Some won, some lost in 2013

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• State Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg. Not too many legislators take on the governor, and Weisenberg, Long Beach’s popular assemblyman did, and won. His determined efforts to restore $90 million in funds for children with disabilities were heroic.

• Nassau Republican Party Chairman Joe Mondello. His critics carp behind his back, but he keeps winning elections, and that’s the gold standard in politics.

Along with the winners, there were losers:

• President Barack Obama. It takes a pretty inept president to back a program that has so many good things and still manage to drag it down with dumb statements that were without merit. Obamacare should have been for Obama what Social Security was for Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Still former County Executive Tom Suozzi. 2013 was a political off year, the kind of year when Republicans were destined to do better than Democrats. Any honest political wizard could have told Suozzi it wasn’t the year for him to run.

• Nassau Democratic Party leader Jay Jacobs. One bad decision after another is a recipe for disaster.

• The Yankees, Mets, Giants, Jets, Knicks, Nets and Islanders. Doesn’t that say it all? Like they say, wait till next year. Maybe even this year.

Jerry Kremer was a state assemblyman for 23 years, and chaired the Assembly’s Ways and Means Committee for 12 years. He now heads Empire Government Strategies, a business development and legislative strategy firm. Comments about this column? JKremer@liherald.com.

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