So what does it mean?

That was the question Nassau County residents were asking as soon as news broke that Republican Howard Kopel of Lawrence had decisively defeated Democrat Jeff Toback of Oceanside, and flipped the county Legislature's majority to the GOP.

The question kept getting asked as Election Night went on, with Democratic incumbent Dave Mejias deadlocked against challenger Joseph Beleisi. Even the incumbent county executive, Tom Suozzi, was insecure, with only a 237-vote lead with 12,000 absentee ballots yet to count.

The Board of Elections announced Wednesday afternoon that an across-the-board recount would be done, since so many races were close. Would the Legislature be 10-9, 11-8, or even 12-7 in favor of the GOP? Would Suozzi be out? Would incumbent Democrat Howard Weitzman hang on as county comptroller?

Amid all the uncertainty, a clear explanation of what it all means has not yet emerged.

But here's an idea. Every candidate the Herald spoke to agreed that high property taxes were the No. 1 issue motivating voters. A perception exists on the national level that Democrats are more willing to tax higher and spend more. True or false, that's the perception.

Playing into that, Democratic county legislators may have sealed their fate with the home energy tax. They proclaimed their empathy with taxpayers during the campaign while they voted in this extension of the sales tax. Voters didn't like the small increase in their taxes, but they liked what they saw as hypocrisy even less.

That the county portion of property taxes is about 17 percent of the total mattered less, obviously, than voters' desire to protest at the ballot box.

If this theory is even partly true, incumbents in the state Assembly and Senate -- and especially majority Democrats -- should beware. If voters were quick to upend the majority in the county Legislature, voters statewide may be ready to oust all those they associate with the summer's debacle in Albany, where a few imperious party princes brought state government to a do-nothing stalemate.