Spin Cycle

The partisan war for control of the state Senate is prompting maneuvers on several battlefields. Here is the latest news from two of them.

Local sources tell Rick Brand that Brookhaven Supervisor Brian Foley would be the state Democrats’ top choice to challenge veteran Sen. Cesar Trunzo. He has $200,000 in campaign cash on hand, but before you bet on his jumping in, be warned that Foley is considered quite cautious. There’s family history too: His father, John Foley, lost a bid to unseat Trunzo back in 1982, by 7,666 votes. Still, Senate Democrats were said to be testing Foley’s name in polls. And Foley has had a conversation about it with Bob Master, the Communication Workers of America regional legislative director who also is state co-chair of the Working Families Party, which partners with Democrats in Senate races, Brand reports.

Speaking of the WFP, the party plans starting tomorrow to target Trunzo and Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Garden City) in an “issues” campaign, slamming the Senate GOP on paid family-leave. Which Democrat will face Hannon, though, also remains hazy. As Celeste Hadrick reported Friday on this blog, Legis. David Mejias (D-Farmingdale) agreed to rejoin the Democratic legislative caucus after talking privately with Nassau Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs, with whom he’d been feuding. But sources say the Democratic organization has not reinstated its support for a Mejias race against Hannon -- whose seat seems to have been a topic of perennial discussion from the opposing party for time immemorial.

Dan Janison

The State Senate Democratic Committee has dropped its support of Nassau Leg. David Mejias (D-Farmingdale) as a candidate this fall against Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Garden City), knocking a second leg out of Mejias’ planned challenge against the veteran Republican politician, state and county sources say.

Nassau Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs withdrew the county party’s backing two weeks ago after Mejias refused to vote to change the county charter to allow legislators to raise their own salaries, which have remained at $39,500 since 1996. Jacobs said Mejias promised he would vote for the change; Mejias denies it.

The dispute has since escalated, with Mejias refusing to meet with the legislative Democratic caucus and then voting with Nassau Republicans to kill a Democratic-supported traffic fee. Presiding Officer Diane Yatauro (D-Glen Cove) responded by dropping Mejias from a key legislative committee.

Sources say state party officials take that as an indication that Mejias is not a team player who could be trusted on a swing vote.

Mejias declined comment.

Celeste Hadrick

To accompany the Peter King video we posted earlier, here is the Dave Mejias video.
Here he is greeting voters at a train station and then voting, critcizing Peter King, and driving off in what appears to be a Volkswagen Jetta.

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) repeatedly said in a television interview Sunday on WABC that his real opponent isn’t Nassau Legis. David Mejias (D-North Massapequa) but Newsday. King has made the same assertions for weeks in Newsday stories and his campaign literature.
But hold on a minute. King’s latest large postcard, titled “Pete King: Independent and Tough,” features a full-reprint of a column by Raymond J. Keating, titled “King is No White House Rubber Stamp,” published in Newsday on Oct. 30.
On the reverse side are glowing quotes from U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, former New York City Mayor Ed Koch and Newsday, among others. The Newsday quote, taken from a June 25 editorial, describes King as “a stand up guy who isn’t shy about tangling with the powerful, even those in his own party.”
The editorial was part of the newspaper’s report card on the local congressional delegation. Below is the full text about King:

James T. Madore

There are now not one, but two anonymous blogs devoted to partisan monitoring of the Congressional race between incumbent Republican Peter King and Nassau legislator David Mejias.

The new site, Dave Mejias Watch, launched a few days ago, mimics the original Peter King Watch, which has been around a long time. Both sites are devoted pretty much to smearing their targets.

We should note, in publicizing this new site, that a main theme of Mejias Watch is the conviction that Newsday's coverage of the race is intended to defeat Congressman King. So we will resist speculating on why this site was launched two weeks before the election.

Michael Rothfeld