No place for Blakeman jab

The Long Island Association's annual State of the Region breakfast is supposed to be an opportunity for business leaders, elected officials and advocates to gather in bipartisan comity, especially before a contentious legislative session in Albany and the inevitable partisanship of an election year.

Not this year. 

When LIA chief executive Matt Cohen asked Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman at last week's affair what he would like his holiday gift from the state to be, Blakeman could have answered the question any number of ways — a casino at the Nassau Hub, help in solving the conundrum of the ever-struggling Nassau University Medical Center, improvements to state roads.

Instead, with Gov. Kathy Hochul's representatives in the audience and Hochul next up to speak, Blakeman said: “Stay out of Long Island.” He criticized Hochul's past plan to override local zoning, the law to change local elections to even years, and earlier criminal justice reform efforts, saying Hochul's administration exhibits a “hostility toward the suburbs.” Then, after the Q&A, before the governor even had a chance to take the podium, Blakeman, with a thousand pairs of eyes on him, walked across the center of the Crest Hollow Country Club ballroom and out the door.

It was a rude performance. Such bluster might help Blakeman's image as a tough guy and get him a few shots on conservative television shows but it was an immature approach for the leader of Nassau County to take with the governor of New York. That's true even if Blakeman is right on some of the issues, such as housing mandates and local elections maneuvering. The way to shift those policies isn't through attention-getting antics at a business lunch.

If Hochul's predecessor had still been governor and waiting in that very ballroom to take the podium, would Blakeman have pulled the same stunt? Not if he wanted to stay anatomically intact. Hochul, New York's first female governor, ad-libbed a decent retort but we really should be moving past this red-meat behavior.

Blakeman's attitude won't help Nassau County get the very real items on its wish list. How does Long Island's delegation to Albany negotiate with the powerful New York City delegation for suburban-friendly policy positions and the region's share of funds when Blakeman is telling the state to “stay out of Long Island"? In the realpolitik of Albany, why would Hochul now give Blakeman a win when he told her to stay away?

On Friday, she joked that Long Islanders wouldn't “want me to take all the money with me” and promised that “nothing” would keep her from Long Island. We'll hold her to that. Hochul needs Long Island and Long Island needs Hochul. No state decision-making — from housing to casino licenses to infrastructure money — should be conducted in base political terms.