Stony Brook and the math of Dem House donations

Daily Point

Simons says ... Nancy Goroff for Congress? 

On an electoral map, Suffolk’s 1st Congressional District can seem like a sea of red Republicanism with patches of Democratic blue. One of the most notable exceptions is the Setauket-Stony Brook area — home base for Renaissance Technologies, the financial powerhouse created by billionaire James Simons, which has proved to be a veritable ATM cash machine for Democratic political contributions.

One of the favorite candidates for Simons and the RenTech crowd has been Nancy Goroff, who lost a 2020 race for a House seat then held by Republican Lee Zeldin by almost 10 percentage points. Goroff hopes to get the Democratic nomination again this year against GOP incumbent Nicholas LaLota but faces a primary challenge from journalist John Avlon, until recently a CNN political analyst. In the first week since his announcement,
Avlon’s campaign said it has raised $400,000.

Avlon, a sharp critic of Donald Trump, may be a more charismatic candidate than Goroff, a retired Stony Brook University faculty member who once headed its chemistry department. But Goroff will have no problem raising money.

Campaign records by the end of 2023, part of this election year cycle, showed that Goroff had already raised more than $600,000. From that amount, $71,000 came from 26 individual contributors who identified themselves as working for Renaissance Technologies, the Wall Street hedge fund started by Simons, a former Stony Brook math department chair. What others from the Renaissance constellation may have contributed so far in 2024 has yet to be disclosed. The next filing deadline is March 31.

But back in 2020, Goroff collected a total $146,400 from 67 individual contributors who said they worked for Renaissance. That included $5,600 from Simons. However, that same year, Simons also contributed $5 million to a Democratic-affilated PAC for House candidates. Goroff also personally lent $2.1 million to her 2020 campaign, a sign of her own ability to fund her efforts this year, records show.

Last year, Simons with his wife Marilyn had contributed a total $9.3 million to various Democratic political causes, including the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Future Forward (a Democratic-aligned super PAC), and $600,000 to President Biden’s reelection effort, records show.

Goroff’s personal history has a Renaissance connection. In 1997, Goroff joined Stony Brook University as a research scientist around the same time her then-husband, applied mathematician Glen Whitney, joined the quantitative hedge fund in East Setauket started by Simons.

Going into this year, Goroff had reported giving her campaign $6,700. But should she gain the Democratic nomination, expect Goroff and her friends to raise a lot more dough.

— Thomas Maier thomas.maier@newsday.com

Pencil Point

1040 holes

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Final Point

A monumental step for Plum Island

Plum Island, with its legendary history east of Long Island’s North Fork, may be taking one more step toward becoming a national monument.

On Thursday, a legislative hearing before the House Federal Lands Subcommittee, part of the Committee on Natural Resources, will consider the Plum Island National Monument Act. It’s sponsored by Rep. Nicholas LaLota, whose district includes Plum Island and follows the groundwork laid by his predecessor, Lee Zeldin.

The House hearing will feature an opening statement by LaLota and five-minute presentation by at least one witness, environmentalist Louise Harrison, according to Colen Morrow, clerk for the subcommittee.

For several years, Harrison’s umbrella group — the Preserve Plum Island Coalition which represents about 120 organizations — has been pushing to save Plum Island’s natural, historical and cultural heritage. In 2020, it helped stop the U.S. government’s plan to auction off the federally owned island. Instead, it has promoted making Plum Island into a national monument that can be visited by the public.

For decades, Plum Island was the restricted site of an animal diseases lab run by the federal government. A decommissioning of the site by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is expected to be finished by 2031, and is being overseen by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

While LaLota’s bill is working its way through Congress, advocates like Harrison are also hoping that President Biden might designate Plum Island as a national monument under the already existing 1906 Antiquities Act. That move has been supported by New York’s U.S. Sens. Kirtsen Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer since 2022.

— Thomas Maier thomas.maier@newsday.com

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