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Your afternoon must-read briefing informing the daily conversation among knowledgeable New Yorkers | | | | |  | | By Joseph Spector | | 
Former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino participates in New York's Republican gubernatorial debate at the studios of Spectrum News NY1 on Monday, June 20, 2022, in New York. (Brittainy Newman/Newsday via AP, Pool) | Brittainy Newman/Newsday via AP, Pool |
Rob Astorino is undeterred by his stretch of election defeats: losing a run for governor in 2014, then his re-election as Westchester County executive in 2017 and then in 2020 for the state Senate.
He's running for the Republican Party's gubernatorial nomination in Tuesday’s primary, and he is convinced that he can change the state — with its high taxes, corruption scandals and crime problems — for the better. “I’m not giving up my fight to save New York and turn it around,” Astorino said in an interview Wednesday evening with POLITICO amid a final barnstorming tour. “I took (then Gov. Andrew) Cuomo on when nobody else would (in 2014) because I knew he was a corrupt thug, and unfortunately we have the Lee Zeldins of the world who were enabling him, voting for him and with him.” Zeldin, a Long Island congressman and perceived front-runner, has made a point over and over again in the three TV debates that Astorino can’t win elections and claims he was a failure as Westchester County executive. “I’ve now won seven consecutive races. Rob Astorino lost three consecutive races for three different offices,” Zeldin said in the final debate on Tuesday. On the debate stage, Astorino has weaved between trying to rise above Zeldin’s barbs and also to accuse him of being complicit with Cuomo during his time in the state Senate. He points out that Senate Republicans did little to help his candidacy when he battled Cuomo when the Democratic governor was seeking a second term. And while Zeldin and Andrew Giuliani has vied for who is more closely aligned with former President Donald Trump in a bid to appeal to conservative voters, Astorino has also sided with Trump but also sought to focus more on his experience as the two-term executive of one of the most populous counties in the state — and winning in a largely Democratic one. “I want voters to have seen me as an executive, level-headed with experience and the guts to get the job done,” he said in the interview. “And that they can have confidence that I’m going to actually do the job, and turn the state around and get it back on track.” Astorino, 55, does have some significant name recognition for his previous runs, but has been heavily outspent on TV ads by Zeldin and businessman Harry Wilson, who is self-funding most of his run. If Astorino were to win Tuesday, it would be considered an upset. He thinks he’ll do just that — and end his streak of losses. “I can win this race, I will win this race, and I’ll turn New York around like I did Westchester,” he said. IT’S THURSDAY: New York Playbook PM heads into the final days before New York’s primaries for governor and state Assembly on Tuesday. Stay with us as we keep you up-to-date on the latest New York news from the campaign trail, in Albany and in City Hall. Summer is here, and the news keeps heating up! |  | From the Capitol | |
SCOTUS RULING ON GUNS: The U.S. Supreme Court decision today that overturned New York’s century-old limit on who can get a concealed carry gun permit rocked the state, prompting leaders to quickly say they would pass new laws to address the landmark ruling.
But how the new measure will be crafted and whether they can withstand inevitable court challenges will be critical. Gov. Kathy Hochul noted that she has legal experts working on the bill language, likely to be taken up in a special session in Albany next month. For instance, Hochul said she believes New York will have the right to limit where people can carry concealed guns, such as banning concealed weapons on subways or in schools. She also noted that they are looking at allowing businesses to ban concealed weapons on their premises. "We believe we should have the right to restrict it, and we will,” Hochul told reporters. “Also not just restricting who, but also where. We believe that we can craft reasonable restrictions that will withstand further scrutiny. We want to make sure that we do that. But we believe that we have some options on the table right now, and that's what we're pursuing." The ruling comes just days before Tuesday’s primary for governor and state Assembly. While Hochul said to expect a special session in July, it would likely be more in the middle or late in the month rather than the beginning because of the July 4 holiday. And she noted while a change is important soon, it doesn’t need to be immediate: Gun owners still need to apply to get a concealed carry permit. "Someone does not automatically flip from being a permit owner to now having the rights of a concealed permit,” Hochul said. “There are more standards in place already, they already have to go through more to be able to receive a concealed permit so we are not changing those requirements at all." Read more of our coverage here: — Supreme Court strikes down New York gun law along ideological lines — 'Frightful in its scope': Hochul to call special session after SCOTUS gun decision Video: Hochul slams 'absolutely shocking' SCOTUS ruling on concealed handguns The ruling: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-843_7j80.pdf SCHOOL SAFETY, CONTINUED: New York schools are now required to consider the use of silent panic alarm systems when conducting review and development of their school safety plans. Hochul signed a bill today named in honor of Alyssa Alhadeff, who was killed in the mass shooting at the Marjorie Stoneman Douglass High School in Parkland, Fla. This bill requires that schools consider the systems in district-level school safety plans, and expressly authorize their inclusion within building level safety plans. Hochul's office says the alarm systems can costs as little as a few thousand dollars and can be implemented in the classroom as a smartphone app. — Anna Gronewold | | ON THE BEATS | |
PENSION FUND: Five major U.S. companies will disclose their political spending under agreements reached with state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.
They are Las Vegas Sands Corp.; computer networking company VeriSign Inc.; cruise operator Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.; insurance company The Progressive Corp;. and cosmetics retailer Ulta Beauty Inc. The deals will require the companies to post their political contribution policies to their websites and post an annual or semiannual political contributions disclosure report. At Twitter, a majority of shareholders at the company’s annual meeting recently backed a similar proposal, and DiNapoli is urging the company to adopt it. “America’s political system is so deeply divided that it is questionable whether it makes sense for corporations to spend any money at all on political causes,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “At a minimum, investors need full transparency and accountability on the use of corporate dollars to further political agendas. — Joseph Spector HEALTH CARE: New York City's health department has opened a temporary monkeypox vaccine hub at the Chelsea Sexual Health Clinic. While anyone can contract monkeypox, a rare disease that causes painful blisters, most cases in the current outbreak are among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, according to the agency. “The new vaccine clinic expands eligibility to all gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (cisgender or transgender) ages 18 and older who have had multiple or anonymous sex partners in the last 14 days,” according to the city health department. Within hours, the clinic has seen hundreds of people seeking the vaccine, and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine said people have been turned away. The city has given out about 1,000 doses, he said, and called on the federal government to “dramatically up our allotment ASAP.” — Amanda Eisenberg EDUCATION: New York State saw a modest increase in enrollment in Catholic schools during the 2021-22 school year, according to a new report from the Manhattan Institute based on diocese-level data collected by National Catholic Educational Association. The schools in the state, which saw their overall enrollment drop by nearly 9 percent in the 2020-21 school year, saw an increase of 0.8 percent. “That slight rebound wasn’t nearly enough to make up for the 2020–21 loss and left the Empire State with a two-year enrollment decline of 8.2% —the second largest (behind only Wyoming, which lost 24% of its 740 students between the 2019–20 and 2021–22 school years) in the nation,” the report states. The data for 2021-22 overall shows a 3.8 percent increase in enrollment for all Catholic elementary and secondary schools across the country — the first nationwide Catholic school enrollment uptick in 25 years. It comes amid enrollment declines nationwide during both years of the Covid-19 pandemic. — Madina Touré — The Department of Education and Planet Fitness announced that New York City high school students will be able to access Planet Fitness locations citywide all summer as part of the company’s High School Summer Pass program. Students between the ages of 14 and 19 can exercise at Planet Fitness sites through Aug. 31. Teenagers who are under the age of 18 have to register with a parent or guardian online or in-club. A Planet Fitness representative said that one month in, the program has exceeded her expectations. Schools Chancellor David Banks urged the students to take care of themselves and to be diligent and vigilant “around what’s happening around you, noting that the city has seen “too many people get shot and killed already.” “Reduce the amount of idle time that you have, make sure that you have a purposeful day every single day…when you finish with your school work, head to Planet Fitness, get your workout in,” he said. — Madina | | The Campaign Trail | |
CANDIDATES REACT: Here’s a smattering of reactions to the SCOTUS decision from some of the candidates for governor.
“New Yorkers have a Constitutional right to carry firearms for protection; it’s in our Bill of Rights. Today’s court decision finally makes that clear to liberal government officials who neither followed nor understood the Constitution.” — Rob Astorino, Republican “While Hochul said today that this decision is 'not just reckless, it’s reprehensible,' she voted in Congress to allow people with concealed carry permits to cross state borders and come into New York State. By her own logic, her actions then were also reckless and reprehensible.” — Tom Suozzi, Democrat “I was proud to sign on to the amicus brief in support of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association’s case and in defense of these law abiding New Yorkers. While Kathy Hochul, the former A-rated NRA Member of Congress, becomes more a walking identity crisis each passing day, she better not make her next move on this yet another assault on law-abiding New Yorkers.” — Lee Zeldin, Republican “ Last year, the US saw more gun deaths than any other year in our history. The Supreme Court’s answer to this crisis is to make it easier to conceal and carry a gun. This is not well-regulated. It is irresponsible, illogical, and immoral.” — Jumaane Willams, Democrat | | AROUND NEW YORK | |
— A state Supreme Court justice in Rockland County has resigned rather than face a misconduct investigation.
— Towns are struggling to find summer workers.
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