Tea party targets Saladino for ouster

ALBANY -- Tea party activists are targeting one Long Island Republican for ouster in this fall's elections: Assemb. Joseph Saladino (R-Massapequa), in an election district that was severely carved up in the recent redistricting process.

Activists said Saladino, in his ninth year in office, "isn't conservative enough" for his district and have begun circulating ballot petitions for Richard Young, a lawyer and retired police officer who has never run for office.

Saladino "is not a bad guy," said Stephen Flanagan, Young's campaign manager. "But he's not the solid, straightforward, Reagan-type conservative this district is looking for."

Flanagan, a leader of the Brightwaters-based Conservative Society for Action, said Saladino was the lone Republican in the group's sights. "We are happy with most Republican representatives we have on Long Island," he said. "This is an exception."

Saladino countered that he has earned the backing of not only the Republican committees in Suffolk and Nassau counties, but also the Conservative and Independence parties. He said his "very, very fiscally conservative record" on taxes and his support of criminal-justice measures helped garner those endorsements.

"I'm very happy that I have earned the right to be their designated candidate," Saladino said. "I think that speaks volumes."

For all of his tenure, Saladino represented a district entirely contained in Nassau County. But earlier this year, after the decennial redistricting process, it was changed to one that is now roughly split between Nassau and Suffolk, including parts of West Islip, Babylon and West Babylon.

A primary would be held Sept. 13.

Young, 54, is a retired New York Police Department sergeant who later earned a law degree at St. John's University and now runs a West Islip law firm with his brother.

Reached late Friday, Young said Saladino "doesn't have the conservative voting record" he thinks West Islip residents want.

Saladino scored 56 out of 100 on the most recent Conservative Party scorecard. The average Assembly Republican score was 69; the average Democrat 20. He said he had met with Flanagan's group. "They seemed very pleased with my answers and my hard work for the taxpayers of Long Island," Saladino said.