Dueling endorsements greet the Suffolk morning.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-Brooklyn) is due at Democratic Party headquarters at 9 a.m. in Bohemia to back Senate contenders Brooke Ellison and Jimmy Dahroug, as well as County Clerk candidate Vivian Viloria Fisher and Assembly candidate Barbara LoMorriello.
Schumer will then move to MacArthur Airport for a second endorsement news conference with Philip Nolan, the Democratic candidate for Islip supervisor.
Just up the road in Hauppauge, meanwhile, more than a dozen Suffolk GOP officials are due to rally around the GOP’s newest political celebrity, Comptroller candidate Christopher Callaghan, who became a serious contender following disclosures that incumbent Democrat Alan Hevesi violated the law by misusing the labor of state employees to drive his wife around.
Among those expected to boost Callaghan are state Senators Owen Johnson, Caesar Trunzo and Kenneth LaValle, along with GOP Assembly members and county Clerk Judith Pascale, Treasurer Angie Carpenter and County Comptroller Joseph Sawicki, who is running for re-election with Demcoratic backing.
Rick Brand
“Callaghan is the accountant with accountability,” said Harry Withers, Suffolk GOP chairman, praising the work Callaghan has done as Saratoga county treasurer. “Callaghan has done it for Saratoga County , he can do it for Suffolk and will do it for New York State.”
And, for early risers, State Sen. Malcolm Smith, who will lead the Senate Democrats next year, endorses and campaigns with Dahroug at the central Islip station of the Long Island Rail Road starting at 7 a.m.
By 10 a.m. Smith appears with Ellison for a tour of Main Street in, where else, Smithtown.