Howard DeMartini, former Suffolk County GOP chairman, dies at 82

Howard DeMartini, a master political tactician who did two stints as Suffolk Republican chairman and helped unseat Democrats across the county, has died. He was 82.

DeMartini died Feb. 8 in home hospice, in Fort Myers, Florida, where he had relocated nearly 25 years ago from Sayville, according to his stepson Chris Brown, of Sebring, Florida. The cause was glioblastoma, a kind of brain cancer, from which he fell ill in December.

Newsday once called DeMartini, who was active in Suffolk politics, campaigns and government circa the last quarter of the 20th century, one of Long Island’s shrewdest political operatives. He led the party from 1991 to 1995 and then again in 1999.

DeMartini also once headed Suffolk’s offtrack betting operation, where he increased revenues turned over to the county by millions, cut the workforce, modernized and consolidated facilities, and opened branches in Bay Shore and Bohemia inspired by spires at Churchill Downs, according to Newsday's archives, from which his public history is drawn for this obituary.

Coming to prominence

DeMartini came to prominence by helping mastermind Peter Cohalan's primary victory over the then-county executive, John V.N. Klein, in 1979.

In his first stint as party chairman, he also helped get back the county executiveship, unseat two Democratic congressmembers, Thomas Downey and George Hochbrueckner, and Democratic Assemb. I. William Bianchi, and took back control of Huntington town.

At the end of the decade, DeMartini returned to head the county party, which was tarred by scandal, after his predecessor was federally indicted — and later imprisoned — for charges related to bribery and partaking in a stolen-truck chop shop operation, Newsday reported in 1999, a time when polls showed that the public trusted Democrats more than Republicans on certain key issues.

But DeMartini predicted change was afoot, explaining: "There is a certain resentment about what has happened to this country."

"It's time to get back to work, and it's time to avoid the distractions that are going on in Washington and locally, and it's time to focus on the Republican message to the voters of this county," he told Newsday. "And that message is: We are the party that stabilizes taxes, improves economic growth and cares about protecting our environment."

Howard Charles DeMartini was born May 25, 1942, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, to Adele (Gardella) DeMartini, a homemaker, and Howard DeMartini, a lithographer who volunteered in local politics. The family moved to Valhalla when DeMartini was a boy and in the 1970s he moved to Sayville, according to his stepson, who provided the biographical details for this obituary.

DeMartini graduated in 1960 from Archbishop Stepinac High School, in 1964 from La Salle University in Pennsylvania, with an economics degree, in 1965 from Ohio State University, where he got a master’s in economics, and later Harvard’s Kennedy School.

He served on the Hudson River Valley Commission and as chief of staff to a state senator, Caesar Trunzo, the longtime South Shore Republican. DeMartini was also an Islip deputy town supervisor and deputy county executive.

Candidate boot camp

DeMartini would run his county-legislature candidates through a boot camp akin to what national parties typically did for congressional hopefuls.

Held in a basement conference room at the Ronkonkoma Holiday Inn near Long Island MacArthur Airport, in the morning there were lectures on how to door-knock, send out direct mail and make television ads. Then, after lunch, candidates heard about the budget, how the legislature worked, and what issues could be vulnerable for Democrats.

Although he wasn’t one of George Pataki’s early supporters, DeMartini helped Pataki clinch the governorship in 1994, and Pataki later appointed him to the OTB. Sources told Newsday at the time that DeMartini initially wanted to oversee the state lottery but Pataki had another candidate in mind who had experience in lotteries.

Jesse Garcia of Medford, the current Suffolk County party leader, was a committeeman in the 1990s and voted for DeMartini each time he ran. Garcia recalled how DeMartini was an early adopter of then-nascent technology — robocalls, the internet, search engines — to executive successful political campaigns.

"He was amazing at tactics and strategy. That's where his forte was," said Garcia, who recalled how the two would stay in touch, via text, in DeMartini's retirement about county politics.

Outside of politics, DeMartini traveled, played golf, and he and his wife, Helen (Gabriel), of 42 years played in courses across the country, from Florida to Hawaii. The couple’s travels took them across the globe, including the pyramids of Egypt and the Great Wall of China.

Along with his wife and stepson, DeMartini is survived by a daughter, Denise DeMartini-Griffin of Boston, stepsons Patrick Brown of Flemington, New Jersey, and Kenneth Brown of upstate Rensselaer; a sister, Lauren Steppe of Ocala, Florida, and four grandchildren.

He was predeceased by son David DeMartini.

A previous marriage, to Mary Jane Marmo, now of Albany, ended in divorce.

A funeral service is set from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Feb. 22 at Harvey-Engelhardt in Fort Myers, with cremation to follow.

DeMartini, despite his reputation as one of Long Island’s shrewdest political tacticians, was never content to rest on his electoral laurels.

In 1993, on the eve of the county GOP convention, he boasted how he helped grow the party’s coffers, oversaw a redistricting plan designed to the elect of the county’s first nonwhite legislator, and saw to upsets to defeat the county’s two most important Democrats, including a county executive.

Still, DeMartini said, "In this business, you're only as good as your last election."

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.