Long Island pols blast New Yorks new election law that could boost Democrats in local races

Long Island officials blasted the state’s new election law that are expected to reshape local campaigns — and benefit downballot Democrats.Members of both parties held a news conference Tuesday to call out Gov.Kathy Hochul for signing the law that pushes local races to even years, the same years when federal elections will be at the top of ballots.“For over 100 years, our local elections were held on odd years,” Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman (R) said outside of Farmingdale Village Hall.

“What is this all about? It’s about state control — the state trying to run our counties, towns, villages, and cities from Albany with one party rule.”Blakeman and legislators from Suffolk and Nassau counties accused Albany of trying to distract voters by making them focus on broader state and national issues — not the ones affecting them in their own backyard.Republicans pointed out that New York experienced a decent swing right in the last presidential election — and claimed state lawmakers were trying to stop the GOP from gaining traction in suburban areas.They said Long Island — which recently saw a Republican presidential candidate win Nassau County for the first time since 1988 — is being targeted while deep-blue New York City is exempt from the law.“They’re trying to take the local issues and put them down the ballot so that people won’t have an opportunity to have a fair debate, and talk about the things that are important to county government, the town government, the city government, and village government,” Blakeman said.“Our local elected officials and our candidates want to talk about local issues and not get drowned out by the national media and the state media,” Blakeman added.Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine (R) echoed the concerns, slamming the law alongside legislators from his county.“This is not the way the government is meant to work,” Romaine said.“There are local issues that I can talk about, many of them t...