Friday, February 17, 2006
Jay Jacobs, chairman of the Nassau County Democratic Committee, is demanding the suspension of Jerry Kremer’s op-ed column in this newspaper until after the November elections.
Jacobs argues that Kremer’s endorsement last month of Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in the race for governor taints his commentary and undermines the credibility of an apolitical publication like Long Island Business News.
For the record, Kremer made the endorsement at a news conference with other leading Dems, not in these pages. Nonetheless, Jacobs, a supporter of Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi’s likely bid for governor, says Kremer should be prevented from espousing his views on the campaign until after the next governor is chosen.
Jacobs made the demands in a letter to the newspaper and also copied the chairman of LIBN’s corporate parent, Dolan Media Co. of Minneapolis.
As proof of Kremer’s partisanship, Jacobs offers up a Jan. 27 piece on the role of spouses on the campaign trail. At one point, Kremer described Spitzer’s wife as “attractive” and “an accomplished public speaker,” later mentioning that Suozzi’s wife, Helene, had also campaigned on behalf of her husband.
Jacobs took special umbrage with the next sentence: “Don’t expect Jeanine Pirro’s husband to show up when she travels the state in the attorney general’s race.”
This, Jacobs maintains, is Kremer’s way of linking Mrs. Suozzi to a “convicted felon.”
“Real balanced and fair!!!” Jacobs scrawled sarcastically on a copy of the column.
Kremer tells us he contacted Suozzi the day before endorsing the Democratic frontrunner and that the county executive demanded that he stop writing for LIBN or serving as a political analyst for cable station News 12 Long Island.
“You’re backing a loser,” Suozzi said, according to Kremer.
A Suozzi aide dismissed the comment as inaccurate but offered no further comment.
Kremer did decide to refrain from commenting on the gubernatorial campaign on News 12 until primary night, but his role here is different. We asked him to represent the liberal viewpoint on our op-ed pages and teamed him with card-carrying conservatives John Kiernan and Al D’Amato for balance. If he didn’t have an opinion, his columns wouldn’t be worth reading. We stand by our man, who for years has delivered fair and insightful columns.
At the same time, we don’t endorse candidates and Kremer’s personal support of Spitzer is just that – his own.
Jacobs’ attempts to silence any dissenting view is abhorrent. Back off, Jay.
