Need to Look Elsewhere for Nassau History Lessons
By Mike Barry

Even in its diminished capacity, the Newsday editorial board’s ability to distort Nassau County’s governmental and political history remains undiminished.

“The Nassau County Republican Party was courted by presidents, launched the career of a U.S. senator, ruled the State Legislature, dominated Nassau County and outright owned the Town of Hempstead. But the party’s reputation as the one of the strongest GOP machines in the nation ended Tuesday night [November 7],” opined The Point, the Newsday editorial board’s email blast (‘GOP machine breaks down’). The missive was sent hours after the election of Nassau County Executive Laura Curran (D-Baldwin) and Town of Hempstead Supervisor Laura Gillen (D-Rockville Centre).

Besides the part about the Town of Hempstead, everything the editorial board purportedly knows just isn’t so. No Republican presidential nominee has won Nassau County since 1988. Former U.S. Senator Al D’Amato, a Nassau County native, was retired by the state’s voters in 1998. Nassau’s Republicans held neither the county executive’s office nor a majority in the county Legislature for eight straight years (2002-2009) and the Nassau GOP has not “ruled the State Legislature” in decades, if ruling the state Legislature means having a state lawmaker in a position of power in both the state Assembly and the state Senate.

A Nassau County Republican ‘political machine’ exists only in the fevered imagination of Newsday’s editorial board and the Democrats who use Newsday’s content either as a source for opposition research or to fill their direct-mail pieces. The myth also insults the intelligence of the county’s registered Republicans, who have shown the capacity to vote for candidates other than ones favored by the Nassau GOP’s decision-makers.

Indeed, I was elected a delegate pledged to U.S. Senator John McCain in 2000’s Republican presidential primary from the state’s 4th Congressional District (Nassau County) even though Nassau County’s Republican Committee favored then-Governor George W. Bush. The reason—Nassau County’s registered Republicans make up their own minds.

The headwinds were truly blowing against the county’s Republican candidates in 2017. A sitting GOP Nassau County executive spent 2017 under the cloud of federal corruption charges and a Republican town of Oyster Bay supervisor resigned in early 2017 soon after also being indicted. Yet the GOP majority in the Nassau County Legislature remained intact in 2017, albeit dropping to 11-8, from 12-7. Moreover, the Town of Oyster Bay’s appointed incumbent supervisor, Joseph Saladino (R-Massapequa), is now its elected one.

The Town of Hempstead is where the political earthquake took place, with Supervisor Laura Gillen becoming the first Democrat in a century to win Town Hall’s top elective post. Her victory over Supervisor Anthony Santino (R-East Rockaway) was an extraordinary accomplishment, assisted in part by Republican in-fighting on Hempstead’s Town Board. In a stunning move, Hempstead Town Councilman Bruce Blakeman (R-Atlantic Beach) even publicly endorsed Gillen this year while Gillen repeatedly praised Councilwoman Erin King Sweeney (R-Wantagh), another Santino critic/target, during the campaign.

This sets the stage for an incredible dynamic in 2018 on the Hempstead Town Board, where Republicans will hold a 5-2 majority. All signs point, however, to situations where a 4-3 vote will emerge, with Councilman Blakeman and Councilwoman King Sweeney siding with Supervisor Gillen and Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby (D-Hempstead) on certain matters. When this happens, a few editorials may appear saying bi-partisanship in Hempstead is a sign the ‘GOP machine is off the rails.’ But it’ll be written about in that way by only one newspaper’s editorial board.