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  Greg Hach For now, forget Tom Suozzi, the Democrat seeking re-election in the Third Congressional District. Yes, Vice President J.D. Vance trashed Suozzi at a Republican event in Bethpage Wednesday. And Suozzi is facing a Democratic primary challenge from public defender Danielle Welch.   Mike LiPetri But Suozzi has weathered past punches from other powerful politicians. And Suozzi has $5.5 million in the bank for his race while Welch, an relative unknown, reported a paltry $7,800 in her campaign account as of June 3. The contest generating the most heat is the Republican primary in which GOP maverick Greg Hach, a Hicksville attorney and Air Force veteran, is challenging former New York Assemblyman Mike LiPetri for the Republican nomination in the Third Congressional District. LiPetri is the Nassau GOP committee's chosen candidate even though he bucked the party in 2020 to make an unsuccessful primary challenge to 2nd District Congressional candidate Andrew Garbarino, w...

                                                    Nassau legislators voted on Monday to reappoint Republican elections commissioner James Moriarty and Democrat elections commissioner James Scheuerman to new two-year terms beginning in January. Not that they had a choice. State law dictates that the party chairmen choose their party's election commissioners; legislators can only ratify their choice. And Nassau Republican Chairman Joseph Cairo submitted Moriarty's nomination while Nassau Democrat Chairman Jay Jacobs filed Scheuerman's nomination. Presumably, both Cairo and Jacobs agreed to raise the commissioner's salaries to $225,000 a year from $210,000 because both Republican and Democrats voted for the raises without comment. The ordinance they voted on, however, was factually wrong; it says the commissioners salaries had not been raised for seven years; ...

                                                                                             Joe Scianablo                                                                                                   Is there a local political candidate anywhere who doesn't promise to cut down on government-owned cars being taken home by government employees and used as their own private vehicles? Usually fueled up at government gas pumps? Both Nassau  Republicans and Democrats running for government offices have announced...

                                                                                  Democrat New York Attorney General Letitia James and most of the news media are accusing Republican President Donald Trump of political retribution in yesterday's federal indictment of James on bank fraud charges. Prosecutors contend James purchased a second home in Norfolk, Va. in August 2020 and then leased it to tenants after telling the mortgage bank that she would use it as a second residence, which carries better terms than a rental property. The move allegedly saved her $19,000, the New York Post reports. James denies the charges and accused Trump of instigating the indictment. "These charges are baseless, and the president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retrib...

  Barring any personal feuds, the Nassau Police Benevolent Association traditionally endorses local political candidates that internal union polls indicate are most likely to win. They are not always right.  However, if the union is accurate this year,  it means Republicans will keep the majority on the 19-member legislature but again will fall short of the 13 members needed for a super majority. Political insiders consider that only a few seats are in play this November: There is District 14, now held by Republican Bill Gaylor of Lynbrook and District 16, filled by Democratic Arnold Drucker, elected after longtime Democratic legislator and former presiding officer Judy Jacobs died in 2016.  Gaylor is not seeking re-election in the traditional Republican district that was redrawn to be more competitive for both parties this year. Democrat Cynthia Nunez, a member of the Valley Stream  school board, is running against Republican Sheharyar Ali, an attorney from Elm...

Generally, attack ads don't go out until after Labor Day in election years. After all, most families are not home the week before school begins. If they are home, they certainly are not attending political functions. But an attack ad against Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican running for re-election this November, has already dropped. (See above)  It blasts Blakeman for supporting a five-story apartment complex above the Lawrence train station. Blakeman, while a member of the HempsteadTown Board, spearheaded a zoning change to encourage transit-oriented development near the Lawrence and Inwood LIRR station. Former Democratic Hempstead Town Supervisor Laura Gillen supported the "massive" apartment complex. The Hempstead Town board has since repealed the zoning change, but a state supreme court judge ruled they it did not follow state law in nixing the revision. And developers had already begun work. But let's face it, five stories is massive for a sub...

John Ferretti       Don Clavin  Just a quick hit:  It occurs to political old-timers that   perhaps people new to the quirks of   Nassau County politics may not know   how the system works.   For example, there seems to be   amazement and consternation among   Democrats that former Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin, a Garden City Republican, has stayed on the public payroll in some fashion since he resigned as supervisor....to make way for Nassau Legislator John Ferretti, a Levittown Republican,  to be appointed supervisor by the Republican-controlled town board so he can run as an incumbent in the November elections. Democrats are making a big fuss over the Ferretti appointment. But that's the way it has always worked in Republican-controlled Hempstead Town. The Republican town board appoints the new supervisor to run as an incumbent while the former supervisor takes another, often a less ...

Don Clavin                                                                                       Both sides of the political aisle were buzzing last week about a "secret" plan to move Republican Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin from town hall to a Nassau courthouse. The only disagreement among the politicos was whether Clavin, a lawyer from Garden City, would be moved to the County Court or Supreme Court bench. One rumor suggests both. It's very confusing.  It rests on the election calendar. Tomorrow, April 7 is the last day to accept or decline a nomination. April 11 is the last day to fill a vacancy. April 15 is the last day to authorize a substitution,. So Clavin would have to decline his nomination for re-election in November to his town job and accept a courthou...

Two new District Court judges are expected to be appointed by the Nassau legislature this month while  a new Nassau Surrogate will take office next January. All are considered competent lawyers, but of course politics play a part in the moves. James Saladino, a Suffolk District Court judge, has been recommended by Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman to be appointed a judge in Nassau's 4th District Court, which covers Oyster Bay and Glen Cove. James Saladino is the brother of Republican Oyster Bay Supervisor Joe Saladino and is the son of a late Republican Supreme Court Justice Joseph J. Saladino. James Saladino, who served in various Suffolk legal position, must have moved into Nassau. Also recommended for appointment is Maria Boultadakis to Nassau's 2nd District Court in Hempstead. A law clerk for three successive Republican Supreme Court justices,  Boudtadakis is the daughter of Nick Boudtakakis, owner of the Sands Castle in Franklin Square. The restaurant and caterin...

Former Nassau legislator, former North Hempstead Town Board member  and former North Hempstead Town Clerk Wayne Wink is the choice of Nassau Democrats  to run for county comptroller against incumbent Republican Elaine Phillips this fall. Wayne Wink Wink's candidacy was announced at a local Port Washington political event Saturday morning. Currently minority counsel for Nassau's Democratic legislators, Wink, of Rosyln, has been involved in Nassau politics seemingly forever...before and after Democrats won and lost a majority on the county legislature  He started as a legislative aide to the late legis. Barbara Johnson, a Demoratic member of the first legislature to take office in 1996 after the former Board of Supervisors was abolished as unconstitutional. He ran for North Hempstead Town Supervisor in 2021 but lost to Jennifer DeSena, a registered Democrat running as a Republican. The Wink announcement came before U.S. Reps. Tom Suozzi and Laura Gillen, both Nassau Democra...

Bruce Blakeman It looks like Repubican President Donald Trump did not make a good enough job offer to Nassau Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman.  Sources said Blakeman had been hoping for a significant appointment in the new Trump administration in return for his strong support of the now re-elected president. As well as a job for his wife, Segal, who is a Nassau family court judge. But apparently it didn't happen. Because Blakeman, whose county executive term ends this December, is having a kick-off re-election rally at noon today at the American Legion Post 1066 in Massapequa. And it sound like a traditional Nassau GOP event. "Blakeman will be joined by over 1,000 supporters from every corner of the county and will speak about his 3.5 years in  office in addition to his vision for the future,"  the press alert says. It adds,"This will be one of the closest watched races in the nation in 2025" --  which actually sounds a bit hyperbolic. Blakeman will be...

                                                                                       Donald Trump at Nassau Coliseum in September Remember when Nassau Democrats indignantly complained about the costs of security at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's campaign rally at the Coliseum in September? The rally drew thousands -- many more than the Coliseum's 16,000-person in-house capacity -  and snarled traffic for miles round the Uniondale arena. A day after the Sept. 18 rally, Nassau legislative Democrats filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission, contending that taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for security at a campaign event, calculating that the use of county police and public works employees at the rally likely cost $1 million. "Yesterd...

                                                                                    Tom Suozzi Congressman Tom Suozzi must be over the moon. A host of January's most watched cable news program -- The Five -- suggested the Glen Cove Democrat for president in four years. Host Dana Perino on Jan. 8 said, "Who do the Democrats have to run in four years? John Fetterman? Tom Suozzi ?”  Tom Suozzi? Ever since Suozzi was Glen Cove mayor, through his eight years as Nassau County Executive in the 2000's, he acknowledged that his ultimate goal is president of the United States. General...

  Olena Nicks is the Democrat running in the Nassau Legis. District 2 election Feb. 25 to replace former county legislator Siela Bynoe. A Westbury Democrat, Bynoe was elected to the state senate last November. But the outcome really isn't in doubt. District 2 is a solid Democratic district. It includes Westbury, Uniondate and portions of Hempstead Village. So far, no Republican candidate has been announced. Undoubtedly Nassau Republicans will nominate someone to run, someone who will take on the hopeless race to accumulate goodwill points toward some future GOP post. Nicks has performed her own suicide missions in the past, running and losing to then-Republican Hempstead Town clerk Kate Murray* and Republican Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin. She is owed an easy race. Nicks, of Unondale, has been active in her community and is a longtime member of the Uniondale Fire Department. But will she concentrate on the same issues as Bynoe? Bynoe was the county legislature's most per...

                                                                                          Emailed Blakeman fundraiser invitation Why are there so many questions about whether Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman is running for re-election this year? It was clear months ago. After Republican President Donald Trump announced in mid-November that he was appointing former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be his ambassador to Israel -- a post Blakeman had hoped to get -- Blakeman declared at a fundraiser that he would be running for re-election...

                                                                                   Eight years after Harendra Singh pleaded guilty to bribing Nassau County and Oyster Bay Town officials in exchange for $20 million in personal loan guarantees, the former Oyster Bay restaurateur has been incarcerated. Singh reported to federal prison in Otisville, NY on Friday. He originally was supposed to begin serving his four-year sentence last January but received several unexplained extensions. Otisville, according to the Chicago Tribune,  has tennis courts, horseshoes, cardio equipment  "and it sounds like the closest thing the federal prison system has to sleepaway camp." Singh pleaded guilty to bribing town officials and Republican County Executive Edward Mangano from 2010 throug...

                                                                               Nassau CSEA poster truck in Long Beach earlier this month                    Nassau CSEA Local 830 president Ron Gurrieri and vice president Bob Arciello were removed from their union positions today following an angry month-long public fight with Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman over health insurance. State CSEA president Mary Sullivan notified members in a letter today that she had removed Gurrieri and Arciello, explaining the...

                                                                                        An Onondaga County judge today threw out New York's new even-year voting law enacted by the Democratic-controlled state legislature and signed into law by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul in December, 2023. Supreme Court Justice Gerard J. Neri, a Republican, not only voided the new law, which was to take effect next year, but he essentially sneered at the arguments used to enact it. Neri noted that the state legislature contended it had the authority to overturn county charters and ...