Veteran Nassau supervisors win; Ralph Suozzi ousted
(L-R) Glen Cove Mayor Ralph Suozzi faces off against his opponent Reginald Spinello in a debate at Glen Cove High School. (Oct. 25, 2013) Credit: Danielle Finkelstein
Two veteran Nassau County town supervisors won re-election in Hempstead and Oyster Bay Tuesday, while a new supervisor was elected in North Hempstead.
Glen Cove voters, meanwhile, elected City Council member Reginald Spinello as mayor, defeating incumbent Ralph Suozzi, with all precincts reporting. Spinello, an Independence Party member, is the first candidate running on the Republican line to win the mayoralty since Republican Donald DeRiggi was re-elected in 1991.
Spinello beat Suozzi 50.9 percent to 49.1 percent, according to unofficial results. The count showed Spinello with 3,269 votes, 115 more than Suozzi.
Nassau Legis. Judi Bosworth (D-Great Neck) defeated Republican town board member Dina M. De Giorgio as they faced off to fill North Hempstead's top post. Former Supervisor Jon Kaiman, who led the town for a decade, stepped down in September to take on two new appointments by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo: chairman of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority and special adviser for Long Island Storm Recovery.
Bosworth, 65, of Great Neck, a county legislator for six years, has said she wanted to change the culture of the town's Building Department to focus on customer service to try to rid the perception, she said, that the department is adversarial with residents.
De Giorgio, 45, of Port Washington, a lawyer who became a town board member last year, has said she wanted to work to make the town's official workings more transparent and hire more building department personnel to help residents through the permit process.
In Oyster Bay, eight-term Republican Supervisor John Venditto defeated Democrat John Capobianco. Venditto, 64, of North Massapequa, said his campaign focus was on comprehensive planning and zoning, and continuing to protect communities from overdevelopment.
Capobianco, 49, of Farmingdale, ran for supervisor two years ago and before that for the state Assembly and town clerk. A business owner of a landscaping company and a self-defense education company, Capobianco said he wanted to control Oyster Bay's debt.
In Hempstead, Supervisor Kate Murray easily won her sixth term and remains on the Republican-controlled town board.
Murray, the town's top elected official for almost 11 years, was leading in late returns by 67 percent to 33 percent to defend her post against community activist Felix Procacci.
Murray, 51, of Levittown, who has been the town supervisor since 2003, has said she has a proven record of being a reliable fiscal steward despite difficult economic times. She also says Hempstead has invested in renewable energy under her watch.
Procacci, 51, of Franklin Square, a critic of Murray's administration making his first bid for public office on the Democratic line, said he was running to rein in spending and make the town government more transparent.