Suffolk Closeup: Hot contests

It’s an off-year election, so ho-hum, but there are energetic town contests underway on Shelter Island. On the county government level, Election 2011 is noteworthy, indeed unusual, in Suffolk.

It’s an election in which Steve Levy, expected to run again for the top position in county government — county executive — suddenly did not. And a mystery continues as to why. In a deal between Suffolk DA Tom Spota and Mr. Levy made in March, incumbent Levy agreed not to run for a third four-year term and to surrender his campaign chest of $4.1 million to the DA’s office.

What was this all about?

Mr. Levy and Mr. Spota have been tight-lipped. The presumed reason comes from people interviewed by Mr. Spota’s investigators, who say they were questioned about “pay-to-play” — of contributions to the Levy campaign fund being a condition for doing business with the county.

In any case, the man who last year switched his lifelong Democratic affiliation to Republican in a bold move to run for the GOP nomination for governor — and came close to getting the nod and who knows where that might have led — was out. And in an historic breakthrough for women in Suffolk, County Treasurer Angie Carpenter got the Republican nomination for county executive. Until this year, no woman had run for county executive on Long Island on a major party ticket.

Before the 1970s, women were rare in elective office in Suffolk. Indeed, they remain nonexistent on the federal and state levels. There’s never been a female member of Congress from Suffolk nor a woman from Suffolk in the State Senate. Among the 11 State Assembly representatives from Suffolk, all are men. Women have made inroads in town and county government although only four of the 18 members of the Suffolk Legislature now are women.

Ms. Carpenter, formerly a county legislator, is up against a vigorous campaign run by the popular 10-year Babylon Town supervisor, Democrat Steve Bellone. The Bellone campaign is well-funded although not as much as a Levy campaign might have been with that $4.1 million campaign treasury. A recent count had Mr. Bellone raising $1.5 million, three times more than Ms. Carpenter. This has shown in the Bellone campaign’s use of direct mail and TV commercials. Mr. Bellone has gotten the active support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and Senator Charles Schumer.

Regarding the East End, Mr. Bellone has embraced open space preservation and the creation of a Peconic Bay Regional Transportation Authority. Last week, he appeared with State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. of Sag Harbor and other local officials at the barely-served LIRR station in Southampton, pressing the issue. Ms. Carpenter declared her opposition saying such an agency means bigger government.

Ms. Carpenter has gotten what sometimes in Suffolk has provided a critical election margin, Conservative Party backing. And she has received the endorsement of the largest union of county employees, the Association of Municipal Employees, which fears Mr. Bellone will continue the intense economizing efforts of Mr. Levy. In a mailing, the union said of Ms. Carpenter that, as a “county worker, she is one of us and … an AME supporter from day one.”

Meanwhile, control of another power center in the county, the Suffolk Legislature, is up for grabs. All 18 seats on the county’s governing body are up for election this year.

GOPers now hold six seats including that of Legislator Ed Romaine, whose district includes Shelter Island. Republican strategists think there might be GOP gains. A factor here: term limits (six consecutive two-year terms on the Suffolk Legislature) and who they are eliminating: two Democrats, Vivian Viloria-Fisher, the panel’s deputy presiding officer, and Jon Cooper, its Democratic majority leader. Also, Independence Party member Jack Eddington, who has run with Democratic endorsement, isn’t running for re-election. So these are now open seats. Local issues in a few other districts, according to GOP strategists, weaken their Democratic incumbents. And they see voter sentiment against President Obama helping GOP candidates generally.

With an increase of four seats on Election Day, November 8, Republicans would acquire a majority on the legislature. A win of three would result in a 9-9 tie — a potential deadlock and the reason why there have been calls through the years to alter the legislature’s membership to an odd number.

Is the GOP bullishness just wishful political thinking? We’ll soon see.