National
Perhaps the most progressive experiment in the nation has come to an end.
In November 2020, Oregon voters, by a margin of 58%, passed Measure 110, which made it the first state to decriminalize possession of non-prescription drugs, such as fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamines, for personal use. The measure also sought to reallocate millions of dollars towards addiction treatment programs and other related services. The experiment was intended to put less emphasis on the arrests and prosecutions of individuals possessing small amounts of hard drugs and put more focus on issues like housing, income, and recovery options.
Within a year of the measure’s enactment, Oregon saw a 50% increase in overdose deaths compared to the previous year, and police departments reported that the law significantly kneecapped their abilities to address public drug use and its consequences. Penalties imposed on defendants included tickets and a maximum fine of $100.
The Oregon Legislature, controlled by Democrats, passed a March resolution to recriminalize hard drugs in personal amounts, which was later signed by Governor Tina Kotek (D-OR). The law took effect on Sunday.
Kotek was elected in an open-seat contest in 2022, a tight race between moderate Republican Christine Drazan and former Democratic State Senator Betsy Johnson.
Governor Kotek said that the rollback of the 2020 referendum will depend on “deep coordination” between police departments, prosecutors, defense attorneys, courts, as well as mental healthcare providers, stating that all are “necessary partners to achieve the vision for this legislation.”
The 2020 ballot measure also redirected hundreds of millions of dollars from the state’s cannabis tax revenue towards addiction services. However, disbursement of the funds was delayed by the COVID-19 Pandemic. After the pandemic is when the fentanyl crisis began to grip the nation, which led some to cite the 2020 measure as an agitator of the drug epidemic.
Oregon House Minority Leader Jeff Helfrich (R) said that Republicans had remained “united” against Measure 110 and “forced Democrats” to restore prior criminal penalties. Some Oregon Democrats who vocally supported Measure 110 passed the new line, while others remained steadfast in their support for the original intent: addressing arrests and social inequalities.
Among one of the supporters of rolling back Measure 110 is Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (D), who has served as mayor since 2017. Wheeler initially supported budget cuts to the city’s police department, but has recently begun calling for increased law enforcement presence in the state’s largest city, and the nation’s twenty-sixth.
Under the new laws, criminals could face up to 180 days in jail for possession of small amounts of hard drugs, but also allows several options for treatment rather than criminal punishment.
Mayor Wheeler has said that the city has contracted with municipalities means of providing job training, behavioral health evaluations, and treatments for domestic abuse and substance abuse disorders at the city’s mass shelter locations, Temporary Alternative Shelter Sites (TASS). Wheeler contended to The New York Times that increased law enforcement and building “behavioral health infrastructure” are both necessary to fight the current scourge of overdoses, homelessness, and unrest.
Wheeler also says that the state “botched” the implementation of the measure, saying that the “timing couldn’t have been worse.” He also decried the state’s inability to implement proper treatment options before supporting decriminalization of hard drugs.
However, Wheeler contends that “we have reaped what we have sown,” not just in Portland or Oregon, but the nation overall.
“Our nation has been very slow to accept behavioral health as an important issue,” said Wheeler to The New York Times.
He also said that of the nationwide push for more law enforcement presence and more conservative drug and crime policies, people want “order restored to their environment,” adding that it “makes perfect sense” to him.
In election news, some pollsters and pundits believe that Vice President Kamala Harris’ (D-CA) “honeymoon period” in state and national polls is coming to a close, as perhaps the most “trusted” pollster in the nation paints a different picture than it did a month ago.
A New York Times-Siena College poll of 1,695 likely voters across the country, conducted from September 3 to 6, finds former President Donald Trump (R-FL) leading Harris 48%-47%, within the poll’s three-point margin of error.
Digging deeper into the poll, Trump wins white voters by fifteen points, men by seventeen points, and wins 95% of registered Republicans and 44% of registered Independents. 6% of Biden-voters in 2020 plan to vote for Trump in November, as well as 49% of those who did not vote in 2020.
On the other hand, Harris wins women by eleven points and young voters – those aged 18-29 – by just eight points, while Biden had won the same group by over twenty points four years ago. Harris also galvanizes 78% of the black vote, compared to Trump’s 14%. She also takes in 55% of the Hispanic vote to Trump’s 41%. Among suburban voters, Harris has a ten-point lead – 52%-42%.
Nate Silver, notable pollster and founder of FiveThirtyEight, said: “One of the best pollsters in the country has bad news for Kamala Harris. It confirms the model’s view tha there’s been some sort of a shift in momentum in the race.” The model to which Silver refers is his own, which currently views Trump as the favorite, state and national polls considered.
Silver’s model also finds that Harris’ numbers have been slipping since the DNC wrapped up business in Chicago last month. Her lead in the national polling averages hovered around four-to-five percent over Trump, likely enough to win the election closely, as polls tend to underestimate Republican support and does not account for the Electoral College. However, the near-five-point lead she had in the aggregates peaked in August, and she now hovers around two points nationally.
Silver posits that a two-point lead nationally for any Democrat is not enough to win the election, given the aforementioned underestimations of Republican support, as well as the disparity between popular support and where those votes are distributed among the swing states likely to decide the winner in the Electoral College.
The poll marks a turning point in perhaps the most unprecedented American election in modern times. With an extraordinarily short runway, and with Labor Day in the rearview mirror, both parties are engaged on the campaign trail and will likely bring about more serious polling shifts as the next eight weeks unfold.
Finally, also of note regarding the presidential race, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., saw two states hold opposing rulings on his ballot access after his suspension.
The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that RFK will be removed from the ballot in the Tar Heel State this November. A red-leaning battleground, North Carolina’s polling has tightened since the Biden-Harris switch in July.
However, in Michigan, the state’s Supreme Court ruled that RFK must remain on the ballot, which is viewed as a slight blow to Trump’s candidacy as he hopes to galvanize as much crossover support from the former Independent candidate. Whoever wins Michigan is highly likely to be the next president.
The Michigan decision overturns a lower court’s decision that stated RFK could have name removed from the ballot.
State
Governor Kathy Hochul (D) is defending herself and her administration after the arrest and indictment of a former aide for acting as a foreign agent on behalf of the Chinese government.
Last week, Linda Sun and her husband were arrested on charges of influencing state politics and messaging to favor the Chinese government in exchange for kickbacks valued in the millions. Their Manhasset home was raided in July on those suspicions.
In the wake of the shocking allegations, Governor Hochul is claiming that Sun was a “mid-level aide” hired by her predecessor, former Governor Andrew Cuomo (D). Hochul adds that Sun “did not have contact” with her or her office “very often, other than standing outside in a parade or so.”
New reports show that the connection between Hochul and Sun might be deeper than the Governor is publicly admitting.
In September 2021, just after becoming governor, Hochul had a call with Chinese Consul General Huang Ping. The meeting listed Sun as the only participant on that call. Hochul has called the U.S. State Department to expel Ping based on the Sun indictment. Ping is named in the unsealed indictment of Sun, in which he is featured as “PRC Official-1.” Hochul is also implicated in the indictment as “Politician-2.” It was just shortly before the meeting with Ping that Hochul had re-hired Sun as an aide in the executive branch. Sun had worked numerous jobs within State government. She had worked in the Cuomo Administration in 2012 as Director of Asian American Affairs, followed by a 2018 return to the gubernatorial staff as Chief Diversity Officer. After a stint with the State Department of Financial Services, Sun was hired by Hochul in August 2021 as Deputy Chief of Staff.
Two months after the 2021 call with Ping, Hochul had a virtual meeting with Chinese Ambassador Qin Gang, during which Sun was the only listed gubernatorial staff participating.
As far as the “parades” mentioned by the Governor, Sun is confirmed to have attended one parade with Hochul during her tenure: the February 2022 Lunar New Year Parade held in Chinatown. Sun was photographed walking behind the Governor.
The Governor’s schedule shows no interaction with Sun after May 2022, as Sun would begin work with the State Department of Labor in September that year. Sun was fired from her position in March 2023 after evidence of misconduct became apparent.
Local
The last General Meeting of the Suffolk County Legislature began with recognition of a fire or EMS personnel honoree from each of the eighteen legislative districts.
Suffolk County is home to nearly 11,000 volunteer firefighters and more than 3,200 EMS personnel. In 2023, these personnel responded to over 215,000 calls. Year to date, emergency services have seen a 12% increase in fire and EMS calls over the previous year.
The remnants of Hurricane Ernesto that took the north shore by storm, namely Smithtown, Stony Brook, and Rocky Point, saw over 1,200 calls in just one twenty-four-hour period.
“Each fire or emergency demonstrates not only a need for attention to physical infrastructure, but evokes a greater appreciation for the human infrastructure, especially the firefighters and emergency services personnel that respond to save lives, repair communities, and prepare for the next critical situation,” said Presiding Officer Kevin McCaffrey (R-Lindenhurst). “I cannot recall the last time I rose at three in the morning to help a stranger, yet these men and women leave their homes and their families to protect and save our homes and families – at all hours of the day and night and despite all levels of risk.”
The Honorees: (pictured below)
Mark Donnelly, Wading River – First District
Alan Burke, Montauk – Second District
Vincent Zarcone, Mastic – Third District
Kenneth “Tyler” VanGorden, Selden
Fourth District
Rich Leute, Setauket – Fifth District
Matthew Gropper, Middle Island
Sixth District
Michael Barry, Medford – Seventh District
Raymond Audett, Bohemia – Eighth District
William Menendez, Brentwood – Ninth District
Gerald “Gerry” O’Mara, Ronkonkoma
Tenth District
John McAuley, West Islip – Eleventh District
Nesconset Fire Department – Twelfth District
Kings Park Fire Department
Thirteenth District
Michael DeGregorio, Lindenhurst
Fourteenth District
Evins Delusme, Wyandanch – Fifteenth District
Todd Cohen, Dix Hills – Sixteenth District
Brian Thomas, Deer Park
Seventeenth District
Shane McCoy, Northport – Eighteenth District
