Nassau County is the land of political nepot babies. This is where, for most of the modern political era, “patronage” has been lavished on friends, family, and supporters of the party in power (primarily the Republican Party).
Laura Gillen’s family learned this when they first arrived on Long Island decades ago. “When my Italian grandfather came to town with his young family and tried to find work, the first thing he was told when he applied to be a sanitary worker was, ‘Both you and your wife are Republicans. ‘You have to register as a county,”’ Gillen, a Democrat who is running to represent most of the county in Congress, recalled recently. “That’s been the case in Hempstead and in Nassau County for a really, really long time.”
While Republicans have maintained their dominance in local elections, over the past 30 years Democrats have grown to dominate the federal race for Nassau County’s 4th Congressional District, with Anthony D’Esposito running for office until the final cycle in 2022. He defeated Mr. Guillen by a narrow margin. 10,000 votes.
The two have been longtime rivals, dating back to Mr. D’Esposito as a member of the Republican-controlled Hempstead Town Commission and Mr. Guillen as town supervisor, the first Democrat elected to that position in 112 years. ) dates back to the time when (According to Guillén, on her first day on the job D’Esposito and other board members tried to confuse her by removing all the furniture from her office, but they repeatedly tangled over the years and Some of the issues involved Mr. Guillen’s efforts to refinance the town’s debt at lower interest rates. )
Last month, the New York Times reported that shortly after Mr. D’Esposito was elected to Congress, he secretly placed two close associates on his district office payroll. One of them happened to be a woman with whom he was having an affair with his fiance’s daughter. About that fiance. (It remains unclear whether D’Esposito’s girlfriend showed up at her workplace, where he held the title “office liaison.”) This spring, after D’Esposito’s fiancée learned of the affair, the two women met. payment was suddenly stopped. The ruse was reportedly discovered by the affair’s (now) ex-husband and the son of D’Esposito’s fiance, who also worked for the Nassau County Health Department.
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“I think this says a lot about his character and his intelligence,” Mr. Guillen said last month, amid laughter, at a luncheon hosted by the Democratic political action committee Emily’s List. “It didn’t go very well for him.” (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert spent three minutes on it the week the scandal broke.)
The problem, and it’s an issue that could determine which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives, is that Long Island voters have witnessed such unfair cronyism for years. The question is whether they have become accustomed to such bald-faced nepotism after having benefited from it (or having personally benefited from it). The region’s machine politics would care enough about scandal to expel D’Esposito from Congress.
And there’s a second, bigger question hanging over this particular campaign. The question is whether the gains Republicans made here in 2021 and 2022 are durable and emblematic of broader dissatisfaction among centrist voters like this district. There is a lot of sentiment towards the Democratic Party.
In some ways, it is surprising that D’Esposito even made it to Congress in the first place. A former New York City police detective, he was the subject of three separate charges during his police career, all by black men, including excessive force. It included two charges (one acquitted and the other deemed “unfounded” by police). Civilian Complaint Review Board), and one count of unlawful search, which the board recommended that he be prosecuted. He was reprimanded by authorities for acting illegally as a DJ and for leaving a gun unattended in a separate incident, and his vacation was cancelled. (It was stolen from his cruiser, which was unlocked.)
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It wasn’t just D’Esposito’s history of questionable personal and professional judgment that made him vulnerable in 2022. Democrats would have had a big advantage: Before he was elected, Democratic Rep. Kathleen Rice represented New York’s 4th Congressional District (constant 8) and in 2020, Joe・Biden defeated former President Donald Trump in the same district by over 14 points. (This result wasn’t necessarily surprising. During the Trump presidency, Nassau County lost more Republicans than any other county in the country except Manhattan, according to local newspaper reports, and during this period, at least 25,720 Republicans reportedly dropped out.
But something changed after Biden won. In 2021, Democrats were swept from power across Long Island. For Rice, that off-season election was a red flag for Democrats heading into the upcoming midterm elections. As she recalled in an interview with Politico, “I said to[the party leaders]’You guys don’t understand, and we’re going to lose Long Island.’ Voters. simply added, “I wanted to send the following message.” Washington. ”
In November 2022, that message was manifested in the election of D’Esposito and his Republican colleague to the north, George Santos (who actually beat D’Esposito by more than three points). Observers attribute both victories to dissatisfaction with the Biden administration and a resurgence of Republican power in Nassau.
Now, control of the chamber is at stake, with Santos expelled from the chamber after being indicted on charges including credit card fraud, and Democrats only need to win a few seats to regain control. . majority. D’Esposito’s seat, which Republicans currently hold as the most pro-Biden seat in Congress, is one of their top targets.
Somewhat counterintuitively, the race for control of NY-4 has morphed into a microcosm of a national election centered on immigration and reproductive rights at home, with both candidates focusing on borders and They claim that it is their responsibility to protect. Protecting women’s ability to make their own health care decisions.
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While Guillén pledges to work to “end the immigration crisis” in her ad, D’Esposito says in a special section of her website dedicated to “women’s rights” that she will “guarantee[women’s]rights.” We are working to do so.” own medical decisions; ” His claims are not supported by his background or voting record. He opposed Proposition 1, the ballot measure that enshrined the right to abortion in the New York state constitution, supported numerous anti-choice bills in the General Assembly, and previously said: Perhaps it would repeal the 15-week national abortion ban before attempting to reverse that position.
After all, the race in NY-4 was personal and local, but it may ultimately provide a surprising counterpoint to the axiom that all politics is local.
