There are 19 legislators in the Nassau County legislature.  Eleven are Republicans and eight are Democrats. The Republicans have controlled the County legislature since 2010. Twelve of the legislative districts are within the Town of Hempstead. In short, the legislators from the Town of Hempstead could control the County Legislature -- but do not, because some parts of the Town send Republicans to the legislature.

Laura Curran, the County Executive is a Democrat. She follows eight years of a corrupt and dysfunctional Republican Executive.

The extent of Republican control of the County Executive position, going back eighty years, is shown in the following chart:

Name	Party	Term
J. Russell Sprague	Republican	1938–1953
A. Holly Patterson	Republican	1953–1962
Eugene Nickerson	Democratic	1962–1970
Ralph G. Caso	Republican	1970–1978
Francis T. Purcell	Republican	1978–1987
Thomas Gulotta	Republican	1987–2001
Thomas Suozzi	Democratic	2002–2009
Ed Mangano	Republican	2010–2017
Laura Curran	Democratic	2018–present

The legislature of the Town of Hempstead is called the Town Council (aka Town Board).  It has six members, five of whom are Republicans and one is nominally a Democrat, but generally votes with the Republicans. 

The executive of the Town of Hempstead is called the Town Supervisor.  That  position is now held by Democrat Laura Gillen. She is the first Democrat to hold that position in a hundred years. For all of the prior time, the Republicans have been in control.

Under primarily Republican rule, Nassau County and the Town of Hempstead have seen:

   -  sky high taxation and an unfair assessment system
   -  salaries and pensions for many public employees totally out of control and unsustainable in the long run, 
   -  serious lack of infrastructure maintenance and innovation, 
    - a substantial lack of commercial enterprises that cater to to the national or international markets (and that would help substantially with the tax burden), and
   -  little, if any reason for young people raised here to remain here, or for young people and professionals from outside the area to come here to live.

I do not have the most current voter statistics, but the following chart is based upon the voter registration statistics of a year ago.  The relative numbers of Democrats and Blanks has probably increased, since then, as compared to Republicans. Please note that Nassau County has over a million registered voters.  However, many of them have not voted in four or more years, and I have omitted them from the numbers. They have probably moved, died, been institutionalized or are not likely to vote again for some other reason.

 

 

PARTY	County	County %	Hempstead	Hempstead %
Democrat	262,494	40%	153,966	41.60%
Republican	232,356	35%	129,142	34.89%
Blank	133,098	20%	68,865	18.60%
Independent	23,716	4%	12,519	3.38%
Conservative	7,399	1%	4,132	1.12%
Green	901	0%	468	0.13%
Working Family	1,260	0%	803	0.22%
Reform	166	0%	134	0.04%
Women’s Equality	100	0%	55	0.01%
Other	55	0%	33	0.01%
Libertarian	33	0%	24	0.01%
Liberal	7	0%	5	0.00%
No	3	0%	3	0.00%
Right To Life	1	0%	1	0.00%
Total Active Voters	661,589	100%	370,150	100.00%

"Blanks" is the designation given to persons who register to vote, but who do not affiliate to any political party. From the foregoing chart, it can be seen that active Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in Nassau County by 30,000 and in the Town of Hempstead by almost 25,000.  It can also be seen that the decisive result in elections depends upon the Blanks. Although not organized, they can swing any election to or against either one of the two major parties.

The question is: Since Democrats substantially outnumber Republicans, why are the Republicans solidly in control of both the Nassau County and Town of Hempstead legislatures?   I have a view on that, and I will give it in a coming column.  In the meanwhile, please reply to this email and tell me what you think the answer is to that question. You can reply to this email. If I refer to your reply in a future column, you will not be identified, unless you agree otherwise.

Laura Curran and Laura Gillen, the brave Democrats we have elected to run the County and Town of Hempstead, respectively, are doomed to failure unless we can do something about the composition of each of the legislatures. 

HJB

 

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