By:John C. O'Connell
Glen Cove Mayor Tom Suozzi's upset victory over Assemb. Tom DiNapoli last week in the Democratic Party primary for county executive sets the stage for a "battle of the outsiders" through Election Day Nov. 6, as he competes against Republican Bruce Bent for Nassau's top job.
Though he comes from a family immersed in politics for more than 50 years, Suozzi insisted in the primary that he - not DiNapoli - represented the county's best hope of ridding itself of politics as usual. And 36,796 registered Democrats - 54 percent of those who voted - agreed.
DiNapoli had the endorsements of almost all of organized labor, most of the party's federal and state elected officials and many county and Town of Oyster Bay and North Hempstead Democratic elected officials. He also had the endorsement of the party itself at its May convention.
Suozzi campaigned with only what he called a "select few" endorsements. The small Green Party, the carpenters and laborers unions, and five county legislators and former Gov. Mario Cuomo backed Suozzi. Those few, and about 5,100 more voters than DiNapoli got, were enough to make him the party's candidate against Bent.
"I make a pledge tonight," Suozzi said after his primary victory. "I will work harder and longer until we break the back of machine politics and make Nassau County the best county in the country. Now I'm asking everyone on the DiNapoli team to come over to our side so we can have the biggest victory."
And he'll need them. Suozzi must now convince voters in the general election that he is the better outsider to lead the county. In fact, Bent, with no political experience at all, has an even more merited claim to the outsider role.
Or will Suozzi now switch tactics and take advantage of his four terms as an elected mayor to belittle Bent's political innocence?
Since his campaign began in January, Suozzi has made a mantra of saying that his mayoral executive experience made him more qualified than DiNapoli with his state legislative experience. What the county executive position most required, Suozzi said, was the candidate with executive leadership background.
If Suozzi's years as mayor trumped DiNapoli's legislative experience, surely Bent's successful executive leadership of a $13-billion corporation must trump Suozzi's handling of a small city of 26,000 people and a $30-million budget, the Republicans will argue.
Against Bent, the accomplished corporate chief, the Democrat's financial acumen and much-touted employee evaluation system won't compare as well as it did against DiNapoli.
Dollars and census
Unlike the primary, Suozzi must now ask for votes from Republicans. There are 360,000 registered Republicans and about 285,000 Democrats. According to published reports, Suozzi spent $2 million on the primary and had $50,000 left when all the votes were counted. He will have to spend precious time raising money. And he'll need lots of it.
Bent is a millionaire who will not only have the Republican Party's money to spend, undiminished by a primary, but he has his own, of which he says he'll spend whatever is necessary.
Voters will be looking at both candidates carefully as they return their focus away from the tragic losses suffered on Sept. 11 and toward the exercise of their democratic privilege.
While Bent will need to convince voters he can and will put his business triumphs and corporate management skills into service for the people of the county, Suozzi will need to attract DiNapoli Democrats and disenchanted Republicans to see him as the best man for a better county.
