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The battle lines finally appear to be drawn in the race for the 4th Congressional District seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City). Laura Gillen Democratic candidate Laura Gillen, a former Hempstead Town supervisor, seemed to disappear from public view for weeks after she won a four-way primary on Aug. 23 for the right to run on the Democratic line for Congress this November.   At the same time, Republican candidate Anthony D'Esposito, a retired New York City detective who is a member of the Republican-controlled Hempstead Town Board, kept chugging away. Anthony D'Esposito But there were no fireworks. No hot button issues. D'Esposito sent out a photo of himself at the Southern border -- but this was before Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis outraged Democrats by sending 50 migrants into the posh, elite vacation island of Martha's Vineyard. D'Esposito also sent out several ho-hum mailers, calling Gillen a "tax and spend" liberal whil

                                                                             Bruce Blakeman It wasn't hidden in Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman's proposed 2023 budget, but it wasn't publicized either. Blakeman has proposed a $220,294 annual salary for the county executive next year -- nearly $24,000 more than Democratic County Executive Laura Curran was getting paid when she left office in December. Curran for four years refused automatic pay raises stipulated in a pay bill approved by the county legislature more than a decade ago. So in effect, Blakeman is taking 12.18 percent in cumulative retroactive pay hikes that the county executive was entitled to receive --  but didn't get. This is how it happened. Then-Democratic Presiding Officer Judy Jacobs in 2006 appointed a "blue-ribbon" panel to study county pay scales for elected officials and recommend adjustments. At the time, county officials considered themselves way underpaid, especially

                                                                                   Nassau did not have a health commissioner last Friday -- when Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman announced that a trace of the polio virus had been detected in Nassau wastewater. On Monday, Nassau had a health commissioner: former Orange County Health Commissioner Irina Gelman. What a difference a weekend makes. Blakeman had announced Gelman's appointment on July 23 to replace Nassau Health Commissioner Larry Eisenstein, who left July 29. But Gelman was nowhere to be seen at Blakeman's polio news conference Friday, when he said the county was working closely with the state health department.  In fact, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, who never lets an emergency go to waste,  declared a statewide disaster Friday because the polio virus had been detected in the wastewater of four counties;  one active infection had been diagnosed in Rockland County. Polio is a serious disease. Most folks would

                                                                            Josh Lafazan                                                                                                                         Although Nassau County requires public officials to disclose their debts, Nassau Legis. Josh Lafazan for two years did not report a 2020 loan of as much as $100,000 that he received from a billionaire couple. Lafazan, a Woodbury Democrat who lost his bid for the Democratic nomination to Congress last month, waited until last Wednesday to amend his 2021 and 2022 Nassau financial disclosure forms to reflect a "student loan" from billionaire investor Bryan Lawrence and his wife Elizabeth.  By then, Lafazan, who was elected to the county legislature in 2017, had already lost his primary race for the Democratic nomination to run for the 3rd Congressional District being vacated by U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove); a political rival had requested a federal investigation into