You’ve probably never heard of Glen Cove, N.Y., a small city of 28,000 people on the North Shore of Long Island. But you need to hear about what’s happening there. Little Glen Cove will be a major political battleground this month. An election is approaching that will test local conservatives’ attempts to overthrow a brand of local machine politics viewed as obsolete in most of America.

Nassau County’s Republican political machine is a historical anomaly, but a powerful one. It has been dominated since 1983 by county GOP chairman Joe Mondello. He derives his power from the legions of government patronage jobs he is able to dispense. Government jobs and contracts are given with strings attached, and taken away from those who are disloyal.