A night of joy and disappointment for the Nassau County GOP
Tuesday night’s Nassau GOP victory party included speeches from Nassau County Legis. Steve Rhoads, left, who won his first term in the State Senate; Jack Martins, who will return to the State Senate, and former U.S. Sen. Al D’Amato.
Credit: Newsday/Lane Filler
Committed politicos, the people who made up most of the crowd at the Nassau County Republican Party’s election shindig Tuesday, know not every political “victory party” comes with victories.
Politics is heart-wrenching, frequently bruising, always unpredictable, occasionally uplifting.
But the fete at the Coral House in Baldwin, thanks to the traditional slow returns from Nassau County and the utter dearth of information from Suffolk County, left attendees unsure how to feel about the biggest race of the year even as they reveled in a raft of likely local wins.
Polls closed at 9 p.m. By 9:30, a growing crowd of several hundred buzzed at the cavernous site that has hosted a thousand celebrations. The party regulars knew they’d had a great day in backyard races, thanks to the information that always flows through party lines. Word was of massive local GOP turnout from election districts where the party’s watchers snagged tallies.
The mood was not jubilant, but exhilarated, hoping for jubilant. Yet the tone was also emotionally self-protective, because a Lee Zeldin ascension to the governorship was a Lotto-level hope. “What do you hear?” they inquired.
“Does he have a chance?”
Several bars were hopping, and carts provided hot soft pretzels or hot dogs. Most eyes were on smartphones, where the gubernatorial news was terrible in a uniquely uninformative, tantalizing way.
Zeldin was seemingly getting crushed, by a two-to-one margin. But Long Island, where he would have to slay to have any play, had just a few thousand votes reported.
Nassau County GOP chairman Joe Cairo had planned, if early returns looked good, to zip into Manhattan to join Zeldin, in whom local Republicans invested so much hope. Zeldin had run as strong a campaign as the party could ask for. Cairo’s operation had kicked in $1.5 million and much volunteer sweat equity.
When Cairo took to the stage moments after 11 p.m., it wasn’t entirely clear Zeldin had lost. Suffolk announced that thanks to Wi-Fi issues, its 1,446 voting machine memory cards had to be driven to Yaphank for processing and no returns would come until after midnight. Nassau was only 44% in.
The lead Gov. Kathy Hochul amassed elsewhere was seeming increasingly insurmountable . . . but no one wanted to accept it sans proof.
Cairo was ebullient in announcing congressional wins for George Santos (nowhere to be found) and hometown (Hempstead) favorite Anthony D’Esposito, who spoke rousingly. And Cairo gave the faithful a chance to eat fully of their local bread and butter: State Senate seat-flipping wins for Jack Martins, Steven Rhoads, Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, and all Nassau GOP incumbents. A potential Assembly return engagement for Brian Curran and nods for all incumbents.
Martins and Rhoads spoke. So, too, did former Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, at length, and mostly about himself. As the local winners addressed the crowd, the smartphones told an increasingly dire tale for Zeldin.
But even when the speakers ended, even when word went out that Hochul was delivering a victory speech and the crowd began to slowly thin, it wasn’t entirely clear Zeldin had lost.
An hour later, it was.
In the end, Long Island cast just over 1 million votes and Zeldin got about 600,000 of them.
Cairo, exhilarated by the local wins and deflated by the gubernatorial loss, began planning Wednesday morning’s victory news conference with right-hand Mike Deery.
And, just as he did when his belnassoved Yankees’ season ended with a playoff loss last month, Cairo began thinking about next year.
Columnist Lane Filler's opinions are his own.
Lane Filler is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
