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Rich Nicolello Kevan Abrahams Did you feel it?  Nassau's political world turned upside down today. Democratic county legislators, who advocated for more police oversight in the past, proposed increasing the county's police force; Republicans, who traditionally back the blue, wouldn't even consider their proposal. In papers submitted to the legislative clerk earlier this month, Nassau's seven Democratic legislators proposed amending Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman's $3.3 billion budget for next year to add 110 additional sworn officers to the county's force of about 2,500.  This came after three of the Democrats last year voted against proposed new police contracts in their support of community activists who wanted police reform. But the legislature's 12 Republicans refused to consider the Democrat's  amendments because of a technical error: Democrats had not published notice of their proposed amendments in the local newspaper, ie. Newsday. Suc

                                                                              Lee Zeldin and Kathy Hochul at Spectrum News debate         Everybody makes mistakes. But the campaign season amplifies them.  Here's some recent candidate gaffes and goofs. The latest -- and likely most politically harmful --came from Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul during Tuesday night's debate with Republican challenger Lee Zeldin. Hochul is a Buffalo Democrat who served as the nearly unknown New York lieutenant governor until  Andrew Cuomo resigned in August of last year and she automatically took his job. Like most Democrats,  Hochul has campaigned to win the office on her own by focusing mostly on abortion rights and gun control. Zeldin, a U.S. Congressman from Shirley,  has, like most Republicans,  focused on rising crime, contending it is the result of Democratic-approved criminal justice reforms that have eliminated bail for most crimes and led prosecutors to drop some charges because of a shorten

Everything is political in Nassau County government, even its fiscal watchdogs.  Just look at their October reports about Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman's proposed $3.3 billion budget for next year: The first came from Republican elected County Comptroller Elaine Phillips; the latest from the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, a state appointed board composed of mostly Democrats and Democratic contributors. Elaine Phillips F or Phillips, the 2023 budget is all sunshine and unicorns: She projects a $60.4 million surplus by the end of 2023. Then, for the next three years, she sees nothing but surpluses: About $3 million each year for 2024 through 2026 if Blakeman does nothing more; But if he takes promised financial steps, she projects annual surpluses as large as $110 million. For NIFA, which took control of the county's finances in 2011, Blakeman's 2023 budget is all gloom and doom. And  so  are the three years after that. Adam Barsky For 2023, NIFA, chaired by

                                                                                  Nassau County The Democratic majority in Albany, in its professed effort to extend and expand voting rights in New York, appears to have made the fatal mistake of cutting the Courts out of the ballot-counting process. And that is not looked upon favorably by the judicial system. A Supreme Court judge in Saratoga County today said the state legislature and governor did not have the legal authority to effectively bar the courts from reviewing contested absentee ballots or preserving them for inspection before counting. State Supreme Court Justice Dianne Freestone declared unconstitutional election law amendments adopted by the Democratic majority on the state legislature in January and signed by Democratic governor Kathy Hochul.She also ordered preservation of contested absentee ballots. Freestone wrote in her 28-page decision: "The New York State Constitution gives the Supreme Court jurisdiction over

                                                                                from: Federal Election Campaign website Democrat Laura Gillen has pulled ahead of Republican Anthony D'Esposito in their race for the Congressional District 4 seat being vacated by U.S Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City) -- at least she's ahead in fundraising. The latest Federal campaign finance reports which cover from Jan. 1 through Sept. 30 show Gillen, a former Hempstead Town Supervisor,  raised a total of $1,210,935 in the nine-month period. That compares to $942,504 raised by D'Esposito, a current Hempstead Town Board member and retired NYC detective -- with the caveat that D'Esposito entered the race later than Gillen. The reports show that  Gillen has also spent more, with total expenditures listed at $900,224 while D'Esposito spent a total $696,036. As of Sept. 30, Gillen had $310,710 cash on hand compared to D'Esposito's $246,468 in his campaign account. Neither listed

                                                                                   Kevan Abrahams Usually its Republicans who want more police. But not this time. Maybe Nassau legislative Democrats are trying to counter local police union endorsements of most Republican candidates in next month's election, particularly down-the-line endorsement of GOP State Senate candidates. Or maybe Democratic legislators want to put the police-supporting Republican majority along with back-the-blue Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman on the spot. Because the seven Democrats on the 19-member Nassau County legislature have proposed amending Blakeman's proposed $3.3 billion budget to add 110 police officers to the county force. Yes, all seven Democrats support the addition of 110 more officers to a police force of about 2,500, which is among the largest in the country.  They include the Democratic delegation's three black members, who voted last year against a police reform plan and

Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction. Nassau incorrectly calculated this months school's property tax bills for 842 taxpayers -- including two of probably only ten people in the entire county who understand the county's complicated, convoluted assessment system and would catch the errors: Bellmore Attorney Jeff Gold and associate Scott Diamond. Jeff Gold Gold has been involved in assessment for more than two decades and currently runs a Facebook page that advises homeowners on how to grieve their property assessments for free. Diamond is the moderator of the site, which boasts 34,000 members. Gold also is an active Democrat who supported former Democratic County Executive Laura Curran's and her 2018 reassessment. He has run for office in the past. He and Diamond have openly questioned assessment fixes promised by Republican Bruce Blakeman, who defeated Curran last November. Understand that Nassau's assessment system is very complicated and almost impossible for the a

                                                                                                                                                Newsday debate Longtime adversaries and current opponents for the District 4 Congressional seat,  Democrat Laura Gillen and  and Republican Anthony D'Esposito faced-off in a Newsday debate that aired today. They were surprisingly civil to each other. Gillen, a lawyer and "a mom", stunned the political world in 2017 by beating a Republican incumbent to become the first Democratic Hempstead Town Supervisor in a hundred years. She served for two years before losing her bid for re-election to Republican Don Clavin. D'Esposito, a retired NYC police detective and former Island Park fire department chief,  was and still is a member of the mostly Republican Hempstead Town Board. The two repeatedly clashed. But the worst thing Gillen had to say today about D'Esposito in their debate was,  "Either Mr. D'Esposito is confuse

                                                                           Is Republican Conservative Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman shifting left? On Monday, county legislative committees approved a Blakeman plan to use $1.24 million in federal pandemic aid to greatly expand Nassau's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program. Some $515,000 will pay for staff salaries and benefits, including a new assistant to the director and part-time coordinators in the office, established in the health department by former Democratic County Executive Laura Curran in 2019. Deputy County Executive Anissa Moore told legislators the remaining funds will pay to move the DEI program to 40 Main Street in Hempstead, to purchase equipment and supplies and to train the entire county workforce in diversity, equity and inclusion while working closer to the community. The office will also work with the Antisemitic task force, the Black and Jewish coalition, the Anti-bias task force, the LGBTQ coaliti