Election Day in Nassau County, Long Island
Even though I really did not feel like doing it, civic duty called and I showed up at my inconvenient polling place. While many of the local elections are difficult to make informed decisions about, that was not the case of the County Commissioner race.
Tom Suozzi, the Democratic challenger, had been County Commissioner for eight years before losing four years ago to the current incumbent, Repubilican Ed Mangano. Suozzi lost the last election, in this opinion, because he took the race too lightly and did not wage a very active campaign. I guess he thought that getting the County's bond rating raised multiple times during his tenure proved his worth after years and years of transparently corrupt Republican administrations that dug a deep hole, essentially the machine that Al D'Amato created in local politics before he became a U.S. Senator. Suozzi was wrong. His challenger Mangano, a politician with minimal credentials, won that race by 368 votes.
In Mangano's recent four years the County has had three bond downgrades and New York State has taken over financial supervisory responsibility. Mangano's advertising is blatantly false on almost all counts, whether his depiction of his challenger Suozzi's record or his own "accomplishments".
Nassau County had for many years been assumed to a Republican county, and Mangano has a base that he can count on. Suozzi has a solid record to stand on, but it seems obvious that he does not have the advertising dollars of Mangano.
This made voting essential. There was one other race that I had strong opinion on, one in which my vote went to a responsible and effective Republican woman who was being opposed by an arrogant publicity hog on the Democratic side, but otherwise just left about half of the choices blank. There were six referendums that I was unfamiliar with but made decisions on the spot as I read the summaries, opinions that were intuitive. I voted for two of them and against four. The only one that I remember fully now five hours later is that I voted against casino gambling. We don't need that, and unless you are on Native American tribal land the only thing allowed is slot machines. Once having been in an an Arizona airport sized hangar of slot machines being fully used, I can only describe it as one of the most depressing things that I have ever seen.
We will wait for the results tomorrow, which I realize are irrelevant to 99% of those that might possibly read this or you have even made it this far. Voting is an important right and even obligation so that's my two cents worth.
Tom Suozzi, the Democratic challenger, had been County Commissioner for eight years before losing four years ago to the current incumbent, Repubilican Ed Mangano. Suozzi lost the last election, in this opinion, because he took the race too lightly and did not wage a very active campaign. I guess he thought that getting the County's bond rating raised multiple times during his tenure proved his worth after years and years of transparently corrupt Republican administrations that dug a deep hole, essentially the machine that Al D'Amato created in local politics before he became a U.S. Senator. Suozzi was wrong. His challenger Mangano, a politician with minimal credentials, won that race by 368 votes.
In Mangano's recent four years the County has had three bond downgrades and New York State has taken over financial supervisory responsibility. Mangano's advertising is blatantly false on almost all counts, whether his depiction of his challenger Suozzi's record or his own "accomplishments".
Nassau County had for many years been assumed to a Republican county, and Mangano has a base that he can count on. Suozzi has a solid record to stand on, but it seems obvious that he does not have the advertising dollars of Mangano.
This made voting essential. There was one other race that I had strong opinion on, one in which my vote went to a responsible and effective Republican woman who was being opposed by an arrogant publicity hog on the Democratic side, but otherwise just left about half of the choices blank. There were six referendums that I was unfamiliar with but made decisions on the spot as I read the summaries, opinions that were intuitive. I voted for two of them and against four. The only one that I remember fully now five hours later is that I voted against casino gambling. We don't need that, and unless you are on Native American tribal land the only thing allowed is slot machines. Once having been in an an Arizona airport sized hangar of slot machines being fully used, I can only describe it as one of the most depressing things that I have ever seen.
We will wait for the results tomorrow, which I realize are irrelevant to 99% of those that might possibly read this or you have even made it this far. Voting is an important right and even obligation so that's my two cents worth.
posted by John Borden at 5:53 PM
1 Comments:
O for 3 here in the three contests that I revealed my vote. The Republican easily won over the more accomplished Democratic challenger. It seems that the primary issue was over taxes, and it baffles anyone who looks at it with a rational mind how anyone can lower taxes in that is in serious debt, so much so that the state has taken over partial control of its financial system.
Casino's also won big, so 7 new casinos will be up and running in then next few years. It seems that four will be resort casinos that have the full range of betting, not just slots.
Finally the Republican that I voted for for Town Clerk, it's a very large town and sort of a misnonmmer, lost in close race to the Democratic attention seeker and career pol.
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