Yes, former New Jersey Gov. Jim Florio's story does almost perfectly mirror that of Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi. But all indications are that Suozzi can expect a much happier ending to his first term.
And it says a lot about Suozzi's political and leadership skills that after raising the county's property taxes by almost a fifth, he still had the political capital to be an effective leader. That's all voters need to know. He's one of the real champs in politics. There are tough choices to be made across this year's ballot, but Suozzi has made the decision easy for us in his race for a second term against Republican Greg Peterson. We imagine most voters will agree.
In 2001, Nassau was stuck with a mismanaged, bloated, wasteful and deep-in-debt county government that managed to squander the late 1990s economic boom to the tune of a half-billion-dollar deficit. A generation of Republican leadership was discredited almost overnight. In came Suozzi, riding a white horse of voter outrage, and he saved the day.
For once, it really is that simple. There was no bigger issue than the state of the county's finances, and if there was a better way to handle the problem than Suozzi did, we'd like to hear it. To be sure, he had lots of help. He didn't come up with the hundreds of millions of dollars the county needed -- we the people did. He didn't reinvent the wheel to pay off the debt -- he raised taxes.
And he can't claim straight A's on many other issues he'll be graded on by the voters, such as his hiring record (remember Peter Sylver? Suozzi hopes you don't), his relationships with municipal governments and even his relationships with the Democrats in his own Legislature.
In Suozzi's next term, he needs to stop running against Tom Gulotta (whom he never actually faced in an election) and the "Republican machine," candidly admit and swiftly eliminate the faults of his own administration, and begin to more effectively cooperate with the Republicans -- and some of those Democrats -- in the Legislature.
He'll have no choice but to do this if Republicans retake the legislative majority, but it's imperative in any case. Taxpayers are sick of the partisan egotism on both sides of the aisle and want constructive action, not acrimony. Suozzi has been great at taking action, and his positive moves have made most of the difference in the county's fiscal health. What remains to be done won't happen by executive fiat or political brinkmanship, but by consultation, cooperation and compromise. Suozzi's too-frequent bouts of arrogance and ill temper when he gets less than obsequious support for everything he proposes are unbecoming of a leader of 1.3 million county residents. And they don't do much to recommend him for higher office.
But for this campaign we are very comfortable offering our full support for his re-election.
