A coalition of conservative activist groups, determined to halt what they call a “leftward shift’’ among Republican state senators from Long Island, have begun secretly polling the districts of key GOP lawmakers with an eye toward knocking them off in next year’s primaries.
The coalition — led by the anti-abortion Chiaroscuro Foundation, which backed several conservative Republicans who won office in last year’s state Senate races — just finished a poll in the district of Senate Health Committee Chairman Kemp Hannon (R-Nassau), 69, the sponsor of several “end of life’’ measures that critics compare to euthanasia.
“Kemp Hannon is someone who is clearly vulnerable, and he’s just the start,’’ said a source familiar with the polling results. “If these Republicans no longer vote like Republicans, if they continue their leftward shift, why keep them?’’
“Republican incumbents may be tough to beat in general elections, but they can be toppled in well-funded primaries, and the money is there to do it.’’
Long Island Republicans, led by recently ousted Majority Leader Dean Skelos of Nassau County, helped Gov. Andrew Cuomo legalize same-sex marriages in 2011 and then pass 2013’s SAFE Act gun control law, which badly divided the state GOP between pro-gun upstate and Long Island contingents.
They’ve also done little to reduce the burden of high taxes and pressed for higher school aid, despite New York’s spending more per student than any other state in the nation.
Another sign of the worsening split between Long Island Senate Republicans and key GOP constituency groups came last week as the state Rifle and Pistol Association urged members to run campaigns against Republicans who voted for the SAFE Act.
“These people are without the backbone or the will required to do what must be done, so they must be ousted at the ballot box,’’ said association president Tom King.
The Republican infighting is, of course, great news for Senate Democrats, who are hoping to retake the Legislature’s upper house next year.
A behind-the-scenes struggle over renewal of the 421-a property tax exemption incentive for New York City housing is widely seen as an important leadership test for recently chosen Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) and William Mulrow, Cuomo’s new secretary.
The 421-a program, which has provided tens of millions of dollars in tax savings to such major real estate companies as Glenwood Management — the firm that figures prominently in the public corruption scandals involving Skelos and former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver — is set to expire June 15.
Some influential Assembly Democrats and several good-government groups don’t want the program renewed, claiming it breeds corruption and unnecessarily rewards super-wealthy development companies like Glenwood.
But some members of the real estate industry, including Glenwood and its 100-year-old owner, Leonard Litwin, have been major contributors to Cuomo, as well as to Senate Republicans and Assembly Democrats, both of whose leaders want the program renewed.
“This is a test for Heastie, to see if he can bring his Democrats along on this, and it’s an important first test for Mulrow, who is tasked with putting together some kind of a deal here,’’ said a Democrat close to the real estate industry.