Election night: The scene on Long Island

Andrew Hardwick draws only 384 votes, blames Dems

Former Freeport Mayor Andrew Hardwick ran a write-in campaign for Nassau County executive after a court knocked him off the ballot as a third-party candidate over faulty nominating petitions. Tuesday, the results were in, more or less: County elections officials confirmed that only 384 write-in votes were cast, although the precise number for Hardwick wasn't immediately available.

Hardwick continued to blame county Democrats for his fate. He noted that they had backed Robert Kennedy, who defeated Hardwick for mayor in March, and that party lawyers had filed the lawsuit that led to the end of his third-party candidacy. Party leaders had expressed concern that Hardwick would siphon votes from Democratic county executive candidate Thomas Suozzi.

After Suozzi's loss Tuesday to incumbent Republican Edward Mangano, Hardwick said: "The only thing that hurt Suozzi is that he did not honor the relationship that he once had with the black community. We believed in him and he betrayed us -- look at how he helped defeat a [black] Democrat in Freeport."

Suozzi campaign spokesman Jeff Guillot said: "We have never responded to . . . [Hardwick's] comments in any way and still won't."

Hardwick served as deputy parks commissioner during Suozzi's two terms as county executive.

-- Sid Cassese

Smithtown supervisor candidates trade barbs

In Smithtown, site of an intense and sometimes nasty campaign for town supervisor, the candidates criticized each other's political tactics Tuesday night and into Wednesday.

Incumbent Republican Patrick R. Vecchio Sr., Long Island's longest-serving supervisor with 36 years in office, said Wednesday he was "elated" to have won. Without elaborating, he said Creighton, a town council member who ran on the Conservative line, "ought to look in a mirror. He ran a terrible campaign."

Creighton, who got 30.5 percent of the vote, on Tuesday night accused Vecchio supporters of dragging his family into the race by pointing out that his son's law firm represented a controversial industrial business in town.

"I think it was wrong," Creighton Tuesday night before results were in. "I do not believe in ever bringing your family into it."

In February, Creighton abstained from voting on a resolution asking a state court for permission to shut down KPE II, a Kings Park industrial firm, for violating local zoning laws because his son, Robert C. Creighton, was a partner with the law firm representing the company. Creighton said at the time that while his vote had "nothing to do" with his son's law firm, "because there is the mere appearance of it, I'm going to abstain."

-- Lauren Harrison

Remembering William Lindsay in Hauppauge

Suffolk Democratic chairman Richard Schaffer took a moment during his election night speech at IBEW Local 25 headquarters in Hauppauge to remember the late legislative Presiding Officer William Lindsay (D-Holbrook), who died of cancer in September.

Schaffer recalled one of his final conversations with Lindsay, who made the special request that Schaffer help his son, William J. Lindsay III, in his race to succeed his father in the Eighth District. Lindsay beat Republican Anthony C. Musumeci, 51.6 percent to 41.3 percent.

"The one thing he told me was, 'Don't screw up Billy's campaign,' " Schaffer told the cheering crowd. "I don't think we screwed it up."

-- Rick Brand

A victory speech, then a concession speech

Nassau Democratic Party officials who had gathered Tuesday night at a Carle Place catering hall appeared stunned when County Executive Edward Mangano appeared on television shortly before 11 p.m. to announce that he had beaten Democrat Thomas Suozzi.

Suozzi campaign spokesman Jeff Guillot looked up at a television showing Mangano's victory speech in Westbury, and quickly left the main ballroom at Chateau Briand to huddle with party officials.

Nassau Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs, had just done a pair of newspaper interviews in which he said Suozzi was still competitive and that most of the election returns were coming in from GOP territory.

About 15 minutes after Mangano spoke, Suozzi and his wife, Helene, quietly entered the room without any music or celebration to officially concede.

-- Robert Brodsky