Rematch for Nassau Executive Could Be Bellwether of National Trend
By JOSEPH BERGER
A fair question to ask about the race for executive of Nassau County is: Why would anyone want the job?
The county, the state’s richest and the nation’s 13th wealthiest by median household income, according to the Census Bureau, is in virtual receivership as a result of decades of lavish spending on police and other services and mounting debt that brought it to the verge of bankruptcy 13 years ago. Budgets and labor contracts proposed by the incumbent county executive, Edward P. Mangano, can be stymied by a state-appointed control board, the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority.
Nevertheless Thomas R. Suozzi, who held the job from 2002 through 2009, and Mr. Mangano, the man to whom he lost it by 386 votes, both want the position and are back for a rematch in November.
“It’s the Thrilla in Mineola,” said Lawrence Levy, executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, tailoring the popular title of the 1975 heavyweight rematch between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in Manila to the seat of this suburban county that Jay Gatsby, Theodore Roosevelt, Charles A. Lindbergh and Levittown made famous.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/02/nyregion/rematch-for-nassau-executive-could-be-bellwether-of-national-trend.html?partner=socialflow&smid=tw-nytmetro&_r=0
