Suozzi's nightmare: a victory for Mondello

As the old sayings go, politics ain’t beanbag and it sure does make strange bedfellows, especially when it comes down to the ballot line — and the fate of the Nassau Legislature is hanging by a thread.

Consider the Legislature’s hottest race. Fifth District Legislator Joseph Scannell, a 10-year incumbent, is fighting for his political life against Chris Browne, the Republican challenger who narrowly lost to him in 2007. Scannell is the candidate of the Democratic Party, the Working Families Party and, thanks to a one-vote margin over Mechielle Chapman, the Independence Party. But the one he didn’t get, which could cost him the most, political insiders say, is the Conservative Party.

Scannell was the Conservatives’ nominee, too, thanks to Nassau County Conservative Party Chairman Roger Bogsted, a commissioner in the Suozzi administration. But then came Browne’s successful write-in campaign. The immediate victim could be Bogsted himself. According to one well-placed insider, many members of the Conservative Party are seething about the “naked way Bogsted was serving out the agenda of the Democratic Party. Nominating a person who works for Suozzi to run against Browne is banana-republic-worthy. Scannell used to be a Republican. He switched when [former County Executive] Tom Gulotta started to implode. Now he’s a Democrat and he’s running on the WFP line. He obviously doesn’t care what these parties are supposed to stand for!”

To state and county Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs, all this brouhaha about party affiliations is “inside baseball. The voters care about how you govern. Chris Browne has been running a very strong and false campaign. It’s all fiction.”

With the Democrats holding a one-seat majority in the Legislature, they need Scannell to win. But word from those close to the Legislature is that “he doesn’t work well with other people. He has a horrible temper.” Some are also envious of his highly paid legislative staff, says a Democratic insider, referring to his “diva from New Jersey.”

On the other hand, adds this Mineola observer, “At least his vote is more reliable than Roger Corbin’s! Roger is a loose cannon. He’d tell people to their face he’d vote ‘yes’ and then go out and vote ‘no.’”