Gillibrand rival Blakeman has LI political history

Bruce Blakeman, the Republican choice to challenge Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand for the U.S. Senate, has been prominent in Long Island politics and comes from a politically connected family in both Albany and Washington.

Raised in Valley Stream, Blakeman, 54, served from 1993 through 1995 as that area's councilman in the Town of Hempstead, one of the strongest Republican bastions in the state.

He was elected in November 1995 to the first ever Nassau County Legislature. Republicans, who were in the majority, chose Blakeman to be the presiding officer.

He was re-elected in 1997, but he ran for state comptroller against Carl McCall in 1998 and lost 65 percent to 33 percent. In 1999, he lost his bid for re-election to the county legislature, which shifted to a Democratic majority.

Blakeman, now of Manhattan, and his family are politically oriented. His father, Robert, is a former state assemblyman and his brother, Bradley, was a deputy assistant to President George W. Bush.

In 2001, Blakeman was named a commissioner to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; a post he held until Gov. David A. Paterson replaced him in 2008.

In 2006, Blakeman was named by then-Democratic Presiding Officer of the Nassau County Legislature Judy Jacobs to a bipartisan commission to study pay raises for county elected officials. The commission unanimously recommended significant raises. But the legislature did not give itself raises.

Last year, Blakeman and former Republican U.S. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato of Lido Beach held a $2,500-a-plate dinner for then-GOP county Legis. Edward Mangano in his race against incumbent Democratic County Executive Thomas Suozzi. Mangano won.

Political observers said D'Amato supports Blakeman in the Senate race. But they also noted that D'Amato stood on the podium with Gillibrand when she was sworn in last year following her appointment by Paterson to fill the seat of Hillary Rodham Clinton, who had been named U.S. secretary of state.

D'Amato could not be reached for comment.