Historic moment for Carpenter

Finally, a half-century into the history of the office, a major party has chosen a woman to run for Suffolk County executive: County Treasurer Angie Carpenter. It's a landmark in county history, and Carpenter deserves immense credit for getting here. She had to state her case and stand her ground in a male-dominated party that would like to have run a man with a fatter bank account.

Her designation as the Republican candidate, after weeks of uncertainty in the party, makes clear the shape of this November's election to choose a successor for Democrat-turned-Republican Steve Levy. Carpenter has a long, undefeated political career as a county legislator and as treasurer. She'll face the Democratic candidate, Babylon Supervisor Steve Bellone, an innovative executive. They both have legitimate -- if different -- qualifications for county executive.

For all the triumph of Wednesday night's designation at the party's convention, the past few months have not been easy for Carpenter. Along with other Republican countywide officials, she had to listen to an extended lecture in March by Suffolk GOP chairman John Jay LaValle: If they didn't support Levy, their former adversary, they should not count on the party to help them. Levy, who turned Republican in 2010 to run for governor, had more than $4 million in his campaign fund, which made him immensely attractive to LaValle, whose party's coffers are very low. Even after that meeting, Carpenter said she was still considering a primary run against Levy.

Not many days later, Levy made the thunderclap announcement on March 24 that he would not run for re-election this November. He also said he'd surrender his entire campaign fund to Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota, as part of Spota's investigation of those funds. Suddenly, LaValle had no candidate and no millions. In fact, he soon announced that he'd hand over to Spota the $100,000 that Levy had given to the county GOP.

Then high-visibility males such as County Comptroller Joseph Sawicki and Sen. John Flanagan (R-East Northport), bowed out. LaValle would have liked his candidate to be Randy Altschuler, a wealthy but unsuccessful 2010 congressional candidate who could spend a lot on the campaign. Altschuler wasn't interested if he had to run in a GOP primary. Carpenter, who has deep experience and had waited her turn, wasn't interested in letting the old boys' network shut her out. She turned out to be a lot tougher than LaValle and others had thought.

So it's Carpenter v. Bellone. She starts with a distinct disadvantage in funding. But this race should be about more than just the size of the war chest. It should be about visions for a county that's going through tough fiscal times, bringing in jobs, encouraging the development of housing that young working people can afford, preserving land and protecting our tourist industry, revitalizing our downtowns, finding ways to fund health clinics at a time of state funding cuts, and a long list of other concrete issues important to the average citizen.

Knowing both candidates, we're confident they can discuss all of that civilly and intelligently. For now, it's hats off to Angie Carpenter on her historic moment, and let the conversation begin.