Port Washington's honeymoon of a sewer district race

Daily Point

Iconic TV show plays a cameo in a municipal election

Long Island's special district elections every Tuesday in December are usually sleepy affairs, with a small turnout of voters returning incumbent commissioners in uncontested races to oversee roles in garbage collection, police operations, the delivery of water and sewer services.

A few get nasty and litigious, as did the race in the Port Washington Water Pollution Control District this year, where the hugely increased turnout required the polling site to remain open for an extra hour.

But this one may be the very first for marrying a municipal election to a legendary character who worked the sewer pipes and manhole covers in New York City in one of the most iconic shows of television’s Golden Age.

In last week’s election, challenger Joseph D’Alonzo racked up 947 votes to beat incumbent Brandon Kurz, three to one. Kurz's operation was beset by claims that he used his commissioner post for financial gain by allowing the Police Athletic League, for which he had served as executive director, to play games at Sunset Park, which is owned by the water district.

D'Alonzo said that the controversy surrounding the use of Sunset Park was dividing the community.

"Local politics should be fun and rewarding," said the 58-year-old attorney and Port Washington native, who added he always wanted to get involved with the sewers since he toured the wastewater facility as an elementary school student.

His enthusiasm for the sewer job reminded one of his supporters of Ed Norton, the foil for Jackie Gleason's bus driver character Ralph Kramden on "The Honeymooners."

"It clicked," said D'Alonzo, so poster-size images of Art Carney in the legendary role were printed and attached to the campaign signs.

D'Alonzo said the photos caught the interest of a "narrow demographic who saw the levity of what it was intended to be."

Eddy Marinelli, a district commissioner not up for reelection this year, said he loved the campaign signs, noting that he has often gotten good-natured barbs from his friends reminding him that he shared the first name of Carney's character, who worked the sewer pipes and manhole covers in New York City.

Still, said Marinelli, a co-owner of DiMaggio's Trattoria in Port Washington, "the sewer commissioner job is really not that glamorous."

Or as Norton once said to his buddy, "This old town mighta done better, Ralphie, but they coulda done worse."

— Rita Ciolli rita.ciolli@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Carefree

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Final Point

Dem Rory Lancman eyes a bid to unseat State Sen. Jack Martins

When he lived in Queens, Rory Lancman served in the City Council and the state Assembly, representing such communities as Fresh Meadows, Kew Gardens, Jamaica Estates, Flushing and Forest Hills. Lancman, however, moved to Great Neck in November 2021 — and is now preparing to challenge Republican State Sen. Jack Martins, who won reelection last year with 55% of the vote against Democrat Kim Keiserman.

Everyone in Long Island politics seems to know by now that the major parties in 2026 will do their best to make county, federal and state races a vehicle for strategic backlash and blowback for their choice.

For Democrats, that means pillorying the iron-fisted GOP control of President Donald Trump — especially in House races. For Republicans, it means associating all their opponents with the radical postures of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.

On behalf of Martins, the Senate Republican Campaign Committee was first quoted on Monday by Politico as blasting Lancman as part of the "extreme City Council politics that drove up costs" and made communities "less safe," adding the by-now-boilerplate line: "Nassau County wants no part of Zohran Mamdani's socialist politics."

Which doesn’t tie Mamdani and Lancman together very firmly.

Lancman says for him, any Mamdani link "won’t fly." He told The Point on Monday he is the first "explicitly non-Zohran Democratic candidate" in the scrum since last month’s mayoral election and part of the "moderate wing" exemplified by state and Nassau County party chairman Jay Jacobs, who refused to endorse Mamdani even after Gov. Kathy Hochul, also seeking reelection next year, did so.

Earlier this year, Lancman told Fox News Digital that "a putative mayor of New York City needs to be able to repudiate calls for 'intifada' without ambiguity or qualification as morally repugnant and unacceptable." Lancman has said: "The Seventh State Senate District is one of the most Jewish and pro-Israel in the state, and my record of pro-Israel advocacy and fighting anti-Semitism is a central part of my identity."

On Long Island, he’s been building up his name recognition through local positions. In June, Hochul announced Lancman’s appointment to the newly shaken up Nassau University Medical Center board of directors. He had served as special counsel at the Department of Public Service out of its Plainview office, as a board member of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, and former executive director of the legislative commission on LIPA's future.

Lancman stands to have special inroads into Great Neck's Persian Jewish community. His wife is state Supreme Court Justice Mojgan Cohanim Lancman. She emigrated to New York as a child from Iran during the Islamic Revolution in 1979. In 2022, amid a Nassau County "red wave," Martins returned to the 7th SD seat he'd earlier held by defeating Democrat Anna Monahemi Kaplan (who'd also left Iran as a child). She served two terms in Albany.

But in the heat of battle, the Mamdani label will still be blithely applied to Democrats by Republicans, if only to evoke what mainstream voters might see as bad or destructive policy. Nassau County got a taste of the Democrats' counterpunch this fall when County Executive Bruce Blakeman's unsuccessful opponent Seth Koslow caustically referred to him as "Mr. Trump."

That didn't work. The president had won the county by 30,000 votes only a year earlier. Which shows that the guilt-by-party association game is never foolproof for either side.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

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