Bendo wins handily, DeLury and Posterli in tight battle

Long Beach voters returned City Council president John Bendo to another term, and elected newcomer Roy Lester to the council. But incumbent Mike DeLury and Democrat Tina Posterli were locked in a tight battle for the third council seat late Tuesday night, separated by only 17 votes.

County Legislator Denise Ford, a Republican from Long Beach, was re-elected. State Sen. Todd Kaminsky, a Long Beach Democrat, lost to Republican Anne Donnelly, in the race for Nassau County District Attorney.

There are about 500 absentee ballots still to be counted.

Although two Republicans running for council seats did not win, they scored significant gains in a city where they are outnumbered by Democrats by about 3-to-1. There are about 26,000 registered voters in the city; about 5,000 are registered Republicans.

Bendo, who became city council president in 2020, received 3,541 votes; Lester, a Democrat a bankruptcy attorney, and a frequent speaker at city council meetings, received 3,524 votes.

Republican Mike DeLury received 3,358 votes, compared with 3,341 for Posterli, who had served five years on the Long Beach school board.

Republican challenger John McQuade received 2,953 votes and the other Republican in the race, Daniel Creighton, got 2,900.

In the fourth county legislative district, incumbent Republican Denise Ford easily overcame a challenge by Democrat Claudia Lovas, a first-time candidate.

Unofficial Nassau Board of Election results showed Ford with 10,318 votes, to 4,587 for Lovas. Ford, 70, has held the seat for nearly 20 years and based her campaign on her strong relations with constituents. Lovas, 46, argued it was time for a change and that, as a Latinam, she would be able to bring more minority voters into the political and governmental process.

Elections board returns showed Donnelly with about 155,000 votes, or 60 percent of the total, compared to about 102,000 for Kaminsky, or 39 percent.

In a statement, Kaminsky said, “Last night’s result was not what we wanted – but I am proud of the campaign we ran and the people who volunteered their time and energy to knock on over 100,000 doors across Nassau County.”

James Moritary, chairman of the Long Beach Republican Party, said Wednesday county GOP chairman Joe Cairo had been able to marshall large numbers of Republican voters to go out to the polls. He noted that President Biden’s poll numbers are now low and that the resignation of Democrat Andrew Cuomo as governor did not help the party’s cause.

“He ran a relentless, non-stop campaign,” Moriarty said. He said also Democrats had failed, in Washington, Albany, Nassau County and in Long Beach, to pass legislation.

Bendo based his campaign on efforts by the city to return Long Beach to fiscal stability after years of decline. The city has hired a financial firm to help that is working to settle fiscal issues. Republicans argued not enough has been done to resolve the problems.

Democrats gathered Tuesday night at the Anchor Tavern on Park Avenue to celebrate their victories.

“It was a tight race and the absentees could still alter it,” said Bendo. “It’s a waiting game,. There were six good people running and weren’t fighting each other. There were only 13 votes” separating DeLury and Posterli. “It’s tighter than we expected.”

Lester admitted to being “nervous” before the tally. “You don’t know what surprises are going to come,” he said. “I was surprised by the Republican strength in this election. I didn’t realize the strength they had.”

Posterli said, "Right now, it’s anybody’s game. We ran a good campaign. My opponent was a good competitor,” she said of DeLury. “We’ll see how the absentees turn out.”