Dawidziak: No money = quiet campaigns

Election Day is less than a month away, and voters in Nassau and Suffolk counties are probably starting to wonder when the punches are going to start flying. Although there are important local races that will determine control of both counties and many towns, the usual fireworks have been missing.

A large part of the problem is money or, rather, the lack thereof. Bad economies have a negative effect on campaign contributions, just as they do on other business sectors. Retail spending and charitable contributions suffer, and so do campaign coffers. The notable exceptions are executive races with good chances of success.

This is most obvious in what should be the biggest campaign on Long Island this year -- the race for Suffolk County executive. So far, it's been mainly a one-sided affair. The Democratic nominee, Babylon Supervisor Steve Bellone, has sent at least 13 countywide mailings, has had television ads up for over a month and has been on the radio for weeks. His Republican challenger, County Treasurer Angie Carpenter, hasn't made any of these kinds of big-ticket buys yet and has instead stuck to grassroots campaigning.

With a huge fundraising edge and no direct mail or media attacks coming his way, Bellone has been able keep his message positive, touting his record in Babylon and his plan for Suffolk's future. In the meantime, Carpenter is doing exactly the right thing by sitting on her money until it will be most effective -- closer to Election Day. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to sit tight and watch your opponent build a lead and spend prodigious amounts of cash, but it's the correct strategy in these circumstances.

Theirs isn't the only race to feel the effects of the cash crunch. In both Nassau and Suffolk, control of the county legislature is on the line.

The margin is much closer in Nassau, where the Republicans hold a one-seat majority. In Suffolk, Republicans have six of the 18 seats, but there are far more competitive races there. In addition to three open seats (two from term limits and one decided not to run again) there are at least three other competitive races. Those six combined could change the current majority. Even so, in most of these races, campaign dollars have been hard to come by, for challengers and incumbents alike. That means fewer persuasion tools like mailings, calls and ads -- and an edge for incumbents, who start out with greater name recognition and who've been able earlier in the cycle to send constituent-service mailings at taxpayer expense.

There are also several towns with competitive races. If the Republicans win both town board seats in Huntington, they would get control of the government for the first time in years. Fundraising will probably be their only obstacle.

In Islip, the Republicans only have to win one seat to gain the majority on the town board. A very aggressive slate of young candidates, led by Tom Croci for supervisor, is trying to make up with hard work what it lacks in donations. As the incumbent, Democratic Supervisor Phil Nolan has a big fundraising edge.

The saying is, "Money is the mother's milk of politics." In truth, money buys you the stack of chips that gets you into the game. Once in, you still have to know how to play poker, or in this case run a campaign. That makes for competitive races that keep the voters plugged in and provide them with the information they need to choose in November.

Voters have so far been cheated out of a typically robust two-month campaign season. But the closer we get to Election Day, the more both sides will spend what they've got. Just watch: Things will liven up.

Michael Dawidziak is a political consultant and pollster.