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‘…Kick Off Race for Brookhaven Supervisor’

News from Newsday
1/11/09
Excerpts from Jan 11, 2009 Newsday news story by Andrew Strickler

The race to be the next Town of Brookhaven supervisor began in earnest yesterday with speeches at Republican Timothy Mazzei's new campaign office and the Democratic nomination of former assistant U.S. attorney Mark Lesko.

On Patchogue Road in Mastic, where he pressed the flesh, Mazzei, a town councilman, said his campaign would focus on the economic bottom line: supporting town finances in a tough economy.

"Simply put, we need to streamline projects that will create jobs," he said. Business people with financing need to be helped through town bureaucracy to get projects going quickly, lure new work and grow the tax base, he said.

"We in Brookhaven need to be on their side, not in their way," said Mazzei, 54. The special election to be held March 31 was necessitated by state Sen. Foley's departure to Albany. Foley ousted Republican veteran Caesar Trunzo in November, who held the seat for more than three decades.

Brookhaven is considered crucial for Republicans who lost a major figure with Trunzo's defeat, as well as much of their wider influence as the longtime controlling party of the New York State Senate, now held by a Democratic majority.

If Mazzei prevails in what is expected to be a contest costing more than $1 million, Republicans will solidify their majority on the town board. Democrats, who lost control of the town council in 2007, are hoping a supervisor win will be an important step to retaking the board in a future election.

Mazzei announced he was running for the post late last year and began raising money…Mazzei's campaign coordinator, Inez Birbiglia, said about 425 people attended the opening of their campaign headquarters yesterday in a former car dealership in Medford.

The crowd included a mix of Conservative Party members, local officials, veteran groups, and others, Birbiglia said. "You had a room that was really unified, a lot of different factions pulling together for this candidate," she said.

THE BROOKHAVEN SUPERVISOR ELECTION

THE DATE: March 31