Registration of Jewish votes in CD4

Daily point

Five Towns GOTV Drive Could Make a Difference in CD4

The national nonprofit, which has focused for years on supporting Orthodox Jewish communities and schools in the U.S., is preparing to boost voter turnout in Nassau County’s Five Towns. On Friday, the Teach Coalition is set to open what it’s calling a “Long Island Unites” center at a location on Chestnut Street in Cedarhurst.

Asked about the goals, Maury Litwack, the coalition’s founder and executive director, explained that it is a party-neutral effort to encourage voting in Jewish communities, as has been done in other counties and states. Litwack said it will help people understand how to register and how to obtain and use absentee ballots if needed.

Litwack said interest in voting increased in those communities after the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel and subsequent anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. Within the Democratic Party, the organization founded Westchester Unites, which boosted Jewish voter turnout when Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a critic of Israel and supporter of the Palestinian cause, was defeated for the nomination by Westchester County Executive George Latimer, who won pro-Israel support.

The district includes White Plains, Mount Vernon, Yonkers, New Rochelle, and Rye. TEACH estimates that 15,000 Jewish voters participated in the primary, a margin of nearly 13,000 votes.

The heavily Orthodox Jewish Five Towns includes part of the 4th Congressional District, where Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito is seeking a second term in what is expected to be a close race with Democratic former Hempstead Town Councilwoman Laura Gillen. The seat is being targeted by the national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

A D’Esposito ally expressed hope that maximizing the Five Towns vote would help the GOP candidate, who has worked to build influence and alliances there. A D’Esposito supporter said the incumbent candidate has been sympathetic to the Five Towns on issues of anti-Semitism and U.S. support for Israel.

Sarah Carlson, Gillen’s campaign manager, told The Point: “Laura has a pro-Israel record and recently released a plan to address anti-Semitism. In Congress, she will be a strong advocate for the Jewish community in NY-04.”

Gillen, meanwhile, condemned D’Esposito’s “follow the money” flyer, which listed $6,600 in campaign contributions from members of the wealthy family of leftist Jewish billionaire George Soros. Democrats protested that the use of his image fueled anti-Semitic stereotypes on the right. The Jewish Forward reported on the flyer Thursday.

There are numerous other communities in CD4, including Elmont, Garden City, Hempstead, Long Beach, Valley Stream, New Hyde Park, Uniondale, Wantagh and others, where campaigning in this race is expected to heat up as Election Day approaches.

A poll conducted by Honan Strategy Group early last month, distributed by the Teach Coalition, provided the number of “likely Jewish voters” in November in six “swinging” congressional districts for November 2024. In CD4, the figure was 51,291.

Political observers will be closely watching the extent to which Jews dominate both major electoral parties as the days count down.

— Dan Janison [email protected]

Pencil

I’m working on it

For more comics, visit www.newsday.com/0904nationalcartoons

Reference point

The bumpy road to ‘good government’ in Suffolk

Good governance at all levels of elected office is a recurring theme for Newsday. That shouldn’t be surprising, given Long Island’s struggles with the issue over the years.

One such situation escalated in 1957 when the Suffolk County Board of Supervisors tried for a third time to circumvent state concerns that the board’s proposed new county charter would violate the principles of representative government.

“The latest example of crookedness in long-suffering Suffolk County would infuriate everyone interested in good government if it were not so ridiculous,” the council wrote in a Sept. 12, 1957, article titled “Stupid Little People.”

“Twice the Suffolk Board of Supervisors has presented milk and water cards dedicated to her personal welfare rather than to the welfare of the county. Twice Governor Harriman has vetoed the cards because they provided for the appointment of a puppet county executive who would dance to the corrupt tune of the supervisors.”

At that point, the Board of Supervisors had governed Suffolk for more than 270 years. The Board was made up of elected supervisors from Suffolk’s 10 towns, and each had an equal vote, leading to unequal representation for towns like Shelter Island, which had a population of 1,144 in 1950, and Babylon, which had a population of more than 45,000.

A prominent group of citizens organized a committee to draft a new charter with a new government structure. Faced with an existential threat, the Board of Trustees came up with a new proposal, “which is as obvious as an elephant hiding behind a peanut,” the board wrote to Newsday. “What the board is proposing is tantamount to putting an errand boy behind the principal’s desk. He may look important, but he will still be doing the job.”

The new official — called a county coordinator — would have no vote or authority. Newsday’s board called the idea “contrary to the position of good government advocates” and said the position “would be as inept as a management position hanging at the end of a supervisor’s string.”

The board’s mockery was reflected in an accompanying editorial cartoon, which depicted a man labeled “BOARD OF SUPERVISORS” carrying a child holding a balloon labeled “COUNTY COORDINATOR” while a Suffolk duck looked on with a worried expression. The cartoon was titled “Yessir, That’s My Baby.”

The resolution was more than a decade away. In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court considered equal representation in elections in Gray v. Sanders and established the famous “one person, one vote” standard. Suffolk’s board was considered a glaring exception; by then, Babylon’s population had grown to 250,000, while Shelter Island’s population was 1,500, yet both were represented by one vote on Suffolk’s board. After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ordered the board to reapportion in 1968, it voted to create an 18-member legislature. County voters approved the measure in November, although East End residents rejected it, sparking a secession movement.

New county legislators were elected in 1969 and sworn in in January 1970, ending one episode of mismanagement on Long Island. Unfortunately, others were waiting.

—Michael Dobie [email protected]

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