In Long Beach City Council results, political leaders see a Mamdani effect

Long Beach Republicans will take full control of the City Council in January after sweeping last week’s election in what had long been a Democratic stronghold — and leaders of both parties acknowledged a "Mamdani effect."

Incumbent Councilman Michael G. Reinhart won, along with fellow Republicans George W. Ennis and Tracey A. Johnson. They will serve with Republicans Brendan Finn and Chris Fiumara, who were not up for election this year, on the five-member council. Incumbent Democrat Roy J. Lester lost his seat, and his two running mates trailed behind him.

The city’s Democratic establishment lost its majority on the council two years ago as a GOP slate led by Finn ushered in new leadership.

Nassau County Republican Committee chairman Joseph Cairo said voters last week responded positively to the Republican leadership in City Hall.

“They did a good job the last two years, they'll continue to do that and I think it builds a foundation for years to come,” Cairo said. “The world's upside down and we got to straighten things out.”

Cairo said voters are fearful of what Democratic New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s win will mean across the border in Nassau. “The city's upside down, and we don't want it to happen in Nassau County,” Cairo said. He added: “We have the issues on our side.”

Jay Jacobs, chairman of the Nassau County Democratic Committee, also said Mamdani played a role in the vote.

“The Democrats have a brand problem,” Jacobs said. “The Republicans were very successful in smearing Democrats as socialist, far-left radicals. They used Zohran Mamdani’s primary win in the city as proof that Democrats were, as they put it, going too far to the left.”

Democrats have a significant advantage in voter registration, with 10,702 voters, or 44.6%, registered with that party. That compares with 5,920 registered Republican voters, or 24.7%, according to Nassau County Board of Elections figures. Nonaffiliated voters, or “blanks,” make up the second-largest bloc: 6,113 registered voters, or 25.5%. About 5% of Long Beach voters belong to third parties.

Republican ascendancy in Long Beach suggests that Democrats are voting across party lines, political consultant Michael Dawidziak said.

“You have to say, well, that means inescapably, some Democrats are voting Republican,” Dawidziak said. “Whether they just feel this is much more in their line — way — of thinking right now, as far as whether it's protecting quality of life … they're voting Republican.”

Cairo shared that view of Democrats voting Republican, but Jacobs said it was the unaffiliated voters who were swayed rather than Democrats.

The city’s electorate has been changing over the past few decades, said Lawrence Levy, executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University in Hempstead.

Levy said the Democratic organization in Long Beach used to be as strong as the Republican organization is today, but over time, it shifted.

“Peter King always did pretty well in Long Beach with the working-class, blue-collar types, and then, eventually, the Orthodox Jews, which began to proliferate in the city,” Levy said of the Republican former congressman.

“It had been a Democratic stronghold for a very long time, when the city was dominated by more or less liberal Jews and working-class union Irish,” Levy said. “As those cohorts moved more toward the Republican Party and Jews became less liberal … so did the appeal of Democratic candidates.”