1887 Everything’s Normal in Nassau
County
In Nassau County, Long Island, New
York they’ll elect a bunch of carrots to public office as long as they’re
Republican carrots. They have done this for the better part of the last
119 years. It is the richest county in New York State (eat your heart
out, Westchester) [1] and also one of the highest taxed. [2] It manages its
finances so brilliantly that the State of New York has taken over that job
which is unusual because that means some actual work will have to be done in
Albany.
The largest geographical sub-entity
in Nassau is the Town of Hempstead, which pretty much ran things its own way
for the first 90 years the county existed. Little has changed. This
is a gang that takes care of its own. Here’s the latest example of politics,
Hempstead style:
The head guy is called the
Supervisor. Until the last Friday of December 2017, the office was occupied by
one Anthony Santino who is paid about $160-thousand a year for his trouble.
He was temporarily replaced by his deputy who will then undoubtedly got a raise to match Santino’s pay grade at least for the four days he was in office.
The election last November went to
a Democrat. A woman! A Democrat. A woman. In Hempstead Town. Unthinkable in
the insular world of the tax and spend Republicans, though it has happened on
rare occasions. But don’t feel sorry for Tony. He already has a new
job lined up. He will become the Administrative Assistant to the Board of
Elections. And he will be paid give or take what he has been paid as
supervisor, which is more than the Commissioner of Elections he’ll
administratively assist.
Those jobs -- called patronage
elsewhere in America -- amount to “OK, hire the loser and then we’ll figure out
something for him to do on those days he shows up to do stuff.”
The temp hired to be Town
Supervisor, Anthony Esposito, will be able to use another trick that was
invented at home: Next election he can run for the job he’ll hold now for
only a few days and his campaign signs will legally be able to say “Return
Supervisor Esposito to Office.” That would make him seem at casual glance
to be the incumbent which ain’t what happened. But an incumbency -- real
or fake -- often is a leg up in an election because who pays attention to this
nonsense in the off season.
SHRAPNEL:
--A possible stupid pet trick to
watch for: The story goes that in 1961 when Eugene Nickerson became the
first Democrat elected Nassau County Executive, he opened his desk drawers for
the first time to find his Republican predecessor had left them pristine and
empty. No paperwork, not even a paper clip or a key to the men’s room.
--Politicians of every stripe give
out little campaign trinkets like ballpoint pens, bumper stickers and maybe
potholders. The Town of Hempstead Republicans used to give out sponges
imprinted with the names of their candidates. How apt.
Footnotes:
1.
Source: US Census
Bureau
2.
Source: Attom
Data Solutions via Long Island Business News.
I’m Wes Richards. My
opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address
comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
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© WJR 2017
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