The tie between county execs, elections

One of the trickier challenges this election season will be guessing how the county executives might sway the legislative races. Much as party strategists want to forge certain connections in voters' minds, one public power domain may or may not rub off on another.

After a fiscal monitoring panel last week sounded deeper alarms over Nassau's budget gap, its most vocal member, George Marlin, declared: "The time has come for the county to face its responsibilities, dispense with fiscal shell games and take necessary corrective actions."

On cue, a top aide to Republican County Executive Edward Mangano complained, once again, that the Nassau Interim Finance Authority should offer constructive suggestions on how to cope.

So down the stretch to Election Day, the rhetorical back-and-forth has jelled between Nassau's major party candidates for 19 legislative seats. Republicans, with an 11-8 majority since last year, offer the pitch that they'll keep "NIFA and Democrats," whom they lump together, from prodding them into tax hikes; Democrats charge the GOP with pushing up taxes and denying it.

Could Democrats capitalize on Mangano's famous woes? Much as state and county party chairman Jay Jacobs faults his performance, Mangano himself is not on the ballot. Democrats confront a more diffuse target in November. Success will vary, as always, by individuals and neighborhoods -- and of course on who shows up to vote.

In Suffolk, the tie between the county executive contest and legislative races is more direct, as the candidates share a ticket -- and a possible coattail effect.

With Democrat-turned-Republican Steve Levy leaving Dec. 31, Suffolk's GOP Treasurer Angie Carpenter faces Babylon's Democratic Supervisor Steve Bellone. County GOP chairman John LaValle speaks of victory for Carpenter and of Republican legislators winning a majority.

LaValle's camp distributed a video last week merging taped statements from Bellone with those of President Barack Obama -- an effort to craft a taxing-spending-debt reproach.

Trying to counter that message, Suffolk Democratic chairman Richard Schaffer told a Bellone gathering last month: "Please don't take all of the festivity as though I am not concerned about this election. I am very concerned because, again, the public is in a bad mood. . . . People are out of work. And we need to deliver our message that Steve will bring taxes down, lower the debt and make sure we have a responsible, affordable government."