PBA Backed Candidates Win!

Control of the Nassau legislature remained in doubt late last night as Democrats struggled to hold on to a one-vote majority, while Republicans fought to regain the power they lost eight years ago.

Incumbent Legis. David Mejias (D-Farmingdale) claimed victory last night in a tightly contested race against Republican Joseph Belesi, a retired police sergeant, for the 14th District seat. But Nassau Republican Chairman Joseph Mondello declared the race too close to call.

When Jay Jacobs, the Nassau County Democratic chairman, announced Mejias' apparent victory, the incumbent pumped his fist in the air and pointed at his supporters gathered in East Meadow.

"This victory is particularly sweet because this is the most negative campaign I have ever been involved with," Mejias said.

Although both parties said Mejias was slightly ahead on voting machines, some 300 absentee ballots still need to be counted.

Addressing the crowd at the GOP celebration in Westbury, Belesi, referring to Mejias, said, "With the recount, we're going to take this guy out and he knows it."

But Jacobs said he was confident Belesi could not overtake Mejias' lead, though results may not be final until next week. "We're operating on the assumption of Dave Mejias being elected and we're moving forward on that basis," Jacobs said.

A Mejias win means Democrats will hold the 10-9 majority they first won in 1999, when voters angry over the county's fiscal crisis ousted five GOP incumbents.

A Belesi victory would return control to Republicans, putting lawmakers on a collision course with Democratic County Executive Thomas Suozzi. Minority Leader Peter Schmitt (R-Massapequa), who has often clashed with Suozzi, would then become presiding officer.

Mondello declared that Republican incumbent John Ciotti had defeated Democratic challenger Ali Mirza, a Suozzi aide, even though Democrats outnumber Republicans in western Nassau's 3rd District by a 6,000-vote margin.

Ciotti was considered the most vulnerable Republican.

All remaining incumbents were re-elected while Democrat Judy Bosworth easily took the 10th District seat being vacated by Legis. Lisanne Altmann in heavily Democratic Great Neck.

Democrats campaigned on the theme that they had fixed the county's finances after Republican control drove Nassau close to bankruptcy eight years ago.

"The issue for voters has always been property taxes and we have made the best case we could that since Democrats have taken over, they have been fiscally prudent, kept costs down and not raised property taxes for the past five years," Jacobs said.

Republicans took aim at Nassau's unpopular annual countywide property tax reassessments, campaigning to freeze assessment increases for five years. They also concentrated mailings in Mejias' district on Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer's controversial proposal to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

Mondello, who also is the state GOP leader, said, "Taxes were the main issue, from the beginning to the end of this campaign, but certainly Gov. Spitzer's plan to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens was something that touched a nerve with a lot of voters."

Besides Mejias, Republicans had targeted two other Democrats as vulnerable: Diane Yatauro of Glen Cove and Jeffrey Toback of Oceanside.

But Yatauro, a former bank vice president, defeated Republican Elizabeth Faughnan, an Oyster Bay Town Board member in Nassau's North Shore 18th district; Toback beat Howard Kopel, a title insurance company owner from Lawrence for the 7th District seat, which includes the Five Towns.

Also subject to repeated Republican mailings were Democratic incumbents David Denenberg of Merrick and Joseph Scannell of Baldwin.

Although Republicans hold a slim margin over Democrats in Denenberg's South Shore 19th District, the incumbent, who is known as one of the hardest working lawmakers, easily defeated Hempstead town employee John Podolski. Scannell beat Republican Chris Browne, a one-time aide to Rudy Giuliani.

Staff writers William Murphy, Deborah Morris and Susana Enriquez contributed to this story.

By CELESTE HADRICK (Newsday)
Posted Friday, November 9, 2007

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