Democrats confident of regaining Nassau County Executive Position
LONG ISLAND, NY (TIP): If Tom Suozzi wins in the race for the position of Nassau County Executive in November it will be the third time in the history of the County that a Democrat will be heading it. The County has been a bastion of Republicans ever since it was created in 1938.

It was only in early seventies that Judge Nickerson, a democrat was elected the Executive and again in 2001 it was Tom who wrested it from the Republicans. It remains to be seen if Tom will be able to repeat the feat. However, there are quite a few pointers to suggest a democratic win in November elections. First, the number of registered Democrats has gone up in the last ten years.

There are 83,000 more registered Democrats in Nassau County, while there are more than 16,000 fewer Republicans since the last elections. As of April, 2013, there were 371,557 registered Democrats in Nassau County and 332,036 registered Republicans, a clear yawning gap of 39,521. Two, the steadily increasing numbers of immigrants in to the County have created a larger support base for Democrats.

Majority of immigrants have always been known to be pro Democrats, a fact explained by the dominance of Democrats in workers unions which have a large presence of immigrants. Three, while the present Executive Edward Mangano has been very active and very much in news too, he has been with only smaller groups of upper middle classes and upper classes. He has had hardly any contact with the majority of people below.

True, he could raise a lot of money and believe me, it is a lot of money the accounts of which were published in an earlier issue of The Indian Panorama but he has not been able to pull voters. And it is the voters who will count not the fat purses when it comes to electing the next chief executive. The fundraiser for Tom Suozzi at Mint Restaurant, Garden City on July 11 was ample indication of his popularity with the South Asian community.

The large numbers and the representation of diverse sections left no one in doubt that the challenger had arrived. There is a groundswell of support for Tom Suozzi. Amongst the gathering were the best known faces of South Asian community, politicians and officials. Supervisor Jon Kaiman, NYS Asst. Comptroller Joe Galante and Viviana Russell were present to lend their support.

Tom said the enthusiasm of voters and the wide support of his friends and well wishers give him the confidence that he would win. He said earlier 3 I’s were important in American politics which stood for Israel, Italy and Ireland and now there were 4 R’s. The fourth I, he said stood for India.

Speaking about the fundraiser, he said it was because of the populous support that he had raised more money than Mangano in the last four months. He thanked all for their commitment and support to him.