Glen Cove Mayor Ralph Suozzi loses re-election by 74 votes
Republican Reginald A. Spinello won the mayoral race in the City of Glen Cove. (June 13, 2013) Credit: Howard Schnapp
Glen Cove Mayor Ralph Suozzi lost his re-election bid by 74 votes following a final count of absentee ballots, election officials said Wednesday night.
Republican Reginald Spinello garnered 3,433 votes and the Democratic incumbent tallied 3,359, according to the Nassau County Board of Elections.
Suozzi trailed Spinello by 115 votes when the polls closed on Election Day.
Neither candidate could be reached for comment Wednesday night.
In another hotly contested Glen Cove race, incumbent Democratic City Councilman Nicholas DiLeo defeated Republican Kristina Heuser by 80 votes. The final count was DiLeo, 3,076, and Heuser, 2,996.
Republicans will now hold three of six council seats after holding the majority previously. Spinello, as mayor, will have the tiebreaking vote.
The Board of Elections began counting absentee ballots at 11 a.m., a task that ended about 7 p.m. There were more than 335 absentee ballots cast for Suozzi or Spinello, an Independence Party member who also ran on the GOP line.
The board also reviewed 51 affidavit ballots that were cast at a polling place when the voter's name did not show up on the voter roll, and 31 emergency ballots cast because of equipment failures but not counted on election night.
Spinello, 61, was elected to the City Council in 2011. The Glen Cove native is a retired business executive who operated his own pharmaceutical business.
Suozzi, 57, was seeking a fifth two-year term. Before his 2005 election, the longtime Glen Cove resident -- the son of former Mayor Vincent Suozzi -- worked as a human resources and training director at such companies as CBS and American Express.
During the campaign, Spinello questioned the wisdom of large redevelopment projects on the waterfront and in the center of the city championed by Suozzi.
