As Great Neck goes, so goes the Island?
Great Neck Library. Credit: Newsday/William Perlman
The culture wars that have swept through Long Island’s school and library boards hit Great Neck this week and Monday’s election results could be a barometer on the current mood of the voters.
As of Tuesday morning, the library board election appears to have garnered a record turnout, with more than 3,500 votes cast. Some residents waited for more than an hour to vote, The Point was told.
The tally from the machines showed that the incumbent, Liman Mimi Hu, who had served as the library board president, was behind by about 250 votes to her challenger, Jessica Hughes. For the other seat, which is vacant, former Assemb. and New York City Councilman Rory Lancman was losing by about 154 votes to Christina Rusu. And in a race for an open seat on the nominating committee, Kim Schader was losing to Sara Rivka Khodadadian by 194 votes.
Another 333 absentee and proxy ballots were still being counted Tuesday, but results may not be released quickly, because the slate of candidates currently ahead was raising objections to many of the uncounted absentee applications and envelopes.
Supporters of the two slates of candidates have broken down along what’s become familiar culture war lines, with Hu, Lancman and Schader backed by those who advocated for specific diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and content in the library, and who supported maintaining book collections on LGBTQ+ issues, while Hughes, Rusu and Khodadadian were supported by those who spoke of parental rights and others who warned of pornography or other content they deemed inappropriate in the library.
“I never thought that in Great Neck in 2022, I would be on the front lines of defending freedom of speech,” Lancman told The Point about a community that historically had been one of the most liberal on Long Island.
The race also took on an additional layer, as candidates on both sides attempted to appeal to Great Neck’s Persian community. Both sets of candidates produced signage and emails in Farsi. And Hughes, Rusu and Khodadadian focused some of their messaging on the importance of “community values,” appealing in part to some of the more religious voters in the district.
Lancman’s wife is Persian, and his in-laws wrote a letter shared on social media and beyond.
“For us, the Great Neck Library represents American freedom,” the letter said. “The freedom to read, to think, and to learn about whatever we want.”
Some Great Neck residents Monday took the time to also vote in the upcoming state and federal elections, as a Nassau County early voting site is right near one of the library branches. Will the library results carry over into the other key races — including CD3’s battle between Robert Zimmerman and George Santos, and SD7’s race between State Sen. Anna Kaplan and Jack Martins?
At the very least, it’s possible the two sets of elections will share one aspect in common: We may have to wait to get a full picture of the results.
Randi Marshall is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
