Partisan shifts are part of LI governance

The pendulum swings of off-year elections, especially following contentious presidential races, are usually sharp. This time, Virginia went blue and New Jersey stayed that way. California’s eye-for-an-eye vote on gerrymandering to thwart Republican efforts was wildly successful — only years after it had been rejected as unprincipled. Democrats retained three judges on Pennsylvania’s top court against an intense GOP effort to oust them.

Yet, the Republican brand held strong on Long Island, especially in Nassau County. Bruce A. Blakeman is the only county executive candidate from the same party as the president elected the year before to win since Thomas Gulotta in 1989, when George H.W. Bush was in the White House.

Republicans and independents who broke in their favor went straight across the party line in almost all countywide and town races. Democrats were underfunded, outspent almost 7 to 1 by the GOP and 5 to 1 by Blakeman. Despite several hardworking candidates, get-out-the-vote infrastructure was missing. The Democrats’ only gain was a single legislative seat due to a lawsuit against the county stemming from an illegally drawn map.

All politics is local and every race for town council, highway superintendent or legislator has its own internal dynamics — controversy over a housing project, neglected roads or a candidate’s conduct.

Long Island can’t escape the city to which it is connected by geography, finances and emotion. Republicans were able to counter any anti-Trump sentiment swing here by running against a prospective Zohran Mamdani mayoralty in the city. Mamdani helped reinforce the GOP’s proven messaging that it was the best party to erect barricades against the excesses of leftist ideology, such as city-run grocery stores and free buses.

To avoid extremist labels, Democrats on Long Island focused almost exclusively on safety and affordability with ads and mailers nearly indistinguishable from those of the GOP — except the Republicans Photoshopped ugly Mamdani images on the flip side.

A letter from Huntington’s GOP chairman Tom McNally to town residents said that “Mamdani and others who support these extreme ideas can get elected locally if we stay home and don’t vote.” With some absentee ballots still outstanding, the Huntington GOP came very close to losing the town supervisor’s office and a legislative seat.

Suffolk did get a bit bluer. Riverhead’s two-term Republican incumbent Supervisor Timothy C. Hubbard is losing to Jerome Halpin, a local pastor, who spoke of the town’s challenges as an immigrant community. And in the 1st Legislative District, which includes Riverhead and the North Fork, Democrat Gregory P. Doroski, a brewery owner who had lost a race for Southold supervisor, beat Republican incumbent Catherine L. Stark. Every Republican in the Suffolk Legislature saw their vote totals drop compared with 2023, and every Democratic incumbent got more votes than in 2023.

Pendular swings are healthy for our democracy and local governance. Winning means governing realistically with a balance of demands in mind. A strong two-party system allows one side to hold the other accountable and for new ideas to emerge.