Here’s a report, from Brian Faughnan, a committed partisan, of the apparent victory of Republican Edward Mangano over incumbent Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi. Nassau County, just east of Queens, with 1.35 million people, is a major suburban jurisdiction, mostly affluent but with significant black and Hispanic communities, with an economy sputtering because of high taxes and utility rates. It voted 54%-45% for Barack Obama in 2008, one point more than his national average. Suozzi was elected eight years ago in response to discontent over the bloated government produced by the then-dominant Nassau County Republican machine; Faughnan says that Mangano argued that Suozzi failed to follow through on his promises.
National significance? Obviously limited, and the absentee ballots may not produce the Republican victory that Faughnan anticipates. But taken together with Republican successes in other suburban counties—Westchester County, New York; the four suburban counties around Philadelphia; the New Jersey suburban counties that repudiated Governor Jon Corzine—it suggests that the Republican label is less poisonous in Northeastern suburbs than it used to be. These Northeastern suburbs seem to be voting against high taxes and big government. With serious 2010 Republican Senate challengers in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and perhaps even New York, that’s significant.
