From left: County Clerk candidate Lauren Gillen, former Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi and former Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman, all Democrats, on Tuesday, May 21, 2013.

It’s looking more and more likely that Nassau County voters will have a familiar feeling when they read the candidates names to choose from on election ballots at the polls this fall.

Nassau Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs endorsed Tuesday former County Comptroller Howard Weitzman after Legis. Wayne Wink (D-Roslyn) bowed out to spare the party a primary in that race—one of two local Democratic primaries Jacobs is trying to avoid.

“As Yogi Bera would say, ‘This is déjà vu all over again,’” Weitzman told reporters at a news conference in Mineola, vowing to unseat Republican Comptroller George Maragos, who won Weitzman’s job nearly four years ago. “I’m really looking forward to running again on a ticket with Tom Suozzi.”

Suozzi, the former Democratic county executive seeking his job back from Republican Ed Mangano, who unseated him in 2009, endorsed Weitzman, saying: “I know he can do it because he’s done it.”

Together with Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, the top of the Democratic ticket may be mostly the same as it was four years ago.

The one clearly new name is Lauren Gillen, a Rockville Centre-based attorney who’s the Democratic candidate running against County Clerk Maureen O’Connell, a Republican who won her job in 2005.

The wild card is Adam Haber, a Roslyn school board member and businessman challenging Suozzi to a primary on the Democratic line in the race against Mangano because he believes it will take an outsider to clean up the county.

Mangano, Maragos and O’Connell are each running for re-election on the GOP line. A Republican challenger to Rice has yet to emerge.

“My overriding goal has always been to have a unified ticket…a primary would be an unnecessary use of resources,” Jacobs said. “We ought to be focused on the Mangano administration.”

Wink, a county legislator representing the 11th district, had decided not to run for his current job after his seat was merged into the district represented by Legis. Judi Bosworth (D-Great Neck) last year. Jacobs alluded to another office Wink may be nominated to run for at the upcoming party convention.

“If there is one that I’ve learned first hand,” Wink said, “the Mangano administration really ran this county into the ground.”

Maragos didn’t waste any time firing back at Weitzman, who repeatedly compared Mangano and Maragos to Suozzi’s Republican predecessor Tom Gulotta, who led the county into near bankruptcy at the turn of the millennium.

“The residents will now have a clear choice between Weitzman, who left the county nearly bankrupt with a $250 million deficit, and Comptroller Maragos who has restored fiscal stability to the county resulting in three years without a property tax increase,” Jostyn Hernandez, Maragos’ spokesman, said in an email.

Adam Haber has been going door to door to increase his name recognition in the Democratic primary for the Nassau County executive’s race (Spencer Rumsey).

Adam Haber is going door to door in his uphill battle to become the next Nassau County executive.

His first step is to win the Democratic primary on Sept. 10. Standing in his way is Nassau County Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs, who wants to unify his party behind Tom Suozzi, the former Nassau County executive. Suozzi served eight years in Mineola before losing by 386 votes to Republican Ed Mangano, a then-county legislator, in 2009.

“I’m not part of the system,” says Haber as he strides down a sidewalk in Plainview on a sunny day last week with this reporter struggling to keep up. “I’m an outsider.”

He introduces himself to a middle-aged woman who just came home from her job in a school district, and she invites him into her living room as he explains why he is running.

“I believe that taxes are very high and services are being cut and the middle class is getting squeezed,” says Haber. “We could do better for our community. I’m a businessman. I’m also on the Roslyn School Board and I’m involved in charities. And I think I can do a better job.”

She nods appreciatively as he continues. “I own restaurants, commercial real estate, incubator start-ups. I’ve been in finance over 20 years. I know how to balance budgets and make payroll.”

This resident, a registered Democrat, supported Suozzi in the past, but she is open to persuasion, enjoying their banter as they discuss the deplorable state of the county.

“Nassau County has the highest debt of the 57 counties in New York State: $3 billion plus,” he claims. Then, in response to her comment about the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, the state-appointed fiscal watchdog, Haber exclaims,“We’re the 12th richest county in the country and we have an oversight committee! It’s embarrassing!”

In a serious vein, he tells her that he wants to restore fiscal sanity to the county without pandering or spewing rhetoric.

“No one is going to lower your taxes!” Haber says in earnest. “But to stop the progression of them going up, you look for savings in the infrastructure. And there’s a lot you can do—and a lot we don’t do—in Nassau….

“We had Suozzi,” he says. “I’m not going to disparage him because he’s not here to defend himself. But he had eight years. Mangano’s had four years. And [their predecessor, Republican Tom] Gulotta’s had…I don’t know how many years. Twenty years and nothing’s been built!”

The woman chimes in, “A hundred years of the Republican Party machine!”

“And nothing gets done in Nassau County!” says Haber. “We are losing businesses. We lost the Islanders. Social services are getting whacked.”

But Haber’s chances of winning the hearts and minds of Nassau’s Democratic voters have taken a beating as well. With Jacobs’ backing, the Nassau County Democratic Party’s Executive Committee, comprised of the vice chairs, the town and city leaders, the legislative district leaders, zone leaders and committee officers unanimously endorsed Suozzi’s repeat run by a vote of 72-0 on March 19 .

“Tom Suozzi is the candidate in this race with the vision and experience to turn our county around and stop the reckless borrowing and fiscal mismanagement of the Mangano administration,” said Jacobs in a statement. He was equally profuse in his praise of Suozzi at the Nassau County Democrats’ annual spring dinner last month at the Crest Hollow Country Club. Suozzi was the keynote speaker. Haber only stayed for cocktails and left to go campaigning.

Haber says he loves knocking on doors, which he’s been doing since he announced in February, and judging from an unscientific sampling the other day in Plainview, the feeling is shared—at least by the Democrats who greeted him at their homes.

A woman in a purple T-shirt of Alfred Hithcock’s famous profile answers the door and asks Haber a question. “You’re running against Suozzi?”

“I am,” he says with a broad smile. “He’s running against me, actually. I declared first!”

She chuckles and they engage in a conversation that ranges from the political to the personal. When it’s time to move on, he asks her, “Can I count on your support in September?” And without a moment’s hesitation, she looks him in the eye and replies, “Yes, you will!”

Before the afternoon is through, Haber has spoken with a handful of Democrats who are home when he comes calling. One woman says she’d read about him. Every resident seems to take his candidacy seriously. Haber says the response fits the pattern he sees on Sundays when he puts in three to four hours at a time: about a third are neutral, a third are “a little above neutral for me” and “a third are, like, wildly pro for me. Five percent are pro-Suozzi, and those are the people who somehow work for him or are connected to him through some kind of job that they got.”

Without the endorsements of well-known Democrats like New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, whose announcement on April 26 makes him the state’s top Democrat to back Suozzi, Haber has to have a successful ground game to be competitive.

“I plan on knocking on thousands of doors,” Haber says. “I’ve done well over a thousand already…. I usually walk very fast because the faster you walk the more doors you can knock!”

When the day began, Haber was greeting morning commuters at the Freeport train station.

“I’ve been up since six this morning,” he says. As for his Democratic opponent, Haber says, “I’ve been outworking him, clearly…because I know I’ve got to work harder!”

Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano gave his fourth State of the County address at the Morrelly Homeland Security Center in Bethpage on Wednesday, March 6, 2013.

Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano proposed a new, smaller arena to replace the aging coliseum, urged Democratic critics to help him close perpetual budget gaps and ticked off a list of past initiatives in his fourth State of the County address Wednesday.

After recovering from a teleprompter glitch during his opening remarks, the first-term Republican seeking re-election this fall launched into what at times felt like a stump speech—although he also struck some downer notes while mentioning Superstorm Sandy, the loss of the New York Islanders and the recent deaths of two Nassau cops and a top Nassau GOP lawmaker.

“Nassau County had the distinction of being the highest property taxed County in the nation; that is no longer true,” Mangano told the crowd assembled at the Morrelly Homeland Security Center in his hometown of Bethpage. “While we still have much work to do, we’re headed in the right direction.”

His address comes as federal Sandy recovery aid has begun trickling into the region, while The Amazing Spiderman 2—the largest film shot in New York State—is now in production at a nearby sound stage and after a federal judge recently ruled against a 2011 county employee wage freeze.

He also reminded the audience that he has frozen property taxes, cut the county workforce and privatized county services such as the bus system and inmate health care at Nassau County jail in his quest to close budget deficits. The Nassau Interim Finance Authority, a state-appointed fiscal watchdog, took control of county finances a year after Mangano took office.

Legis. Kevan Abrahams (D-Hempstead), the leader of the county’s Democratic legislative minority, criticized Mangano for his ongoing plan to close half of the eight police precincts—one cost-saving measure the county exec didn’t mention—and for a recent credit downgrade.

“It seems as though Nassau County has hit rock bottom,” Abrahams said, although he did endorse the new arena idea. “How much are we really saving and is it really worth it?”

Tom Suozzi, the ex-Nassau County executive seeking the Democratic line for a rematch against Mangano—who unseated Suozzi in 2009—released a statement critical of Mangano before the address.

“Under Ed Mangano, Nassau County has been mired in reckless mismanagement and constant fiscal crisis,” Suozzi said. “Furthermore, Mangano has presented no vision for our future and continues to rely on borrowing to the detriment of future generations.”

Suozzi’s Democratic primary opponent, millionaire Adam Haber of Roslyn, also took a swipe at the county executive, accusing him of “speaking out of both sides of his mouth. Mangano said that taxes have not gone up, but Nassau’s middle class families know that they are being squeezed by paying more fees, while government services are getting cut.”

In his defense, Mangano repeatedly referenced a $3 billion deficit he inherited from Suozzi, half of it from funds borrowed to pay property tax challenges in a grievance system Mangano has tried to overhaul. He also called on Democrats to provide the three votes needed to approve borrowing to pay more property tax settlements—something Democrats vowed not to do in the run-up to the recent legislative redistricting.

“We have truly reinvented and are rebuilding a stronger, better and brighter Nassau County,” Mangano said. “That is why we must never return to our past practices.”

Nassau County Legis. Delia DeRiggi-Whitton (D-Glen Cove), left, ex-lawmaker Dave Mejias, center, and others announce their opposition to building a casino on Long Island on Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013.

About a dozen members of a new anti-gambling group declared their opposition Thursday to any proposals to build a casino in Nassau County, citing quality of life concerns and worries that a deal to bring Atlantic City-style gaming to Long Island could be in the works.

The group dubbed themselves Nassau Residents Against Gambling Enterprise Development, or N-RAGED for short, during their debut press conference on the steps of the Supreme Court building in Mineola. Members of various neighborhood civic organizations as well as current and former local Democratic lawmakers round out its ranks.

“We are afraid that our suburban quality of life will be torn apart by some backroom deal in Albany,” said Dave Mejias, an attorney, a former Nassau legislator and the chairman of N-RAGED. “We want to make sure that Long Island is not going to be sold out to those special interests.”

He was referring to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to legalize casino gambling in New York State, a plan that requires a second consecutive vote of approval in the State Legislature before voters ultimately decide its fate in a referendum. The Shinnecock Indian Nation in Southampton has been scouting for a location to build a gaming facility since winning federal recognition in 2010.

Despite the timing of the rally about an hour after fellow Democratic former Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi held a press conference announcing his intentions to reclaim his old position, Mejias maintained that the group was “a-political.” Nevertheless, participants praised Suozzi’s agenda and criticized the Republican who unseated him, Ed Mangano, for proposing a casino at Nassau Coliseum. Also speaking at the anti-casino rally was Nassau Legis. Delia DeRiggi-Whitton, another Democrat from Suozzi’s hometown of Glen Cove.

“It’s a question of whether or not we really want to push gambling,” said DeRiggi-Whitton, adding that she prefers alternative proposals to build sports or research centers that have been floated for Uniondale and Elmont. She and others also expressed concerns that bringing casino gambling to LI would further strain social services because there might be an increase of gambling addicts losing their homes after betting on cards and other games of chance and tearing their families apart.

Cuomo had said during his State of the State address last month that he thinks whatever casinos New York builds should be located upstate, drawing tourists from LI and New York City. When reminded of the governor’s idea, Mejias said it’s still possible LI could be dealt a gaming facility while negotiations continue.

Shinnecock Trustee Chairman Randy King told the Press in a statement that if and when the tribe settles on a potential location to open a casino, they are required by federal law to ask the community for input.

“There has not been any recent activity regarding Shinnecock gaming in Nassau County,” the statement read in part.

Aside from the aging coliseum in Uniondale, there have also been proposals in recent years to build a casino at the Belmont Racetrack in Elmont, where the latest development pitch is for a soccer stadium for the New York Cosmos.

A spokesman for State Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), the co-leader of the chamber who has been instrumental in Belmont redevelopment talks, did not return a call for comment. Neither did a spokeswoman for Mangano.

“We spend a lot of money sending our kids away to college,” said Mejias. ”They’re not going to be able to live here if they come back to be cocktail waitresses and blackjack dealers.”

Adam Haber is running for Nassau County Executive as a Democrat.

On a warm sunny day in February fit for a coronation or the Second Coming, a beaming Nassau Democratic Committee Chairman Jay Jacobs took to the podium set up on the steps of the Supreme Court in Mineola to announce what had already been obvious for quite a while: Tom Suozzi is running for Nassau County executive—again. Why? Because he says the county cannot endure another four years under Ed Mangano, the Republican who’d beaten Suozzi by 386 votes in 2009.

The official roll-out was choreographed with an “exclusive” in Wednesday’s Newsday that “Suozzi’s In” accompanied by a Kennedy-esque profile of the committee chairman’s favored candidate filling the front-page of Long Island’s daily paper owned by Cablevision—for which Suozzi did some consulting work after he lost the nail-biter and from whose owners he’s received nearly $200,000 in campaign contributions throughout the years.

Jacobs’ press conference, it turned out, was just a teaser.

“The party is behind Tom Suozzi,” said Jacobs.

But Suozzi wasn’t by Jacobs’ side. The former county executive’s time to shine in the public’s eye reportedly comes on Valentine’s Day when he officially hits the trail.

His absence, however, was conspicuously noted by the only other Nassau Democrat to declare his candidacy, Adam Haber, whose campaign fired back this salvo that read: “No-Show Suozzi once again takes voters for granted,” and it “slammed insider Tom Suozzi for failing to show up at his own press conference.”

When Haber announced weeks ago, he certainly didn’t have Newsday’s front page touting him.

Haber, 47, is an entrepreneurial businessman, a restaurateur (he owns Lula Trattoria in Mineola) and a former Wall Street investor who’s been on the Roslyn School Board—the only elected office he’s ever held. Haber—who, unlike Mangano and Suozzi, is not an attorney—recently got a master’s degree from C.W. Post in political science. He put together his team of political consultants in early February, hiring Red Horse Strategies, a Brooklyn-based firm, and loaning his campaign $2 million.

As of Jan. 15, Haber had almost $2.2 million on hand, compared to Suozzi’s war chest—left over from his 2009 race—which held less than $1.1 million. North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman, whose restlessness in town hall is well known in political circles, has made some waves recently by saying that he’s formed an “exploratory committee” about running for county executive, but that’s as far as it’s gotten.

Jacobs, no doubt, would love to clear the field for Suozzi, but it doesn’t look likely, given the sharp response of Haber’s campaign.

“Nassau Democrats remember career politician Tom Suozzi’s years of scandal, tax hikes, budget deficits and backroom deals,” Justin Myers, Haber’s campaign manager, said in a press release. “For over a decade, career politicians have mismanaged the county and Nassau needs a better future. Adam Haber is running to stop the waste and cronyism and make Nassau work again for middle class families.”

A Democratic Party insider said that the Nassau’s party faithful “are very excited about a Tom Suozzi candidacy, they’re excited about his comeback and they’re excited to hit the streets for him…. Haber’s not well known to the public at large or to the county committee.”

And without party support, Haber has to battle to appeal to the grassroots.

Jay Jacobs announcing Tom Suozzi is running for Nassau County Executive without Suozzi by his side at a press conference in Mineola on Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013.

Jacobs says he plans to talk to Haber in the coming weeks and that the businessman “offers an awful lot to our party and he’ll be part of our future.” He doesn’t fault Haber “for the issues he’s fighting for,” but he’ll try to convince him to step aside.

“If there’s a primary to be had,” Jacobs said, “then a primary will be waged.”

Asked if Haber would drop out, his spokesman, Galen Alexander, tells the Press, “Adam Haber is in it to win it.”

Haber knew he’d have to face a primary. “You’ve got to win the playoffs to get to the World Series,” he says.

“I like Tom Suozzi personally,” Haber says. “I welcome him to the race because it’ll only bring out the issues more often. But he had eight years and he failed. The debt exploded. Manufacturing jobs have left. He’s had one foot out the door for a long time. He sees himself as president. I see myself as county executive.”

As for Suozzi’s name recognition, Haber scoffs, “Nothing that a million dollars won’t cure.”

He says he likes Jay Jacobs despite his supporting Suozzi.

“He wants to keep his job as county chair, which I respect, and he thinks that is by tying his future to Tom Suozzi.”

But he went on to say that “we don’t have a Democratic majority in Hempstead. We don’t have a single person in the Town of Oyster Bay [government]. We have a minority in the Legislature. We don’t have a county executive who’s a Democrat.” Referring to the “gerrymandering scheme” the Nassau Republicans are now pushing through the legislature, he warned that the new legislative districts “will institutionalize for the next 10 years no chance at all of any kind of majority control!”

Mangano, Haber says, won “by default,” but “he’s a career politician and that’s what we’ve had, and look where we are. I think it’s time for a fresh start.”  He lamented the county’s near junk-bond rating, the closing of police precincts, the tax assessment “mess,” the sewage treatment plants “in disarray,” the departure of the Islanders and Mangano’s mishandling of the Nassau Hub, which he dubbed a “disaster.” He called it “bizarre” that Mangano would put Bruce Ratner, the man who lured the Islanders to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, on a committee to create a plan for the Nassau Coliseum.

“That’s like somebody having an affair with your wife,” says Haber, “and then you’re going to him and asking for marital advice!”

Speaking of marriage, Haber and his wife Renee, who used to be a teacher in Mineola and is an expert on bullying prevention, have a son and a daughter, both teenagers. One reason he wants to be county executive, he says, is to do all he can to ensure that his children can afford to live in Nassau in the future.

Driving the Democrats to make this contest competitive is their insistence that the Republican incumbent, Mangano, has done a bad job in Nassau.

“I think we’re pretty close to bottom,” Haber says, warning that if the county’s government—both in the executive office and in the divided legislature—continues to be so dysfunctional, then “we slowly slide into something in between what we have now and Detroit.”

“Most politicians think you either have to fire people or you raise taxes [to] get revenue,” he says. “And I’m saying, forget about that. That’s the last thing you do.” Instead, he says he’d scrutinize how services are delivered and find savings, same as the “millions of dollars” he says he saved the Roslyn School District by getting them to refinance their debt and economize on bus transportation.

“I’m an outsider. I’m a big community guy. I’m a businessman,” he says.

As for investing in his own campaign, he says, “How great would it be if this place just became a beacon for its quality of life…and all I did was cut a check for two million bucks and, in a non-partisan way, help my community thrive! For me, that’s exciting!”

Tom Suozzi declares his intention to run for Nassau County Executive.

Three years after Tom Suozzi narrowly lost Nassau’s top-elected position, the former county executive is aiming to get his old job back.

Suozzi, a Democrat, made the announcement Wednesday on his campaign’s official website in a letter addressed to Nassau County residents, declaring his intention to challenge Republican Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano to “restore fiscal stability to our county government and to stop the irresponsible borrowing and skyrocketing debt that shifts the responsibility to our children and grandchildren.”

The former four-term Glen Cove mayor and two-term county executive’s campaign intentions have been one of the worst-kept secrets in Nassau political circles for months. Suozzi has made no secret of his love of politics or intentions for higher office, stating during a debate against former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer during his failed bid in the 2006 Democratic gubernatorial primary that he’d like to be president one day.

Mangano, a veteran county legislator from Bethpage, defeated Suozzi in December 2009 by less than 400 votes following a razor-thin recount that ended in New York State Supreme Court. The following month, Suozzi was hired by one of his largest campaign contributors, Bethpage-based Cablevision Systems Corp., as a consultant to its Local Media Group, which includes holdings Newsday, am New York and News 12. In April 2010 he was hired as a senior advisor to Manhattan-based global advisory investment bank Lazard Ltd. Most recently, Suozzi was of counsel to Harris Beach, a law firm with 13 locations throughout New York State, including Albany and Uniondale.

“Nassau County was once the ideal suburb and we can be again,” Suozzi declares in the letter, dubbing himself “a problem solver” who loved his job as county executive.

During his time away from public office, Suozzi writes, he’s seen “the county mismanaged from one man-made crisis after another” and notes its financial takeover by state watchdog Nassau Interim Finance Authority.

Former Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, a Democrat, conceded a razor-thin defeat to Republican Ed Mangano for the county’s top-elected position in December 2009, losing by less than 400 votes. (Christopher Twarowski/Long Island Press)

He also reflects on the continued departure of recent college grads who can’t afford a future in Nassau because “this suburb of opportunity for my parents, my grandparents, and my generation now has little to offer them.”

“I’m running to demonstrate that we’re all in this together and to stop shifting the burden to our school property taxpayers,” Suozzi continues. “I’m running to stop the deficit spending and the phony budgets.”

A Mangano spokesperson wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Nassau County Democratic Committee Chairman Jay Jacobs will be holding a press conference to discuss Suozzi’s candidacy Wednesday afternoon. Although there is already one announced Democratic candidate for the position, Rosyln School Board member/businessman Adam Haber, and another currently exploring a possible run, North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman, political insiders tell the Press Suozzi is the party favorite.

“Jay [Jacobs] is in Tom’s corner, that is well-known in party circles,” says a Democratic Party source.

“I believe that everything I have done in my life has prepared me for this moment,” continues Suozzi’s letter. “My training as a certified public accountant and attorney, my years as a mayor and county executive, and my recent private-sector experiences have prepared me for this job.”