66.0°,
Shallow Fog Not so fast, Scannell
Recount to take place in 5th L.D.
Even as Nassau County Legislator Joe Scannell (D-Baldwin) declared victory Tuesday night over his Republican challenger, Chris Browne from Rockville Centre, officials from Browne's campaign said there will be a recount of all votes in the 5th Legislative District.
"There is going to be a total recount," said Doug Diana, Browne's campaign chairman. In unofficial results on Election night, Scannell was leading Browne by fewer than 300 votes. With all 66 election districts reporting, Scannell had garnered 7,103 votes, compared with Browne's count of 6,729.
Scannell had declared victory early Wednesday morning, but Diana said that according to the county Board of Elections, there are still absentee and paper ballots to be counted. In fact, Board of Elections officials recently stated that all county races, including the 5th L.D. will be recounted before official results are announced. Diana said that it is too early to tell whether Browne will come out on top, but that he is satisfied with how the Browne team ran the campaign.
"I think we ran a fantastic campaign," he said. "Besides taking on Joe Scannell, we took on the entire Nassau County Democratic Party. We battled everybody."
Scannell said he was not worried about a recount taking place because he believes he will be named the victor.
"It's fine with me because we're up by 432 [votes] and I'm declaring victory," Scannell said, citing numbers his campaign officials had. "I feel very confident. I'm very grateful that the people of the 5th District decided to give me another term. I'm confident that we're gonna win."
Despite Scannell's victory, the Democrats lost the majority in the county Legislature with a loss by incumbent Democrat Jeff Toback to Republican challenger Howard Kopel in the 7th L.D., which comprises Oceanside and the Five Towns. Incumbent Legislator Dave Mejias, a Democrat from Farmingdale, also appears to have lost his battle to Republican challenger Joseph Belesi with a razor-thin margin of 28 votes in the 14th L.D.
In related news, the race for county executive between incumbent Democrat Tom Suozzi and Republican Ed Mangano is still too close to call. Unofficial results show that Suozzi is leading Mangano by 237 votes. Results of that race may not be known for up to a month, according to senior officials at the county Board of Elections.
