Who we're endorsing: Suffolk County Legislature

This year’s battle for seats in the Suffolk County Legislature occurs in the shadow of the race to succeed County Executive Steve Bellone. Going into the election, Republicans command 11 of 18 legislative seats, just one shy of a supermajority, resulting from the 2021 regional “red wave.”

These contests take place on a redrawn battlefield. In the once-a-decade redistricting process, the major parties managed to agree, after posturing and negotiation, on a map that for the first time includes four districts where ethnic minorities are in the majority. The result, as usual for the process, is the creation of new boundary lines that shifted some communities in and out of the old districts. Check out the new districts here.

The new legislative class will be responsible for responding to a series of changing circumstances in a county of more than 1.5 million people. Each lawmaker's positions could have an impact on the local effects of rising sea levels, water quality and solid waste removal, county spending and taxes, services, economic development, affordability of new housing, and the destructive effects of drug addiction.

Find out which important item of business the current legislature left hanging, what else the public can expect from the next legislative term, and more here.

See our pick for Suffolk County Legislative Districts 1-5 below. More districts will be released later this week.

Endorsements are determined solely by the Newsday editorial board, a team of opinion journalists focused on issues of public policy and governance. Newsday’s news division has no role in this process.