Steve Stern isn’t the only North Shore congressional candidate worried about Donald Trump.
In an op-ed this week, North Hempstead Town Councilwoman Anna Kaplan (D-Great Neck) said the Republican presidential frontrunner’s speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference on Monday left her feeling “almost sick to my stomach.”
While she agreed with some of Trump’s pro-Israel points, Kaplan wrote, she wasn’t buying them, given his previous “offensive” remarks about Jewish people and how “disrespectful” his speech was to President Barack Obama.“It was like watching a hypnotist perform a trick. “Or the reality TV star pander for ratings he is,” wrote the Great Neck councilwoman, one of several North Hempstead officials to write a letter to federal lawmakers opposing the U.S. nuclear deal with Iran.
Kaplan joins Stern among the Democratic candidates for Rep. Steve Israel’s North Shore congressional seat who have criticized Trump.
Stern’s campaign has issued two news releases asking whether state Sen. Jack Martins of Old Westbury, the Republican candidate for the Third District, would join the Republican officials who have denounced the New York real estate mogul.
Nassau County Republican Committee Chairman Joseph Mondello endorsed Trump last week, calling him “the leader our nation needs at this critical time in history.”
In a phone interview Wednesday, Martins campaign strategist E. O’Brien Murray declined to say whether Martins would support Trump were he the Republican nominee, referring to the answer he gave when first asked about Trump three weeks ago.
“When the Democrats finish their bloodbath of a primary and are crawling across the finish line, we’ll be happy to address the attacks from any one of them,” he said in a March 9 interview.
David Gurfein, a Manhasset Republican who recently moved the focus of his campaign from the Third to the Fourth Congressional District, said he will support any GOP nominee, including Trump.
Republican voters can’t control who gets on November’s ballot, the retired U.S. Marine said, and will have to support “the lesser of two evils.”
“I’m not necessarily saying that Donald Trump would be the lesser of two evils, but I am saying when you compare the Republican nominee and what the Republican Party will bring to the table versus what the Democratic Party has done over the past eight years … you have to realize that it’s time for a change,” said Gurfein, who’s opposing incumbent Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City).
Neither Gurfein nor Martins have decided who to support in the Republican primary.
Stern also attended the AIPAC conference, as did Democratic congressional hopefuls Jon Kaiman, former North Hempstead supervisor, and former Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi.
The Dix Hills legislator said Trump’s AIPAC speech left him “more repulsed … than ever.”
“My support for Israel comes from my heart, from ducking for cover as rockets flew over my head in S’derot, and from my deeply personal belief in the bond between our countries,” Stern said in a statement. “True supporters of Israel know a wolf in sheep’s clothing when they see one, and Donald Trump is just that.”
