As he seeks the Democratic nomination for a congressional seat, Suffolk County Legislator Steve Stern has called on his Republican rivals to stand against presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Stern, of Dix Hills, said state Sen. Jack Martins, the GOP nominee to replace Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) should refuse to support Trump, citing Trump’s apparent endorsements from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
Duke, once the grand wizard of the radically racist KKK has called voting against Trump “treason to your heritage”; and Farrakhan, known for anti-Semitic comments, has said he liked Trump’s refusal to take “Jewish money” toward his campaign.
“Hatred and anti-Semitism have no place in our politics,” Stern said in a statement. “… (T)he public deserves to know whether Jack Martins and the Republican candidates for Congress would back a presidential candidate who is willing to accept support from David Duke and Louis Farrakhan.”
A Stern statement noted 11 current or former Republican members of Congress have rejected Trump.
E. O’Brien Murray, Martins’ campaign strategist, said the Democrats vying to hold the district stretching across the North Shore from Whitestone, Queens, to Kings Park should focus on each other until the general election.
“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,” Murray said.
Martins, who got backing from the Nassau, Suffolk and Queens Republican parties in the past week, has not decided whom to support in the presidential race, Murray said.
Retired U.S. Marine David Gurfein of Manhasset, who has been working on a run for Congress for months, also said he hasn’t chosen a presidential candidate.
But he credited Trump for creating “more interest in our political system in recent history than anyone I can think of.”
Gurfein, whom the GOP has reportedly approached about running against Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City), said he rejected a “litmus test” for who should be allowed to support a presidential candidate.
While Duke is “despicable,” he said, Stern’s call and others like it are “not a rational argument.”
“It’s an emotional argument that Democrats are trying to make to undermine people’s freedom of speech, and it’s despicable,” Gurfein said.
Stern is among four Democrats running to replace Israel.
Others are former Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, former North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman and North Hempstead Town Councilwoman Anna Kaplan.
Democratic leaders have reportedly decided not to endorse a candidate before the June 28 primary.
