By:Doug Miller
The problem is that Skelos is a Republican - the Senate's deputy majority leader, in fact - in a race against another Long Beach Democrat, Joshua Ketover.
Reached in his office on Election Day, Weisenberg stuck to his guns. "Regionally, yes, I'd rather have Skelos there, for his leadership, so we can get the things from the Senate we need for our region," Weisenberg said. "It's better than having another person in there without the authority to get things done.
"I always try to be honest, and this is how I get in trouble," he added.
Weisenberg and Skelos have not formally campaigned together, although you couldn't be blamed for assuming they had. In the last week of the campaign, the two appeared together at a beach-cleaning photo-op in Long Beach, and posed for pictures together at the Sands in Atlantic Beach during a fund-raiser for autism research, a pet project of Weisenberg's.
Weisenberg's opponent, Gary Spitz of Long Beach, has made only symbolic gestures of running a campaign against Weisenberg. He talked briefly with the Herald's editorial board, but skipped a debate with Weisenberg Monday night sponsored by the League of Women Voters of the Greater Five Towns.
Skelos was in a rare close race to retain his seat - which he ultimately retained easily - largely because he had been targeted for upset by Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi. Skelos was portrayed by Suozzi as a key opponent of his "Fix Albany" campaign against state incumbents, and Suozzi campaigned on behalf of Ketover.
A call for comment to Ketover's campaign office was not returned.
Weisenberg wasn't the first Long Beach Democrat to jump ship immediately before an election. In November 2003, City Councilman Denis Kelly defected, throwing his support in the council race to the "coalition" ticket of Republicans Jim Hennessy and Mona Goodman and renegade Democrat Thomas Sofield Jr., a move that was seen as key to their upset victory over Democrats Joel Crystal, Scott Nigro and Gina Guma. The win gave control of the city to Republicans for the first time in a generation.
Kelly said that his endorsement should not be confused with Weisenberg's, and openly questioned the veteran assemblyman's motives.
"Harvey is endorsing incumbency for the sake of protecting his own incumbency," Kelly said. "He must feel threatened by Suozzi. What I did was the opposite: I went against incumbency. Ketover is a homegrown kid who was looking to improve things, while Harvey is going to do whatever [Assembly Speaker] Shelly Silver tells him to do."
Comments about this story? DMiller@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
