By:LARRY MAIER
Nassau County Republicans have tapped Joseph Koch of Baldwin, an insurance broker and business consultant, to run in November against incumbent Fifth District Legis. Joseph Scannell, a Democrat and fellow Baldwinite.
This year, county races should be hotly contested as Republicans try to regain the majority on the 19-member Legislature, which they lost in 1999 when Democrats scored several
stunning victories and came away with a 10-9 advantage.
Some political pundits say those victories were less about the Democratic candidates and more about Republican voters crossing party lines to vote against the GOP, which they blamed for the county's burgeoning budget deficit that reached $300 million last year and caused Wall Street to downgrade the county's credit to near junk-bond status.
A fundamental question that will be answered in November is whether the public is satisfied with the job Democrats have done in the county Legislature and are willing to keep the party in power.
This year marks the first time both parties have chosen candidates from Baldwin to compete for the district seat. In the past, with the majority of the district in Rockville Centre, the GOP has always run an RVC candidate.
The challenger
For Koch, 43, this campaign represents his first run at public office. He is a fourth-generation Baldwin resident, a past president and director of the Baldwin Rotary, and currently serves on the board of directors of United Cerebral Palsy of Nassau County and the board of sponsors of the Friends of Mercy Medical Center.
Koch said he received the Republican nomination because he is a "fresh face" and because the party felt it was time to reach into the community for common- sense representation.
"I lend a different perspective. I am not a career politician," Koch said in an interview last week at his Baldwin insurance office. "I think the county and the party realize that business as usual is no longer applicable. I truly feel a sense of being responsible, accountable and wanting to listen to the people."
Koch said Republicans listened to the message county voters sent two years ago and learned a valuable lesson. In the past, said Koch, Republican legislators "tried to work with their county executive for a long time and maybe they tried a little too hard."
He added that he and his party understand that voters want a change in the way things are run in Nassau. "They don't want to see the same nonsense over again," he said.
Koch said his candidacy aligns well with that of Bruce Bent, the Plaindome businessman and fellow political neophyte whom the Republicans nominated to run for county executive. Koch feels that Bent would "provide a huge amount of financial responsibility to the county" and that his own business background would serve him well in the Legislature, particularly in dealing with issues like budgets, personnel and risk management. "The diversity of issues I have to wrestle with in my business force me to be diverse in my thinking," Koch said.
Koch described himself as a problem solver and a listener. Although he is without previous political experience, Koch said he has know-how in working with political entities through his business endeavors.
The difference between himself and his opponent, said Koch, is that he has never been employed by government and has no preconceived notions about how county business should be done. "I want to go into everything with an open mind," Koch said.
Koch believes his long family history in the district helps him understand its problems, what caused them, and how they were dealt with in the past.
He said that at the outset of his campaign he would not be touting a specific agenda. Rather, his campaign will be about listening to people in the district. "I'm here to represent what people suggest I represent," Koch said. "My open ear to those concerns will formulate my priorities. I want to make sure that towns remain stable, steady, viable and good places to live, and restore faith in the community that once again they can count on their county."
The incumbent
Scannell, 39, a former assistant district attorney for Nassau County and a one-time Republican who switched parties to run for the Legislature after being dissatisfied with the GOP, agreed that voter frustration with Republicans in 1999 helped get him elected
to his first term. However, he also feels that strong Democratic candidates played a role.
"I like to think that a little bit of it was the fact that the Democrats, for the first time in a long time, put forth some credible candidates," Scannell said.
When he took office, Scannell said he hoped to help bring fiscal stability to Nassau and to bring county government back to the people. He believes he and the legislative majority have succeeded and voters have cause to return Democrats to office in November.
Scannell said he is proud that the Democratic majority was able to move the county toward fiscal stability by advocating for the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, the state-appointed oversight board charged with monitoring the county's finances, a move that brought the county $105 million in state aid. NIFA's oversight, Scannell said, was "the best thing that could have ever happened for the people of Nassau County."
Scannell is also proud to have helped encourage more public input at legislative sessions. "The first thing we did was open up government and allow people to come into the Legislature and have a chance to speak before the session begins," he said.
Previously, public input was permitted only after legislative sessions, often late at night.
He also credits his party with pushing for the countywide property reassessment that is under way. "It's broken and it's costing us money," Scannell said of the property tax refund system that costs the county an estimated $100 million a year.
Scannell said that he and fellow Democrats were also behind the institution of a revenue sharing system that allows the county's 64 villages to share in county sales tax revenues, a move that netted Rockville Centre over $13,000 last year.
And, as chairman of the legislature's Public Safety Committee, Scannell said he was able to bring "public awareness and public pressure" to begin to clean up abuses at the county jail and inefficiencies in the county's traffic and parking violations bureau.
More locally, Scannell said he is proud to have set up a district office, paid for through private donations, where people can come with questions and concerns.
He also arranged to bring $300,000 in Operation Downtown money to Baldwin as a way of demonstrating local government's investment in the business community.
"These are things that would not have happened if the people did not come forward and say we want a change," Scannell said. "Where I get most of my satisfaction is having an impact at the local level. It is critical to show the community that you are there and you are accessible."
Taxing thoughts
Both candidates said they know that property taxes are going to be a hot issue during this year's campaign. Republicans are expected to highlight the Democrats' budget plan that last year called for a 15-percent tax increase.
County Executive Thomas Gulotta vetoed that, resulting in a 9-percent tax increase in the first year of a four-year escalation.
Although the county now claims a budget surplus, Scannell said that most of that money comes from several nonrecurring, one-shot deals. He called the Democrats' proposed tax increase "courageous" and necessary to get the county back in good financial shape after a decade of Republican control.
"We wouldn't have had to do that if not for ten years of their mismanagement," said Scannell, who also noted that, over four years, both parties' tax plans amounted to a total increase of 23 percent. "Everyone is jumping up and down about 15 percent. But if they had the courage to do that, we would have been out of this mess."
Koch referred to the proposed 15-percent increase as "major."
He called the county's current reassessment project one of several "open variables" that could have a significant influence on the actual tax increase. In light of these unknowns, Koch feels the Democrats' budget proposal was far too high.
"It's premature to push double-digit increases when the equation is not solved," Koch said. "I think the Legislature, in whole, has yet to understand the full equation."
Winning votes
Because he will once again run in a district where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats 2-1, Scannell said he must do more than his Republican opponent to win favor among voters. "I feel I have to work harder and prove to people that I belong," Scannell said.
Koch, however, said he doesn't feel any political advantage, because most county voters have no party affiliation. He said he would seek input from all residents regardless of party. "I want to knock on every door. I have no business discriminating," he said.
