For Democrats, it's about spreading the word
Party focused on turning out the vote for March 31 special election
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Mark Lesko officially accepted the Democratic nomination for town supervisor Saturday at the Mastic firehouse. Mr. Lesko, a former assistant U.S. attorney, vowed to be "chief citizen advocate" if he's elected in the March 31 special election.
It was a poetic sentiment and homage to a great local patriot. But make no mistake about it, the location was also chosen for another reason: The Democrats want to take back the majority in Brookhaven come November, and in order to do so, they may need to make quite a splash in the town's 6th Council District this year.
"Oh, yes, we definitely want to have a presence in the 6th," said Brookhaven Town Democratic chair Marsha Laufer in a telephone interview last week.
The 6th District is the only current Republican-controlled seat previously occupied by a Democrat, and the district that shifted the balance of power on the Town Board. That change in majority came by way of a mere 266-vote win by Councilman Keith Romaine in a race that saw a third candidate, Independent Joe May, secure more than 1,000 votes.
So when it came time to settle on a location for Saturday's nominating convention -- to be followed by a door-to-door canvassing -- Mastic, the most populous community in the 6th District, was an appropriate place to start.
Democrats stressed at Saturday's convention the importance of getting out the vote March 31 for a special election that may be decided on which party sees a stronger voter turnout. There have been five special elections in Suffolk County since 2003 and none have seen more than 15 percent of registered voters show up at the polls. Each of the past two general elections in Brookhaven saw 29 percent of voters pull the lever in the race for town supervisor -- both elections won by Democrat Brian Foley -- so the number of voters will likely decrease dramatically in the special election.
Mr. Rouse said of the current Town Board majority, led by Mr. Lesko's opponent, Republican Councilman Tim Mazzei, "The people in this town no longer have partners in government."
"This campaign cannot be negative," Mr. Rouse said. "But we also can't shy away from reality."
Working with the public was a theme Saturday. Mr. Lesko, who resigned his post last week as an assistant U.S. attorney, said that as supervisor, it is his goal to be the "chief citizen advocate" in Brookhaven, making reference to four citizen advocate positions Republicans removed last year from Mr. Foley's office. Mr. Lesko questioned why the positions were not removed in the 45 years before Mr. Foley took office, years in which Republicans controlled both a majority on the Town Board and the supervisor's office.
"They only did this while Brian was in office, out of pure partisanship," Mr. Lesko said.
The former prosecutor also vowed to cut spending if elected supervisor, saying Brookhaven cannot continue to rely on the town surplus as it did in 2008 to offset a sharp decline in mortgage tax and landfill revenues.
Ultimately, though, Saturday's rally came back to the importance for the Democrats to get out and spread the party's message and the name of their first-time candidate to the residents of the town. Canvassing assignments were distributed to volunteers Saturday with the goal of knocking on 10,000 doors in all town districts by sundown, and volunteers were also asked to knock on more doors each day this week and to make phone calls to residents.
"We can win this," Mr. Lesko told the crowd Saturday. "Vote by vote, house by house."
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