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Tom assures Nassau's not out of sight

Joye Brown

February 26, 2006

New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is seen after a fundraiser at the Glen Oaks Country Club in Old Westbury. (Newsday / Karen Wiles Stabile / February 15, 2006)

Someone called with a suggestion recently for a two-page graphic in the center of Newsday: A state map showing every stop Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi has made campaigning for governor.

I've also gotten letters and e-mails from readers seeking the same thing. The idea is that if Suozzi is upstate - or in New York City, as he was yesterday - he ain't here. And if he ain't here, he ain't doing the job he was elected to do.

I've said before that Suozzi's big showing in November's election amounted to permission to run for governor from Nassau voters. It wasn't a secret - it even became a campaign issue that Suozzi was considering higher office. And, for the record, I have no problem with people who have ambition, even of the political sort.

Still, duty-bound and as curious as Newsday readers, I took the issue to Suozzi yesterday. Here's what he had to say, less than two hours after announcing a run for New York State governor:

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"I am 100-percent committed to keeping Nassau County strong; my whole campaign is based upon my record in Nassau County," he said as he traveled to Staten Island.

"I am not going to let anything bad happen to Nassau County. I have my eyes on the ball as to what my job is. I am going to make the county stronger."

So just how is this going to work, with you campaigning around the state? Who is going to be running the show?

"I will continue to run the county and I have a great team of people," Suozzi said. "Even as county executive, I am not sitting in the office all day.

"I have a team of people who are accountable to me. I am in constant contact and have staff meetings on a regular basis."

During the past six weeks, Suozzi said, he has dealt with a number of local issues, including the county budget (by putting a hiring freeze and overtime-reduction program in place to counter a sales-tax revenue decrease) and the latest saga in the Nassau County coliseum redevelopment process (where four development proposals were narrowed to two).

He said he's done that and more in the six weeks since he announced that he would explore a run for governor - and began a heavy travel schedule around the state.

Suozzi also pointed out that he has developed more bipartisan relationships with state and local officials recently than ever before. One example: Nassau County, after years of waiting, finally got an Empire Zone designation, which will aid economic development.

"If it weren't for Dean Skelos, we wouldn't have gotten it," Suozzi said, making a surprising reference to the Republican dean of the Long Island delegation in Albany.

So why run for New York State governor at all? Why not make things easier by just doing the county job?

"I cannot solve the problem of high property taxes in my current job," Suozzi said.

"I've been meeting with school board officials and elected officials on how to address this problem, and we are developing some strategies, but it keeps coming back to Albany, Albany, Albany."

His run for governor is significant, he said, because it will push the property tax issue to the forefront in Albany.

"This will be the first time in a New York State election that property taxes is going to be made one of the primary issues of this campaign.

"Anybody who wants to be governor and who wants votes from Long Island is going to be forced to deal with this issue. And property taxes are high not just on Long Island, but around the state."

His bottom line?

"I will best serve the people of Nassau County if I was governor."

And now, here's mine:

There are seven long months to the Democratic primary. Suozzi's set the bar high, both locally and statewide. Let's see how high he jumps.

E-mail Joye Brown at Joye.Brown@Newsday.com.