Describe your local elections this fall

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Nassau County 14th LD


Incumbent Democrat Dave Mejias  first elected in 2003(who ran against Peter King in the 3rd CD last year) is running for re-election to his 3rd term in the Nassau County Legislature is running against republican Joe Belesi, don't know much about him honestly other that he has had ties to the Nassau PBA and was close with the Gullota administration and his campaign is focusing on the GOP five year assessment freeze plan.  The district covers portions of east-central and southeast Nassau County, has a long narrow strip that runs north and south in eastern Nassau along the Suffolk border from central Nassau south and juts out further west in some sections.  The population is approx 70,000 or so and a a whole leans Republican (not sure of the exact amount but the district has about a 8-12% registration  advantage (have seen numbers from a 4,000-6,000 advantage).  Despite the GOP lean, Mejias will likely win re-election.




Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor

Republican Incumbent John Venditto first elected in 1997 is seeking a sixth term.  He is facing Democrat Joe Terino who is an Attorney.  Big issues here revolve around improving then environment as well as some area development programs and consolidating some of the taxes and services to reduce taxes in the Town of Oyster Bay which is the highest Per Capita on Long Island.  Despite the Democrats recent success on Long Island, the Town of Oyster Bay is still in GOP as they control everything in the town.  In fact they won back the one town council seat they did not have in the 05 election (their are three).  The Town of Oyster Nay is also the only town in Nassau Bush won in 2004, winning it by 2.9%, though much of that is due to the Bush bounce in the area in 04 which is long gone, Gore won the town in 2000 by 10.05%.  Not sure of the exact amount but would say registration the GOP probably has an advantage of around 10%



  Demographics (2006 estimate)

population 299,635
white 83.25%
Asian 7.58%
Hispanic 6.57%
Black 1.83%

ethnicities
Italian 31.23%
irish 19.82%
German 14.99%
Polish 7.2%
Russian 5.15%

Median household income $97,934

Median Home Value $556,800

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We have both Town and County elections this year.

Suffolk County:

County Executive:  Steve Levy, the Democratic incumbent, has been cross-endorsed by the Republican Party.  He's pretty much guaranteed re-election with such bi-partisan support, and I plan to vote for him.  His only main competition is Peter Busacca, who is running on the Integrity line of the ballot.

County Legislator:  The County Legislature is divided into 18 districts.  I am in the 6th district.  Incumbent Republican Dan Losquadro is running for re-election against Democrat Bryan Lilly.  Losquadro is the minority leader in the legislature, and has a good chance to be re-elected.  I plan to vote for him.

Town of Brookhaven:

Town Supervisor:  Incumbent Democrat Brian X Foley is running for re-election and I expect him to be re-elected pretty easily.  His opponent is Republican Robert DiCarlo, a former Brooklyn State Senator.  He's been airing some attack ads, but I just don't see the GOP taking back the Supervisor's seat this year.

Town Council:  The Town Council has 6 districts, I am in district 4.  Democratic Incumbent Connie Kepert is running for re-election against Republican Roberta Owens.  I expect Kepert to keep the seat, but Owens is an unusual candidate for a Republican.  She's Vice-President of the local NAACP chapter and Chairwoman of the town Black History Commission.  I'm a bit undecided on this race.

One of the major reasons of the Republican cross-endorsement of Levy was to limit the Democratic coattails in the Legislature as well as no Republican wanting to take him on since he would have destroyed everyone.  Do you think the cross-endorsement helps the GOP limit the Levy coattails in regard to the Legislature and other down ballot races or do you think it makes very little difference?

I agree that Foley will win easily.  DiCarlo's chances are about as good as the GOP candidate would have been against Levy (if they had a candidate)

It really is amazing what has happened to the Brookhaven GOP which was really dominant for so many years, as well as the Islip GOP, and both are basically dead.  It use to go back and forth on who is more dominant in Long Island politics the Brookhaven or Islip GOP.  Now its a back and forth battle about who is more pathetic in Long Island politics the Brookhaven or Islip GOP.

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Do you think the cross-endorsement helps the GOP limit the Levy coattails in regard to the Legislature and other down ballot races or do you think it makes very little difference?

It really is amazing what has happened to the Brookhaven GOP which was really dominant for so many years, as well as the Islip GOP, and both are basically dead.  It use to go back and forth on who is more dominant in Long Island politics the Brookhaven or Islip GOP.  Now its a back and forth battle about who is more pathetic in Long Island politics the Brookhaven or Islip GOP.

I think the cross-endorsement will make little difference down ballot honestly.  I was pretty much planning to vote for Levy anyway, even though he's a Democrat.  I like him, and I think he's done a decent job.

As for the local GOP parties, you're absolutely right that they have both gone into total meltdown.  I expect it will take a better part of a decade to recover, but you never know.

With the way the area has moved politically on the national level they could possibly become basically defunct like the Babylon GOP, Huntington GOP and North Hempstead GOP all are.

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My predictions for the local elections here are as follows

Nassau county Leg-  Now Dems have 10-9 majority, will be 11-8 after election day.  18 of the 19 Incumbents are running for re-election (one of which was elected in a special election earlier this year to replace Craig Johnson who won a Special Election for the state Senate.  The only one who isn't is Lizanne Altman a Democrat from Great Neck in the 10th LD.  Judi Bosworth a Democrat will easily win the open seat in the heavily Democratic and very liberal district.

One of the GOP's top targets is my district the 14th LD, a seat currently held by Dave Mejias (Peter King's opponent last year for Congress).  The district has a 3-2 GOP voter registration advantage and the GOP will try to use that to their advantage and have been heavily targeting Mejias, especially in regards to their assessment freeze plan (or well gimmick).  Won't be enough to unseat Mejias who wins 53.3- 46.7


One of the Dems top targets is Republican John cotti in the 3rd LD.(Elmont, franklin Square)   Running against him is his 2005 opponent Ali Mirza, who will narrowly defat cotti 51.4-48.6

Town of Oyster Bay

Incumbent Republican John venditto easily defeats Joe Terino 63-37.  The GOP which holds all 3 seats on the TOB council as well as Town Clerk and Receiver of Taxes, keep hold of their dominance in the TOB and win all of the seats, though the 3rd seat on the council will be clsoe.

Towns of Hempstead & North Hempstead.   Much like Vednitto, the two Incumbents Republican Kate Murray in Hempstead and John Kaiman in North Hempstead are assured victory & easily.   Murray wins 64-36, kaiman wins 62-38

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Results from Long Island

All 3 Nassau Supervisors won re-electio districtn as did Glen Cove mayor Ralph Suozzi (Tom Suozzi's cousin)

Legislature looks like it remains the same, the only Incumbent not running Lisanne Altman (D-Great Neck) has gone to Judy Bosworth D-Great Neck.  17 of the other 18 Incumbents have won and their elections have been called.  The remaining one my district LD 14 has not been called.  However the Incumbent Democrat Dave Mejias leads 6182 to 5960 (50.91-49.09) according to the Nassau County BOE with all 57 Ed's in though their are about 350 Absentee ballots.  The GOP has an approx 6,000 voter registration advantage in the district (double digit % wise the largest they have in any dem held seat) and according to Nassau Dem Chairman Jay Jacobs the state & county GOP dumped $1 million into the race

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Results from Long Island

News from Suffolk:

Suffolk County Dems celebrated Tuesday as their party remained in the majority in the Legislature.

The Democrats were able to maintain their balance of power by picking up another seat in the 4th Legislative District. Another victory for the Democrats included the Islip Town supervisor position. Democrat Phil Nolan defeated Clara Datre with 69 percent of the vote. It's the first time since 1931 that the Democrats have a 4-1 majority in Islip Town.

However, Republicans were celebrating their victory in Brookhaven where they took over the town board. The GOP chairman said although his party didn't win the majority, Brookhaven is Republican again. Despite gaining the town board, the Democrats won the supervisor seat with a victory by incumbent Brian Foley.

the 4th LD was a good pickup for the Dems & a bit of a surprise.  While I don't think its quite as Republican as the 14th in Nassau (my district) it i a very GOP district registration wise

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Amusingly, the one race where I voted for the Democrat over the Republican, the Republican won.

2 out of 3 propositions went the way I wanted them to though.

Receiver of taxes??

What prop didn't go the way you wanted?  the 1/4 cent sales tax extension passing?

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Amusingly, the one race where I voted for the Democrat over the Republican, the Republican won.

2 out of 3 propositions went the way I wanted them to though.

Receiver of taxes??

What prop didn't go the way you wanted?  the 1/4 cent sales tax extension passing?

That's the proposition.  And no, actually it was the 6th county LD.  Although the receiver of taxes race surprised me considering Foley won.

At first I was thinking that then I read your initial post where you said you planned to vote for Losquardo.   How is the makeup of the district?  he won by a solid enough margin, but it did seem rather close for the leader of the Suffolk GOP in the Legilature??

As far a the Receiver of Taxes, probably had quite a bit to do with those voting straigh 3rd party ticket as Marcoccia was also on the Independence, Conservative and Working Family Lines while Bissonette only had the Dem line.   Bissonnette actually had a higher % on the Dem line than Foley did, but those who voted Foley on the WF & Independence lines likely voted for Marccocia on the WF & Ind lines as well