This morning I spoke with Ed Mangano, the Republican candidate for County Executive in Long Island’s Nassau County. Mangano has already put a tremendous scare into 8-year incumbent Democrat Tom Suozzi, who was expected to stroll to re-election. And while votes are still being counted, it looks like Mangano will pull off the win. Coming in one of America’s largest counties, a victory in such an underdog race would be an important one for conservatives nationwide.
On election night Mangano came within 237 votes of knocking off the incumbent Suozzi, with more than 7,500 absentee ballots yet to be counted. Mangano told me this morning that the County Board of Elections now puts him just 106 votes behind, as the actual machine counts have been reconciled against the unofficial election night tallies. The 7,500 absentee ballots will be opened late this week, but ballots from Republicans outnumber those from Democrats by more than 750.
