National
Pursuant to the results of the 2024 elections, the new U.S. House and U.S. Senate have been seated. With the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump (R-FL), Republicans will govern the next two years, at least, with a trifecta, supplied by a 220-215 House majority and a 53-47 Senate majority.
The first order of business of the new Congress is to elect a Speaker, a move on which the certification of the presidential results depended, as a joint-session of Congress is required to certify the results, and, if no candidate received a majority of the 270 electoral votes, Congress would need to preside over the contingent elections.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R, LA-04) won the gavel on the first vote, a stark departure from GOP consensus in the House, which resulted in the historic ousting of then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R, CA-20) in October 2023 after just ten months on the job and the third-shortest Speaker tenure in history. What followed was a contentious series of ballots that produced several other high-profile names in GOP leadership, such as Congressmen Jim Jordan (R, OH-04), Steve Scalise (R, LA-01), and Tom Emmer (R, MN-06).
Republicans did not decide on a new Speaker until they backed Mike Johnson with 220 votes on October 25, with no Republican defections.
This year’s Speaker vote seemed destined for a path of similar contention, as a nominee requires a simple majority of the entire House, not just his or her party’s caucus, to obtain the gavel. Without a majority of the quorum, a Speaker cannot be elected. Three Republicans backed alternative nominees, including Congressman Emmer, while six Republicans did not respond to the initial roll call vote. At roll call, Johnson at 216 votes, just two short of the required majority. Two holdhouts in Ralph Norman (R, SC-05) and Keith Self (R, TX-03) backed Johnson after phone calls from President-elect Trump.
The final count resulted in 218 votes for Johnson (50.23%), 215 for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D, NY-08) (49.54%), with just one vote for Tom Emmer, substantiated by Congressman Thomas Massie (R, KY-04). Fallout over the race for the gavel was anticipated by a near-miss of a government shutdown, which resulted in passage with the endorsement of a spending package about a tenth of the size of the original bill.
Since the House election was handled quickly, Congress was able to certify the results of the presidential election, with Vice President Kamala Harris (D-CA) presiding over the count. No sitting vice president has lost an election, nor has he or she presided over the certification of such a loss since Al Gore (D-TN) lost in 2000.
This year’s certification of presidential results was markedly different from those past: not a single objection was raised to any state’s results, a clear contrast from that of the 2020 election, and those of 2016, 2004, and 2000, the latter three of which Democrats objected to at least one state’s result in each of them.
With no faithless electors, Donald Trump’s win is now official: 312 electoral votes to 226 for Harris, the greatest margin in the Electoral College for a Republican since 1988, and with the third-smallest popular vote margin (1.5%) since 1888.
In other national news, the U.S. has been gripped by multiple terror attacks within an extraordinarily short period of time.
The first came out of New Orleans, where, around 3:00a.m. just off of Bourbon Street during New Years’ Day celebrations, a man drove a pickup truck through a crowd, killing fourteen and injuring thirty-five before being killed by police in an ensuing shootout.
The suspect is Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an American-born resident of Houston whose truck was found with an Islamic State (IS) flag. The FBI has determined that Jabbar was influenced by the IS, now categorizing the attack as an instance of domestic terrorism, as there is, as of now, no evidence there was a foreign direction behind the attack. Jabbar, a U.S. Army Veteran, has allegedly posted videos pledging his allegiance to the IS hours before the attack.
The same day saw a Tesla Cybertruck explode outside Trump Tower in Las Vegas around noon on New Years’ Eve, resulting in the death of the driver and injuries to seven others. The attacker has been identified as Matthew Livelsberger, a U.S. Army Veteran, who committed suicide by gunshot immediately before the explosion. Livelsberger, an American-born, active-duty Special Forces soldier from Colorado Springs, was on leave from overseas duty.
Two letters were obtained by the FBI from his burnt phone, in which Livelsberger denied being a terrorist and admitted using explosives to make a political statement. A December 31 email manifesto was sent to Samuel Shoemate, a retired Army intelligence officer, in which Livelsberger claimed that he was under surveillance by U.S. agencies due to his knowledge of covert military operations and an alleged cover-up of war crimes during a 2019 U.S. airstrike on Afghanistan.
Interestingly, the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks were both perpetrated within just hours of each other, both terrorists had served at Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg), and both vehicles were rented using the same peer-to-peer carsharing service, Turo.
Finally, another New Years’ attack took place outside the Amazura Concert Hall in Queens around 11:15p.m. The venue was full of about ninety attendees for a private event, a vigil for sixteen-year-old Taerion Mungo, who was shot and killed last October. The shooting unfolded when fifteen people were on line outside the at-capacity venue when four men approached the crowd and fired about thirty shots. Ten teenagers were hurt in the shooting, but all were transported to either Jamaica Hospital or New York-Presbyterian Queens with non-life-threatening injuries. All are expected to recover while law enforcement is actively canvassing local medical centers for any gunshot victims who might have gone unaccounted.
The four shooters fled the scene to 143rd Place, where they left in a light-colored sedan with New Jersey license plates. The NYPD is asking anyone with information to contact their hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) for Spanish. All calls and website tips are kept confidential.
State
Albany has welcomed new editions to the State Legislature. Democrats flipped three seats, while Republicans flipped two, giving Democrats a net gain of one seat, securing their supermajority hold of the lower chamber.
From Suffolk, the only seat to see turnover was that of the Fourth District, where former Port Jefferson Village Trustee and Deputy Mayor Rebecca Kassay (D-Port Jefferson) unseated one-term Assemblyman Ed Flood (R-Port Jefferson) by a razor-thin margin. Also in Suffolk, the Eleventh District, which contains much of western Babylon Town and a small part of Massapequa Park, produced freshman Assemblyman Kwani O’Pharrow (D-West Babylon), who defeated Joe Cardinale (R-Amityville) by a single vote in the Suffolk portion of the district.
On the East End, the First District, which includes the South Fork, Shelter Island, Southold, and a few parcels of southeastern Brookhaven, saw the retirement of long-time Assemblyman Fred Thiele (D-Sag Harbor). He is replaced by Tommy John Schiavoni (D-Sag Harbor), who served as a Southampton Town Councilman until his election in November.
Outside Suffolk, Daniel Norber (R-Great Neck) unseated Assemblywoman Gini Sillitti (D-Manorhaven), becoming the first Republican to win an Assembly seat in the Town of North Hempstead in over fifty years. Noah Burroughs (D-Hempstead) held an open seat in the Eighteenth District, while Judy Griffin (D-Rockville Centre) won a third consecutive rematch with Brian Curran (R-Lynbrook), who had represented the seat since 2010, lost to Griffin in 2018, but reclaimed his seat in 2022.
Patrick Chludzinski (R-Cheektowaga) and Aron Wieder (D-Spring Valley) flipped seats for their respective parties and are now official members of the lower chamber. Thirteen freshman members held open seats for their party, three Republicans and ten Democrats.
Assemblyman Joe Sempolinski (R-Canisteo) offers an example of a rather unusual pivot in politics. He previously served in the U.S. House after winning a special election to represent NY-23 from September 2022 until January 2023.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, Republicans picked up only one seat, but successfully cracked the supermajority. The sole flip came in the Seventeenth District, a Brooklyn-based seat represented for just one term by Hong Kong-born Iwen Chu (D-Dyker Heights). Chu won the open seat in 2022 by a razor-thin margin, only to lose to fellow Hong Kong-born Steven Chan (R-Bensonhurst). Chan is the first Asian-American Republican elected to the State Senate and the first Republican since 2018 to represent a Brooklyn-based seat. Contrary to the close margin of 2022, Chan ousted Chu by just under ten points. Democrats enjoy a 57.6% voter registration advantage in a district that is 44% Asian. The district includes Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights, Bath Beach, Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, Kensington, and Gravesend.
“It is an exciting time to return to Albany as we welcome our newest members to the Assembly Minority Conference. Each individual has a proven track record of hard work, professionalism and a deep love and respect for this great state,” said Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay (R-Pulaski). “While much work is ahead, I’m confident these new members will be instrumental in achieving great things for their districts and for our Conference. We are eager and united in our commitment to tackling the state’s most pressing issue and building a brighter future for New York.”
Moreover, members of Suffolk delegation’s Assembly Minority Conference start the year in leadership positions. Jarret Gandolfo (R-Sayville) will serve as Minority Leader Pro Tempore, Doug Smith (R-Holbrook) will serve as Minority Whip, and Michael Fitzpatrick (R-St. James) will serve as Chairman of the Program Committee.
Local
Last month, Suffolk County Ed Romaine (R-Center Moriches) announced a project for sewage effluent reuse at the Bergen Point Wastewater Treatment Plant in West Babylon. The plan consists of using treated effluent to irrigate the adjacent golf course and for the plant’s own internal workings.
“This is one of ten county wastewater treatment plants that we are currently considering for water reuse,” said Romaine. “By utilizing what otherwise would have been a byproduct, we can decrease the pressure on our aquifer by hundreds of millions of gallons a year and even help recharge the aquifer.”
The project is based on a successful model from Riverhead, who utilized their town-owned plant to irrigate the nearby golf course. The reuse system at Bergen Point is expected to be operational within the next two years, and is estimated to save 20 million gallons of water per year on irrigation alone. Internal plant reuse can save up to two million gallons per day.
Legislators Tom Donnelly (D-Deer Park) and Ann Welker (D-Southampton) joined Romaine to endorse the decision, as well as demonstrate the bipartisanship of the idea in tandem with Presiding Officer Kevin McCaffrey (R-Lindenhurst) and Deputy Presiding Officer Steve Flotteron (R-Brightwaters).
