Did you see the results in Long Island? Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, the Democrat that was so highly touted that he actually had gubernatorial aspirations, only received 48.1% and is clinging to a 237-vote lead over Republican challenger Edward Mangano (who got 48.0%); had Mangano won the Conservative Party endorsement, we would have picked up the seat (the Conservative Party candidate got 3.9%) without having to wait for absentee ballots and recounts and such.
For Nassau Comptroller, Republican George Maragos got 50.1% over incumbent Democrat Howard Weitzman, and has a 576-vote lead with all precincts in. Expect a recount.
The GOP also reclaimed a majority in the Nassau County Legislature, with Republican Howard Kopel defeating incumbent Democrat Jeffrey Toback by 9%. The GOP may also be able to pad its new majority due to the fact that Republican Joseph Belesi appears to have defeated incumbent Democrat David Mejias (who was often mentioned as a potential candidate against Peter King) by 28 votes.
http://elections.nytimes.com/2009/results/long-island.html
All told, quite an impressive showing in Nassau County. I hope this bodes well for regaining a couple of the state senate seats that the GOP lost in 2007 and 2008.
I was pleased about the results in Nassau County, as I truly believed that my home county was forever lost to the Dems. My only fear is that these new folks will be “Gulotta Republicans” and beholden to the public sector unions (especially the PBA)/NEA/AFT. There isn’t much that they can do about property taxes, as those are largely past at the “Town” level (towns on LI being agglomerations of villages and unincorporated areas).
"The attacks went the other way, too. A Queens newspaper that is partially owned by Mr. Ackerman published a cover article about Mr. Halloran’s religious beliefs. He is an adherent of Theodism, a neo-pagan faith that attempts to reconstruct the pre-Christian tribal religions of the European Germanic people. (Mr. Kim did not explicitly make an issue of Mr. Halloran’s religious beliefs.)"
Ouch, heartbreaking close loss if Suozzi pulls it out. I’m surprised the GOP took the county council. That’s excellent. The rat exec of Westchester county lost. Local rats in NYC burbs losing popularity? It’s about time for the voters to start getting fatigued with them.
Also it’s great to see the GOP city council candidates in Queens win Asian voters.