For Tom Suozzi, this campaign is all about the handshakes.
Suozzi, the former county executive who is in the last weeks of a rematch against County Executive Edward Mangano (R-Bethpage) after losing a razor-thin race to Mangano in 2009, is quick to acknowledge that he took voters for granted in his last race.
“I’m making a more concerted effort to reach out to everybody in this campaign,” Suozzi said in an interview Saturday afternoon, while standing outside Elmont’s former fifth police precinct following a rally to protest Mangano’s consolidation of the department. “My last campaign I didn’t work hard enough. I’ve said that since the very beginning.”
A distracted second term, interrupted by Suozzi’s unsuccessful run for governor in 2006, took its toll on Suozzi’s political support, and Mangano’s 2009 victory sent the Glen Cove Democrat back to the private sector before his recruitment into the 2013 race by Democratic party leader Jay Jacobs last Spring.
Now, Suozzi said, he is refocused on Nassau, and is in it for the long haul.
“I will serve out my full term,” Suozzi said. “I will not run for higher office.”
Suozzi said he is working 12 to 14 hours days on the campaign trail, and Saturday showed his renewed emphasis on retail politics. Suozzi traveled to events across the county, hitting common notes – an emphasis on transit-oriented development and criticism of Mangano’s financial performance – while tailoring his stump speech to each audience.
The day’s campaigning began at a community breakfast in Hempstead, where Suozzi traded friendly words with Village of Hempstead Mayor Wayne Hall and Town of Hempstead Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby before addressing an audience of about 100.
Suozzi kept a conversational tone, eschewing an on-stage podium and saying the meeting was “not a rally.
The speech, which Suozzi targeted at educational and social service issues facing the Village of Hempstead’s majority-minority community, was aimed at getting out the vote and spurring the village’s Democratic base to actively campaign for Suozzi.
“If you’re supporting me, and I think a lot of you are supporting me, I really want you to support me hard and strong – to be confident that you’re doing the right thing,” Suozzi said.
And in making his pitch, Suozzi focused on issues that have remained on the periphery of both his and Mangano’s campaign messaging – namely, fixing failing schools and resorting funding to social services.
“I’m going to restore the money for the youth programs, I’m going to fight for the social service programs,” Suozzi said. “I always did those thing, I will always do those things.”
Suozzi also cited low graduation rates in Hempstead and Roosevelt schools, calling for a Race-To-The-Top style competition that would award funding to bring more social services into school buildings for pilot districts.
“We’re losing generations of children who are not making it in our schools,” Suozzi said.
At least one black leader split with Suozzi earlier this summer. Hempstead-based civil rights attorney Frederick Brewington, who along with other minority leaders heads the Corridor Counts civic group, endorsed Suozzi’s primary opponent Adam Haber and does not plan on endorsing a candidate in the general election.
“I’ve talked to [Brewington], but I think he’s going to stay out of the race all together,” Suozzi said in an interview. “I think that’s what he feels comfortable doing.”
Later than day, after a speech at the Herricks VFW Hall where he criticized Mangano’s performance in office and rallied support for the Democratic ticket, Suozzi joined forces with Nassau County Legislator Carrie Solages (D-Elmont) at a rally to protest the closure of the fifth police precinct.
It was a message that drew support from president of the Elmont East End Civic Patrick Nicolosi, who said Mangano’s consolidation plan had weakened the police department without delivering promised savings.
“It’s costing us more money,” Nicolosi said. “It’s certainly not more efficient.”
Should Suozzi win office he will likely face a familiar argument with the county’s police union, which is currently contesting the Nassau Interim Finance Authority’s public employee wage freeze and is seeking back pay from the county.
Suozzi clashed publicly with the police union during his term in office over contract negotiations. Asked about possible future negotiations, he said police would likely have to make concessions but that he would seek a less combative approach.
“I fought them head on in the old days. Face to face, just a real battle royal,” Suozzi said. “I think that with my getting a little bit older and the police knowing who I am, that I’m going to work on building a relationship with them so that they understand, and I understand, that we can’t kill the goose that laid the golden egg.”
It’s a message backed by Nicolosi, who said Suozzi’s history of tension with the police union did not bother him.
“I want a strong county executive to negotiate,” Nicolosi said. “I don’t want to jeopardize safety, and that’s what Ed Mangano did.”
The day was not done for Suozzi, who would then take his campaign north to a different constituency – the seafood lovers at Oyster Bay’s Oyster Festival.
