Spin Cycle

As mentioned below, a Dave Mejias victory against Peter King would create problems for his Democratic ally, Nassau Presiding Officer Judy Jacobs, leaving a vacancy in the legislature and giving Republicans a chance to pick up that seat in a special election. Since Democrats now control 10-9, one seat would give Republicans the majority.
Because Jacobs has a term that runs through next year, she could be put in the odd position of being the presiding officer of a Republican-controlled legislature.
“That would be a perfect ending to a crazy year," Jacobs said.
She was alluding to the failed coup by Democrats Roger Corbin and Lisanne Altmann last year and early this year, when they joined with Republicans trying to take over the legislature. The bid failed when Jacobs, in a legal maneuver we're not going to explain here (it would bore you) switched her political registration to blank, which would have allowed her to take the post of minority leader from Schmitt. She has switched it back to Democrat.
“If Dave wins, here we go again,” Jacobs said. “I’ve never seen a majority that had to fight for the majority nearly every single year.”

Celeste Hadrick

A reader alerts us that we neglected today to mention Legislative Presiding Officer Judy Jacobs as a possible successor to Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi in Spin Cycle, our political page in the Monday newspaper.

The election is not until 2009, but Suozzi has said he's not running again, and the field of Democrats who'd like to follow him is already crowded.

Jacobs poses an interesting question in that regard, because though she leads the Democratic caucus in the legislature, she is not actually a Democrat, having switched her registration to "blank" as a legal move during an attempted coup early this year. So she'd either have to switch back, run as a third-party candidate, or, we believe, get the party's permission to seek the Democratic nomination, which could get complicated depending on who the leaders are then.

Michael Rothfeld