The best known saying in politics might just be “all politics is local.” This year, however, what became a Red Wave, if not a Red Tsunami, for Suffolk County Republicans had defeated Democrats complaining that “all politics is national.”
Adverse local voter reaction to a host of issues – from ‘defund the police’ to bail reform, to inflation and rising property taxes, to supply chain woes – was buttressed by solid Republican turnout and highly-focused local GOP campaigns to garner victories for the party in Suffolk’s county-wide race for District Attorney, as well as across the 18 seats on the County Legislature – which before last night was majority for the Democrats.
While Tuesday’s results are unofficial, since New York State Election Law requires a complete recanvass of all votes cast on Election Day, as well as absentee and provisional ballots, before election results can be certified.
Accordingly, declarations of victory below are unofficial, no matter how likely given the margin of victory and number of outstanding absentee and other ballots.
District Attorney
In a contentious race with the highest profile, career prosecutor Raymond Tierney handily defeated incumbent Democrat Tim Sini by nearly 40,000 votes, with fewer than 15,000 absentee votes to be counted.
For the past 26 years, Tierney has served as a prosecutor and personally tried some of Long Island’s biggest cases, in contrast with Sini who Tierney criticized for lack of prosecutorial experience. Tierney used his efforts to bring justice to massive drug cartels and MS-13- murderers as a major focus in the campaign.
“I want to thank the voters of Suffolk County, everyone who participated in this election because our elections are vitally important and the exercise of that right by our citizens is one of the most important things our citizens can do,” said Tierney on Election Night from the Republican gathering at Stereo Garden in Patchogue.
“And I also want to let them know that I will not forget that I’m a public servant and I serve them. I will fight every day to keep the citizens of Suffolk County safe,” he declared. “I will be there and I will reach out into the community to develop relationships so we can all have faith in our district attorneys.”
Sini was elected Suffolk DA in 2017, having previously been appointed — without police experience as Tierney noted — as the Suffolk County Police Commissioner. His campaign cited efforts against the notorious MS-13 gang and his management of the DA’s forays into crime-fighting technologies.
“We’ve invested in technology. We digitized the entire office… We took on some of the biggest public safety issues of our time,” Sini told supporters. “One of the things I’m most proud of is our work on MS-13. We saved lives. We saved lives. That can’t be taken away from us.”
Tierney was promised a helpful transition by Sini, who conceded Tuesday night.
Sini thanked his supporters, citing Smithtown, where Tierney grew up. “There’s no worse place to be a Democrat than Smithtown,” said Sini.
Tierney also had praise for his supporters.
“I’m proud and humbled to stand before you here today,” the victor said Tuesday night. “Because of the people in this room and the people in Suffolk County, despite running against an incumbent, despite not having it a lot of money in the beginning, despite not having the support of a lot of institutions, not for one day did I feel like an underdog.”
Supporters say Tierney will bring integrity and accountability to an office that has been rampant with corruption and political retaliation. Years of courtroom know how, and multi-unit management experience grants him the ability to oversee and run the DA’s office with transparency and without political and special interest influences.
Suffolk County Sheriff
Incumbent Democrat Sheriff Errol Toulon seemed to have a certain road to re-election: his Republican opponent William Amato did not actively campaign, and Toulon had the backing of the Conservative Party, a ballot alliance normally formed with the GOP.
With nearly 15,000 absentee ballots to be counted, Toulon outpolled Amato by some 22,000 votes.
Toulon’s winning campaign was built on his current successful policies, which put him in the good graces of the powerful law enforcement community, as well as a good number of Republicans and Conservatives. He is the first African-American to serve as Suffolk County Sheriff, and the 67th Sheriff to take office. Supporters touted his 30-year record of experience, one that includes backing the police, protecting the community, and creating programs that strengthen the community-law enforcement relationship.
Unlike the criticisms of the incumbent District Attorney, Toulon was vocal in fighting against New York State’s destructive bail reform laws which have made communities less safe. He strongly opposed defunding the police and not only advocated for more training, but in leading a nationally accredited agency has improved upon in-service training for officers and staff. In his career, Toulon specialized in training thousands of officers in the latest gang prevention techniques. Opposition to violent gangs, such as MS-13, might have made Toulon a campaign team, but late in October, Toulon specifically told Newsday that he had not endorsed any candidates in the 2021 elections, including Sini, to avoid problems with politicization that the Sheriff’s office had experienced in the past.
New Legislative Majority
At the GOP’s Election Night gathering in Patchogue, Suffolk County Republican Chairman Jesse Garcia began to introduce the victors for the County Legislature and made a crowd-pleasing announcement: “It looks like the gavel is moving to Republican side.”
To continuing applause, Garcia brought up Republican Caucus leader Kevin McCaffrey, a likely choice for the Legislature’s Presiding Officer with a GOP majority.
“Eight years ago. I stood on this stage and I took back this seat in Babylon that was held for the Democrats for 25 years. That brought us six seats in the legislature but we still had a long way to go. But tonight, under the leadership of our Republican chairman, Jesse Garcia and our Conservative chairman Mike Torres, we are poised to take over the majority in this legislature,” said McCaffrey!
“I want to thank my family, my wife Julie’s out there, my staff, everybody that helped… campaign workers, my friends…everybody that helped me get where we are today so I can help all of us.”
“And there’s one other person we need to thank,” McCaffrey said, “We need to thank Joe Biden for this Republican wave!”
Currently the Democratic Caucus holds a 10-8 advantage but with apparent victories in three races – including a stunning upset by Dominick Thorne over the sitting Presiding Office Rob Calarco – and a tight race in a fourth district, the GOP was eyeing a potential turnaround to a 12-6 advantage for the Republicans.
In addition to Patchogue’s Calarco, Democrats Sarah Anker in Brookhaven, as well as Susan Berland, and Mark Cuthbertson in Huntington were facing apparent defeat. Another incumbent, Deputy Presiding Officer Kara Hahn, was also in a race in Brookhaven.
Two of the 18 seats — the 10th and 18th Districts – were open seats, with one seat held by each party.
Key Races
In the 3rd Legislative District, incumbent Republican James Mazzarella was facing a rematch against Democrat Kate Browning, a former legislator he defeated in a March special election. Browning, term-limited after serving twelve years, challenged the term limits imposed by Suffolk voters. An appellate court reinstated her candidacy.
As a union leader, community activist, and family man, Jim Mazzarella campaigned on his experience and record on behalf of Suffolk’s middle-class families. He won by nearly 4,000 votes with only 1,100 absentees outstanding.
“Tonight, Jim Mazzarella ended Kate Browning’s political career,” said Chairman Garcia.
Mazzarella agreed. “This election really puts a stamp on [denying term limits]. People see hard work, they see good government, they see someone who cares about their community and they came out and they supported that notion,” he said Tuesday. As to next steps, “I think that I think this caucus now needs to get together, spend some time together and make sure that we work together to make the next several years count for the people,” Mazzarella added.
In the 6th Legislative District, Republican Brendan Sweeney, who currently works for the Town of Brookhaven, handling constituent issues and the ‘zombie home’ demolition program, pulled off an upset by some 1,200 votes, with a similar numbers of absentees, over Democratic incumbent Sarah Anker, who was first elected in 2011.
An excited Sweeney was pleased to join his colleagues, saying “There’s no more Democratic majority in Suffolk County,” and decrying their “crappy politics.”
“I’m just so excited, and I’m ready to get to work,” he said. “We’re going to close the door and put term limits in place for some the county…so we have no more Kate Brownings.”
He added a humorous message for Brookhaven Supervisor Romaine: “This is my notice of resignation for two months from now.”
The 7th Legislative District was the scene of another unexpected upset, and a rematch, with Republican Dominick Thorne defeating incumbent Democrat Robert Calarco, the legislature’s Presiding Officer. Thorne had run and lost to Colarco in 2019.
Thorne campaigned on plans to remove public funding for legislative campaigns, to make living in Suffolk County more affordable, and “to place people before special interests.” Dominick ran in 2019 against Calarco. Thorne leads by roughly 1,000 votes with fewer than 800 absentees outstanding.
With wins in the 10th Legislative District and the 18th Legislative District, Republicans added two more women to their legislative ranks to join incumbent Legislator Leslie Kennedy.
In the 10th LD, Republican Trish Bergin defeated Democrat Carla Simpson to retain term-limited Tom Cilmi’s seat for the GOP, by over 5,000 votes with a little more than 500 absentees outstanding. For the past 12 years, the term-limited Bergin has served as Councilwoman in the Town of Islip. She campaigned on her fiscally conservative decision-making, and seeks to improve infrastructure and water quality for all of Suffolk’s residents. “When I was a reporter and a news anchor, I always wanted to get to the bottom of the truth of an issue, and then I wanted to project it and make it real and make solutions happen,” she said Tuesday. “I feel like I can do that during the government service that I have chosen, first in the town and now at the county, so I’m so excited to be able to continue my work to work to the people of Suffolk County.”
In the 18th LD, Republican Stephanie Bontempi (pictured above) defeated Democrat Mark Cuthbertson by nearly 2,000 votes with only 1,300 absentees outstanding.
A summary of the unofficial results for all 18 Legislative Districts:
District 1: Incumbent Democrat Al Krupski defeated Republican Remy Bell.
District 2: Incumbent Democrat Bridget Fleming defeated Republican Robert Carpenter.
District 3: Incumbent Republican James Mazzarella defeated Democrat Kate Browning.
District 4: Incumbent Republican Nicholas Caracappa defeated Democrat Dawn Marie Sharrock.
District 5: Incumbent Democrat Kara Hahn leads Republican Salvatore Isabella.
District 6: Republican Brendan Sweeney defeated incumbent Democrat Sara Anker and Conservative Anthony DeSimone.
District 7: Republican Dominick Thorne defeated incumbent Democrat Robert Calarco.
District 8: Incumbent Republican Anthony Piccirillo defeated Democrat Peter Russo.
District 9: Incumbent Democrat Samuel Gonzalez defeated Republican Maxima Castro.
District 10: (Open) Republican Trish Bergin-Weichbrodt defeated Democrat Carla Simpson.
District 11: Incumbent Republican Steven Flotteron defeated Democrat Astrid idelia.
District 12: Incumbent Republican Leslie Kennedy defeated Democrat Michael Siderakis.
District 13: Incumbent Republican Robert Trotta defeated and Democrat Kevin Mulholland and Conservative Michael Simonelli.
District 14: Incumbent Republican Kevin McCaffrey defeated Democrat Nancy Delaney.
District 15: Incumbent Democrat Jason Richberg defeated Republican Jarod Morris.
District 16: Incumbent Democrat Susan Berland trailed Republican Manuel Esteban Sr.
District 17: Incumbent Democrat Thomas Donnelly defeated Republican Stephen Becker.
District 18: (Open) Republican Stephanie Bontempi defeated Democrat Mark Cuthbertson.
