Suffolk County Executive Race Heats Up

The direction of Suffolk government will be on the line as voters will go to the polls in November to choose a new county executive in a race featuring two candidates with pronounced differences–young vs. old, government vs. business experience, Democrat vs. Republican.

Voters got a taste of what's to come in the race with Brookhaven Supervisor Edward Romaine, the Republican candidate, asking if his opponent, Dave Calone, supports the cashless bail, defund the police, and open border policies of the Working Families Party, which put him on their ballot. Responding in a statement from his campaign, Calone, a Democrat, accused Romaine of “running a government known as Crookhaven.”

"It's very clear where the law enforcement community stands since every police organization has endorsed me, and none of them endorsed my opponent," Romaine said in an interview Friday with the South Shore Press. "Did he tell the Working Families that he agrees with their positions that created the crime wave, and now he's telling the voters something else?" Romaine wondered.

Calone said he supports giving judges more discretion in bail decisions and pointed to his time with the U.S. Attorney's Office and state Attorney General as his anti-crime bonafides, saying he was part of the prosecution of an al-Qaeda terrorist involved in the 9/11 attacks and helped negotiate a $70 million health care fraud recovery, one of the largest ever for the state.

"The Democrats need to go negative since Calone has very little name recognition," said one political observer. "He's got a couple of million dollars in the bank, and he's going to spend it attacking Ed." Romaine scoffs at the Crookhaven reference and says he believes that Calone will be beholden to the pro-criminal stances of the parties that endorsed him.

"Get out your crayons because we are going to color Suffolk County red," the GOP ticket leader said at a recent fundraiser.

The Republicans are looking to repeat last year's "Red Wave" that saw voters turn their back on the Democrats over the crime issue and tip the balance of power in the U.S. House by sending four Long Island congressmen to Washington.

Romaine, a resident of Center Moriches, comes at the race with 38 years in elected office, serving as a Suffolk legislator in two different districts and county clerk. He notes that in all of his campaigns, he carried every town and all of the election districts. As supervisor, he's won in all six of the town's councilmatic districts, though he did lose a previous bid for county executive against Steve Levy who, with incumbent Steve Bellone, has kept a Democrat presence in the county's top office for the last two decades.

Prior to his entrance into local government–starting as director of Community Development for Brookhaven–Romaine was a history teacher in the Hauppauge School District. He's also taught economics on the graduate level at Dowling College, history at Suffolk Community College, and public policy at Stony Brook University. Referring to his prior bid for county executive, Romaine said, "Failure teaches us more than success. People analyze failure and learn from it; they celebrate success." He asserts his experience in town and county government, particularly in the area of fiscal management, where he stayed within the state's tax cap every year he's been supervisor, makes him ready to "reshape county government from day one."

At 49, Calone is 32 years younger than Romaine and says he would be the only county executive to serve in Suffolk with both a business and prosecutorial background. He's a past chair of the Suffolk Planning Commission and was a member of the Long Island Power Authority. In a lively discussion with the South Shore Press, Calone stressed that job creation and economic development are two areas where he is eminently qualified. He talked about his creation of a Long Island Emerging Technologies Fund to help launch companies based on technology developed by Long Island's premier research institutions, including Stony Brook, Cold Spring Harbor, and Brookhaven National Lab. He created the LI Unified Solar Permit Initiative, cutting red tape for solar installations and promoting renewable energy. The standards he crafted "turbocharged" the industry and were sought out by other areas of the country. "I heard from officials in Chicago who wanted to incorporate the solar standards in their codes," Calone said. "It's probably the first time Chicago came looking to Long Island for advice." The effort also earned him an achievement award from the National Association of Counties. He advocates for a "Uniform Planning Portal" to streamline the permit process for business creation.

The East Setauket resident also boasts of creating a "Patriot Boot Camp" to help more than a thousand veterans start businesses, a three-day program that attracted the attention of some of the nation's top military brass, who now serve on the board of directors of what has expanded into a nationwide effort. Working with County Executive Bellone, Calone said he helped put together the first update of the county's Comprehensive Plan in over 40 years. He was also appointed to chair Suffolk's Superstorm Sandy Review Task Force. A longtime board member of both the United Way of Long Island and the Community Development Corporation, Calone also created "Farmers for the Future" to help Suffolk farmers buy equipment. He points to creating jobs for Suffolk's younger generations as one of his top priorities.

Romaine, who labeled Suffolk finances a "mess" under Bellone, highlights his success in elevating Brookhaven's bond rating to Triple A, the highest for a government entity, and promised to go over the "dishonest budget" plan he would inherit if elected line by line to identify savings and inefficiencies. He rapped the current administration for not filling budgeted positions and then using the funds for other purposes. "When you talk about crime and public safety, you should look at the fifty to sixty detective positions approved by the legislature but go unfilled by Bellone," Romaine suggested. "If you want to stop crime, prevent it; let's start with hiring the investigators the public has paid for."

Calone expressed his belief that Suffolk Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison is "doing a good job in general," and if given the opportunity, he would work with him "to see how it goes." He stressed the need for more technology in the field for police officers, such as phone apps, which can quickly put information at their fingertips. He also called for ongoing police training and more officers at the sergeant level. He admitted to having no law enforcement endorsements.

Romaine goes right at the campaign funding issue, criticizing his opponent for getting most of his money from donors outside of Suffolk. He makes note of the finance reports showing that since the beginning of the year, when he announced his intention to run, he's outraised Calone, who's been at it since last year, by about $400,000. As they head towards their November showdown, Calone had $2,370,977, while Romaine had $1,548,216, according to their July campaign reports. Since January, Romaine has raised $1.3 million to Calone's $868,925.

On the subject of the migrant crisis, both candidates pinged the federal government for failing to secure the border. "I feel very sorry for these people, fleeing their homeland, traveling thousands of miles, based on the false promises of the Democrats," Romaine said. "Now there are a hundred thousand migrants in New York City with no place to go. This was caused by the policies coming out of Washington, and they are supported by everyone Dave Calone associates with." Romaine noted other concerns with President Biden's open border policy, including human trafficking and gang members, terrorists, and illegal drugs coming in unchecked. Noticing a fly buzzing around the conference room where he was discussing his campaign, Romaine said, "The weight of that fly in fentanyl is enough to kill you. Under the Democrats, if you get caught with eight ounces or less, you get cashless bail, and they set you free. This is what my opponent agreed to by accepting the Working Families line because this is what they stand for."

Calone called the immigration crisis a "bipartisan failure" noting that only a "slice" of Democrats are in favor of the open border. "I'm not part of that," he said, adding that he supports Bellone's response to the issue, which is the creation of a committee to review any plans by other levels of government to relocate immigrants to Suffolk. He said he has spoken about the problem with Gov. Kathy Hochul, who recently announced she would not force Suffolk or other municipalities to take in the migrants. "There's no infrastructure to support them," he said. "It doesn't make sense to bring them here."

Calone said he is a "big supporter" of renewable energy, stressing that Long Island is on the front line of climate change. "The economic benefit of green energy is clear," according to the candidate. "There are great economic benefits in the long run." Calone is a proponent of the wind energy cable coming up William Floyd Parkway, a plan greenlighted by Romaine, who pointed out the $170 million in payments he negotiated that will flow to the town and county from Sunrise Wind for hosting the line. Calone said he was involved in writing the model code for wind and geothermal energy while with the planning commission and supports the battery storage facilities necessary to hold the energy when the turbines and solar panels are not producing. "The storage units can be a huge part of our energy future," he said, adding that he doesn't want to see them in residential areas.

Romaine said he is a "huge believer in solar," noting that there are already units at various town locations. He referenced an agreement with the state to put solar arrays on top of the Yaphank landfill, a project that will not only produce clean energy but also provide funds to help the town defray the costs of managing the facility. Both candidates believe that the proposal to create a countywide sewer district and increase the sales tax an eighth of a cent for new facilities and private cesspool upgrades should have been put before the voters in November.

Calone said he had a hand in drafting the legislation that had to be approved in Albany for the referendum, while Romaine knocked the way the process was handled. "Legislation of this importance requires a home rule message from local government, but Bellone didn't do that," the supervisor said. "Instead, he went to Albany to cut the deal, and the county legislators rejected it." The Republican-dominated legislature disagrees with the 75-25 split between money going to cesspools and new sewers, saying they will redraft the plan to create more funding for sewer projects. Calone jumped on the issue in his campaign, stating, "Republicans, Democrats, and Independents all drink the same water. Protecting it should never have been a partisan issue. Unfortunately, after the GOP-led County Legislature tanked our bi-partisan clean water proposal, it's up to all of us to elect Water Champions this November." He went on, "I am particularly disappointed by Ed Romaine. He talks a big game, but instead of showing leadership, he gave Republican legislators an excuse to vote against clean water."

Romaine, in turn, took another shot at Bellone and the Democrats when they controlled the legislature for raiding an existing environmental fund to bail out their "failed budgets." He noted a Suffolk Pine Barrens Society lawsuit that calls for the repayment of $200 million that was diverted from a Drinking Water Protection account fueled by an existing quarter-cent from the sales tax and estimated that Bellone is hoarding about $700 million in money that should go to sewer expansion.

The candidate said he would work with the legislature to create a sewerage plan that also addresses road runoff, which he noted is a major contributing factor to brown tides and other water quality issues. The candidates agreed that a priority of the next county executive should be a vigorous pursuit of funds from President Biden's $1 trillion infrastructure plan and the $4.2 billion state environmental fund approved by voters in November. With Democrats holding the White House and controlling state government, it would seem that Calone would be in a better position to nail down some of the money for Suffolk, while Romaine said that, unlike the current county executive, he would be a "persistent loud voice" for the county's fair share. He went on to say that during his second time in the legislature, he was in the deep minority but was still able to work with his colleagues to get more land preserved in Eastern Suffolk than all of the 17 other legislative districts combined.

Calone painted himself as an "old school, common sense Democrat" who looks at government to "support, not supplant" the business community. "With my business background and experience as a prosecutor, I'm not the usual candidate for county executive," he said. "We need to prepare the next generation for success."

"I've already done what a county executive needs to do with the second-largest town in the state," Romaine said. "I straightened out the town's finances after a Democrat left a mess. I'll be prepared on day one." Of Calone's experience with Suffolk County planning, he said, "All you need to do is look west and then east to see what sprawl development has done. If you like stories, he's your man, but if you want truth and experience, I'm your man."