How The East Was Lost: Tom Suozzi & Democrats Lose Long Island

Per everything but absentee ballots, Thomas Suozzi, the Democrat two-term Nassau County Executive, has a 237 vote lead over Republican opponent Ed Mangano. The problem is that there are reportedly almost 12,000 absentee ballots. Those ballots might put Mangano over the edge, which might lead to a recount. However many sources on both sides cite this wonder if this is the end for Suozzi. So, you can put one thing in the bank, the Democrat on Long Island are declawed at the least now that the legislature has gone to Republican hands this election day.

Suozzi, at one point, was even touted on this website as a possible replacement for Hillary Clinton. Yet one day ago with a 2009 election snapback, where many of the 2008 voters who came out for Obama disappeared along with the jobs, additional plans for any stepping-up have gone very awry.

If there was panic in the eyes of Nassau Democrats, perhaps it could be finally be seen as they flooded Penn Station last Monday, accosting the dull glazed eyes of Long Island Railroad commuters on their trek home. Perhaps a sudden recognition of how tenuous their control really was came late to a party who mostly sleepwalked through the summer as if their retention was foreordained.

It wasn't.  Democrat hopefuls, campaign managers, party gophers, and other ilk flooded the train station as the herd of commuters passed through them like a cattle call, perhaps then and there might have been a realization that it was too little and too late.

Tom Suozzi's supposed easy ride to a third term blew out in embarrassing fashion as many voters were not seeing change or results.

Ed Mangano, who many thought was going to be run down by Team Suozzi, instead has taken him to the limit. Highly placed Long Island Republicans cited to me that polls were closing between the two weeks ago. Democrats on Long Island then had to split money to try to hold the Legislature and hold off the County Executive at the last minute as a slow realization only hit them at the very end.

Nassau Republicans did not even run on anything new and exciting. They merely played a card that discontent was still rampant and no new taxes were desired. As their party boss Joseph Mondello reaps the rewards, don't buy it. Mondello is who lost NY State control and made to look like a buffoon as Long Island NY Islander hockey fans got under his skin at a rally. Luckily the rest of the party was clear on their objectives.

The Democrats never were very clear on much. Somewhere someone made a fatal mistake in how many new Democrats and voters would come out to the polling booths. This wasn't a new age for Long Island in 2008; it was merely a blip as 2009 ended up back to the same old voting habits.

What did change however was a groundswell by those who felt off put by those 2008 results and continued malaise on Long Island. The result was a political embarrassment that was not a referendum on Obama, but more a referendum on the dull witted punditry on TV, blogs and print that tried to pretend they understood it all.

These days many of these talking heads babble to themselves than have any connection to the public at large or the consumers of their product. MSNBC, Fox News, and even CNN prattle to themselves endlessly and then seem surprised when they are deviated from reality, seeming to believe their own espousals.

The simplicity of the political situation is that people are unhappy. Especially those of an upper middle class in a high tax and deep debited county, who are fearful the bottom is falling out. This is the real story of Long Island and Nassau County. No referendum. No confusion. No jobs. No hope. Only tough days,

For Nassau Democrats, it just got a lot tougher. Even if Suozzi exceeds expectations on the absentee ballots...the Democrats face an uphill battle of reclaiming any strut in their step that occured one year ago facing a Long Island population that is frustrated and now an unfriendly Legislature that is now 11-8 Republican.

Chances are, however, despite the 560 vote lead* before the absentee ballots, their hopes are more optomistic than realistic once those absentee ballots are counted.

 

(*Per a source, the 237 vote lead increases to 560)

 

 

Follow B.D. Gallof on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bdgallof

Comments

[Schoolboardguy]

Just goes to show -- that all politics are local -- and what have you done for me lately. Tom Suozzi came in as a breath of fresh air and cleaned out the crap that was embedded in the Nassau County governmental infrastructure. He then attempted to parlay that into a platform to "fix Albany" -- right idea -- but wrong time -- he ran into the Spitzer express (and then we all endured buyer's remorse). He's also led he charge on the property tax cap (but unfortunately targeted only against school districts).

Tom Suozzi is smart, savvy -- and even in the unlikely event he's ousted from his current job -- he'll be back. In fact if he is out he should immediately resurrect Fix Albany and really get to work.

[forlinis]

Selfishly, I'm glad for the rest of New York and want Tom Suozzi to run for state-wide office soon. I live in Westchester, but grew up on Long Island and saw decades of corruption by Republicans. I'm shocked Nassau residents forgot all of those years of Republican corruption and patronage in place of empty promises of no new taxes. But Nassau's loss will be the state's gain. Go Team Suozzi!

[hepburns]

I live on LI & I can tell you that alot of people I know just voted for whoever was not already in office. The taxes here are sky high & rising. As a lifelong democrat I voted for Souzzi but can totally understand why so many didn't.

[forlinis]

I lived on LI and could never understand why one house was taxed very low and the next very high. Now I'm in Westchester and I don't think there's anywhere in NY (except NYC) where residential taxes are higher. Yet I still agree Tom Suozzi did the right thing in properly assessing property values. It's been unfair on LI for decades ~ **and people knew it!** NY offers lots of services, jobs, beaches, ocean-access, etc., other states don't; that's why we live in W'chester but work in NYC. I know that's not possible for everyone on LI, but the decades of corruption and Civil Service patronage jobs by the Republicans ruined LI. At least in W'chester, taxes are higher than LI (we pay $48K/yr for 1 acre So. W'chester), but we're not paying for decades of debt and corruption like LI'ers are. Public schools here are actually superior to ALL of the private schools here. LI's problem was not Tom Suozzi.

[apx]

Excellent news for Long Islanders. Time for control and common sense to take place.

[jpeskoff]

The facts are simple. Off-year elections have very-low voter turnout. The radical right-wing tea-party crowd was energized and showed up to vote in greater proportions than the general voter.

Anyone who thinks that this election represents a shift of regular voters to the right, is fooling themselves. It doesn't. It just means that voters cannot be complacent and must actually vote, else they find themselves governed by the the angry fringe.

[apx]

Sounds kind of like the 2008 Presidential Election, no?