Blakeman is no surprise Republican candidate

                                                                         

Bruce Blakeman (from BruceBlakeman twitter)

Let's talk politics, frankly.

Both Democrats and Republicans claimed to be surprised today when the Nassau Republican Party, headed by Joe Cairo, selected Hempstead Town Councilman Bruce Blakeman to challenge Democrat County Executive Laura Curran this November.

In truth, with Nassau Republicans, the party's candidate is really the chairman's choice.

Blakeman was said to be a favored candidate since early January when he appeared at a news conference with Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin and Tax Receiver Jeanine Driscoll to ask Gov. Andrew Cuomo to push back the deadline for paying the first half general tax bill.

Many political insiders scoffed then. Blakeman had run too many times before for other political office and lost: for state comptroller*, U.S. Senator and U.S. Congress.

But Blakeman, a former presiding officer of the Nassau legislature, had one thing that other potential county executive candidates didn't have: He's 65, putting him close to the same age bracket as Cairo, who is 75.

Cairo appears to be more comfortable with people in his own age group. He appointed longtime friend Joseph Kearney, 76, as commissioner of the Board of Elections. He nominated Hempstead Councilman Dennis Dunne, 70, to run-- and lose--against first-term Democratic state Sen. Kevin Thomas of Levittown last year. 

The other suggested county executive candidates come from different generations -- Legis. John Ferretti of Levittown and Assemb. Ed Ra of Garden City South are in their late 30s, Legis. Steve Rhoads of Bellmore, former State Sen. Jack Martins and Legis. Laura Schaefer of Westbury are in their early 50s.

Also in his favor, Blakeman is an experienced campaigner; he is a smooth, well-spoken and attractive candidate who comes from an politically active Valley Stream Republican family. His father was a state assemblyman, his brother worked at the White house. He is expected to be a competent fundraiser.

And, perhaps most important, he helped Cairo, the longtime GOP leader of North Valley Stream, defeat a political rival.

Blakeman in Oct. 2017 endorsed Laura Gillen, the Democratic challenger to incumbent Republican Hempstead Town Supervisor Anthony Santino. Gillen subsequently defeated Santino. In return, Gillen appointed Blakeman as her deputy supervisor in the town.

At the time, it was a shocker. Normally, endorsing a Republican incumbent's opponent would infuriate Republican loyalists.

But Santino's rough management style had angered the party's foot soldiers. who work in the
Republican-controlled town.

And though everybody at the time denied it, everybody also knew that Santino was angling to become Nassau party chairman when longtime leader Joe Mondello eventually retired. Santino had served as Mondello's top aide and spokeman for 30 years.

But Cairo, who had been Mondello's second-in-command in the same period, also expected the job. 

By the time Mondello resigned in May 2018 to become an ambassador, Santino had lost his election and was no longer a player for committee chairman.

And then Gillen lost to Republican Clavin in 2019, bringing the supervisor's job back into the Republican fold.

Although Blakeman gave many reasoned arguments for his endorsement of Gillen, few really believed at the time that he decided to go off the Republican reservation on his own. 

This could be his reward.

Some think it is also part of a political deal, that's yet to unfold.

 

 

*Correction of the state office Blakeman sought. He ran for comptroller, not attorney general.