 million by 2030, $800 million more than the MTA's last forecast.

Decades later, East Side Access is here, but "aggressive, far-sighted planning for the future" has become much more difficult to keep on track.

— Amanda Fiscina-Wells amanda.fiscina-wells@newsday.com

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