Kaiman wins, Gop gains seat

Richard Tedesco And John Santa

After a bitter campaign, incumbent Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman easily trumped Republican challenger Lee Tu, Democrat Anna Monahemi Kaplan beat Republican Jeff Bass for the 4th District town board seat, and the GOP gained one seat on the town board

Republican Dina DeGiorgio defeated Democratic incumbent Fred Pollack in the 6th district town seat, which includes Port Washington and Manhasset. The Democrats retain a 5-2 majority on the town board.

“You don’t win every single game. We win together and we fall together. And today we may have fallen but we will keep fighting,” Kaiman said, acknowledging the victories – including his fifth-term win – and the loss of a fellow Democrats at the Harbor Links Golf Club in Port Washington.

Control of the Nassau County Legislature remained in doubt at press time with two races – in the 14th and 18th legislative districts – showing margins of less than 100 votes in unofficial results.

The Democrats gained a seat with Carrie Solages’ victory over 16-year Republican incumbent John Ciotti in the District 3 race. The Republicans entered the election with an 11-8 majority.

Republican incumbent Joseph Belesi had a lead of 91 votes over Democratic challenger Eva Pearson in District 14 results, while Republican Robert Germino Jr. had a 37-vote margin over Democrat Delia DeRiggi-Whitton out of more than 11,00 votes cast in both races.

In other county results, incumbents largely carried the day. Republican Nassau County Legislator Richard Nicolello scored the most lopsided victory, drawing 73 percent of the vote in county District 9 against Jason Watson’s 27 percent with more than 7,000 votes out of more than 9,800 votes cast. Democratic incumbent Judi Bosworth beat Elizabeth Berney, drawing 55 percent of more than 11,000 votes cast in District 10, and Democratic incumbent Wayne Wink won in a walk over Republican Eric Zausner in District 11, drawing 57 percent of more than 12,000 votes cast.

Wink said he was “gratified” by the support he received in his district.

“The numbers indicate that what I’ve been doing on behalf of the taxpayers has been recognized by the people,” he said. “I hope to spend the next two years living up to their expectations.”

“We kept the majority in the face of making difficult decisions, tough decisions to protect the taxpayers,” Nicolello said. “Overall, it’s a big win.”

Although his race was hardly suspenseful, with Watson running what he called a “non-traditional” campaign that featured very little active campaigning, Nicolello said he was still excited about the victory.

“It’s always a thrill to run and to actually win a seat,” he said.

Nicolello said he thought voters recognized his sense of equity and fiscal conservatism.

I think the public knows that I’m making the choices that aren’t making every interest group happy, but they’re protecting the taxpayers,” Nicolello said. “They know they just can’t afford any higher taxes. We’ve kept the taxes low and we’re cutting spending.”

Bosworth thanked voters for their support at the Great Neck Long Island Rail Road station.

“I love this,” Bosworth said. “It’s such an honor for me to be able to do this. As long as I feel that I can bring passion and commitment to this job with a sense of appreciation for the people that I represent, then I’m so happy to be here.”

The Democrats dominated the day’s balloting in town races.

Town of North Hempstead Receiver of Taxes Charles Berman topped Republican challenger Jane Centrella with 56 percent of the vote to her 44 percent. Incumbent Democratic Councilman Thomas Dwyer took 57 percent of the vote, 3,449 to 2,627 over Republican opponent Edward Scott in 6th District.

As the first Iranian American to win office in the town, Kaplan recalled migrating to the U.S., acknowledging her victory with an evident sense of pride.

“I’m honored and privileged to be standing here tonight,” said Kaplan. A member of the Great Neck Library Board of Trustees and the town’s Board of Zoning Appeals, Kaplan decided against a re-election bid to run for the town board seat that had been held by Maria-Christina Poons. Poons said she had decided not to run for re-election to spend more time on her civic association activities.

Kaplan defeated Bass by 469 votes, gaining 54 percent of the more than 6,000 votes cast.

On Wednesday morning, with the county Board of Elections reporting 100 percent of the votes cast, Bass said he still had not conceded the race, which had seen accusations by Bass that Kaplan improperly claimed endorsements.

Bass, who is a Village of Great Neck trustee, claims that neither Poons nor Village of Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman has endorsed his opponent as was claimed in a flyer.

A week later, Poons stated she supported Kaplan and Kreitzman said that while as mayor he did not endorse candidates he supported all Democrats as a Democratic committeeman.

Kaiman said that after being attacked by Tu and the other Republicans the Democrats weighed waging a negative counter-attack. He said internal polls indicated their criticism would have gained the Democrats a larger margin of victory, but decided against it “because we believed people shouldn’t be trashed.”

“We know how communities work,” Kaiman said, acknowledging his victory in the race around midnight.

Referring to the town board’s controversial initiative to purchase the Roslyn County Club and make it a town recreation facility, Kaiman said that a final determination wasn’t yet made.

“If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t,” he said.

Tu, who has lost twice to Kaiman, maintained that the town’s plan wouldn’t work, calling on the town to create a park district to administer the property.

Dwyer, who represents Roslyn Heights where the Roslyn Country Club is located, said he supported the planned acquisition of Roslyn Country Club. He pointed out that the town took similar risks in launching the 311 information line and Project Independence, the town program that provides senior town residents assistance to enable them to remain in their homes.

“They’re risks. But they’re good risks. We take risks for the people. We’re going to make an incomparable country club,” Dwyer said.

Dwyer said the Republicans “were misinformed, misadvised and they had misunderstood” the issues.

Kaiman modified the “risk” theme, playfully putting his hand on Dwyer as if to restrain him, saying his administration would be “taking risks in a manner that will serve everyone well,”

“Ours was a campaign of ideas and results,” Kaiman told the partisan crowd. He said the Republicans “don’t have issues so they were running on what were micro-issues.”

Asked if he viewed the election result as an affirmation of the Roslyn Country Club, Kaiman said it may have been a “factor, but not as it was distorted.”

He said he thought his constituents seek “an accord that works for Roslyn County Club and the community as well.”

Tu didn’t attend the Republican election night gathering in Westbury on Tuesday night and attempts to reach him for a comment proved unavailing.

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