By Scott Brinton
All six town board posts on the ballot this year
With so much attention focused on both the debates and the races between the Presidential and Senatorial candidates, it may be easy for some voters to overlook the historic Town of Hempstead elections on the ballot this year.
On November 7, for the first time in the Town's history, voters will have the opportunity to elect Town board members in councilmatic districts. Political observers are watching races such as the battle between veteran Republicans Tony Santino and Jim Darcy, and Democrats Jerry Lamonica and Eleanor Sciglibaglio. Any significant slippage by Santino or Darcy may signal a long night for Nassau Republicans.
A year ago at this time, no political pundit in Nassau County could have predicted the drama that could unfold this year, nor the upsets that did occur last year on Election Day . Republican candidates for elected office in Nassau were considered a lock, as they had been for almost a century before, in good times and in bad. Then, the election results started pouring in, stunning even the candidates themselves. Democrats wrested control of the county legislature with a slim, 10-9 majority, and picked up three of six Hempstead Town Council seats.
The Democrats' victory brought humiliation for the GOP, which was blamed, with one sweeping brush, for Nassau's economic woes. Since registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than 2-to-1 in Hempstead, many GOP voters crossed party lines and cast their ballots for Democrats.
Now, Hempstead voters are in for Round 2 of the town's election saga. On Tuesday, November 7, they will head to the polls and cast their ballots in a special Town Council election that, many say, will either make or break Hempstead's GOP.
Meanwhile, if Democrats come out on top in this year's election, in which all six council seats are up for grabs, they could at last secure a firm place in Nassau politics. Hempstead, after all, is considered by many as the very "heart" of Republican territory in Nassau County. Heavy Democratic losses, however, could reduce the party's chances of ever gaining the respectability it has craved for decades.
History behind the election
This year's special Hempstead Town Council election is the result of a successful lawsuit first brought in August, 1988, by resident Dorothy Goosby, who was elected to the board in last year's Democratic revolution. Ms. Goosby and Sam Prioleau, who are black, contended that Hempstead's system of at-large voting denied minority candidates representation on the board.
About 83 percent of the town's roughly 725,000 residents are white, and 12 percent are black. The plaintiffs reasoned that, because town candidates were elected by the entirety of Hempstead's populace (hence the term at-large election), minority candidates stood little, if any, chance of winning a board seat. Frederick Brewington, the attorney who brought the case to court, argued that this was a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Town officials countered by noting that a black man, Republican Curtis Fisher, sat on the Hempstead council, proving that a minority candidate could win election in the Town of Hempstead.
In a February 1999 decision, Judge John Gleeson sided with Ms. Goosby and Mr. Prioleau, proclaiming the town's system of at-large elections a violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The Town of Hempstead appealed the decision and lost.
A system of district elections was established similar to the 19-district system instituted for the Nassau County Legislature only a few years earlier. The Hempstead Town Council's District One was carved out as a "minority" district, composed primarily of African-American residents.
Battle for the board
With so much at stake, Nassau GOP Chairman Joseph Mondello has made clear that he wants nothing less than complete victory in the Hempstead election. At Nassau's Republican convention in May, he declared his intention to "take back" the Hempstead board. His oft-repeated words that night for conventioneers were "party" and "loyalty."
Democrats, though, remain resolute in their fight for the Hempstead board. Nassau Democratic Chairman Thomas DiNapoli said recently, "The Democratic Party intends to fully back all of our candidates [for Hempstead Town Council] with all the resources we can muster this year."
Republican candidates for town board say Hempstead's finances differ 180 degrees from that of the county. While Nassau's bond rating has dropped to near junk status, the town continues to enjoy only the highest of bond ratings, they say. GOP candidates also point to Hempstead having kept its taxes level in recent years.
Democrats, however, say the town is no better than the county. Hempstead, they contend, is rife with the type of political patronage jobs that have bloated the county budget and sent Nassau into debt.
Democrat Judy Jacobs, presiding officer of the county legislature, said "Hempstead Town has always been the mother of all fiscal mismanagement in Nassau. That's where [County Executive] Tom Gulotta and Joe Mondello learned the tactics that have created our present fiscal crisis."
Democrats also contend that having three Democrats on the town board has created a true two-party system of local government. "It's essential for good government," said Viki DeJong, issues adviser to the town council's Democratic board members, and now herself a board candidate in the Sixth District.
How this year's Town of Hempstead election will play out, no one is certain. One thing is for sure, though: Hempstead politics will never be the same after 2000.
