Increase in unaffiliated voters swayed election results

Data Point

LI's growing 'third party': No party

The results of Tuesday’s elections reflect a changing political landscape on Long Island, with a growing group of unaffiliated or ‘blank’ voters becoming a third prominent political party. As The Point previously reported, the largest percentage gains of new voter registrations were among the unaffiliated, with Nassau County gaining 5.8% blanks and Suffolk 6.4%.

A look at the 2nd Congressional District is instructive. There are 186,538 registered Republican and Conservative voters in CD-2, as per the most recent data from the New York State Board of Elections. But Republican Andrew Garbarino was comfortably elected for a third term with 197,168 votes, larger than that number of registrants — not all of whom voted, of course. So Garbarino’s vote total was broadly boosted by blank voters. Since 2020, the district has seen an 18% jump in blank voters, or 25,107, while the increase in Democratic and Working Families Party registrants was 2.7% or 5,021. Republican registrants grew by 3.2%, or 5,708.

CD-1 saw the largest rise in total voter registrations of any Long Island congressional district, with 65,026 more registered voters overall this election. Nearly half them — 32,386 — were blanks.

The starkest contrast was in CD-3, where registered blanks rose by 9.9%, registered Democrats climbed 3.1% and registered Republicans dropped 2.1%.

Blanks also likely played a significant role in Long Island’s tightest congressional race, CD-4, where Democrat Laura Gillen narrowly won against Republican incumbent Anthony D'Esposito with a margin of 1.6%, according to the state Board of Elections. CD-4 saw an increase of 16,806, or 12.2%, registered unaffiliated voters in the last four years, where Democratic blanks were up by 4.4% or 10,703, and Republican blanks grew by 1% or 1,782.

— Karthika Namboothiri karthika.namboothiri@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Boom and doom

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Final Point

After CD1 loss, Avlon warns anew against U.S. extremism

By the end of the evening on Tuesday, Republican Rep. Nicholas LaLota won reelection as widely expected, with about 56% of the vote against 44% for his Democratic opponent, newcomer John Avlon, an author and former CNN commentator.

Perhaps what was different in the region about Avlon’s first candidacy for public office was his emphasis on the wider national partisan picture in a 1st Congressional District that in recent years has developed into decisively GOP territory. To win the nomination, Avlon easily beat a previous Democratic candidate, Nancy Goroff.

"Democracy depends on respecting the results even if you don’t win," Avlon told supporters in his concession speech — a remark clearly pointed at MAGA and Donald Trump, who backed LaLota. "Patriotism means loving your country no matter who is president ... We need to rebuild the middle — the middle of our politics and the middle of our economy."

Although Avlon appealed for and got some Republican crossover votes, it’s likely that the "blanks," or unaffiliated voters, broke for the GOP, as would be expected all around Suffolk these days.

Avlon, 51, told The Point on Friday that beyond the campaign, fighting left and right extremism has been a theme for him beyond this election’s talking points.

As for the Democratic Party, he said: "I do think the consequences of a second Trump presidency are likely to make people realize the policies don’t actually advance the goals. There are dangerous aftereffects of grievance politics." And he added that Democrats as a party need to be "more decisive" about standing up to extreme positions on both sides.

Avlon said in his concession speech: "I still believe in finding common ground over chaos ... We need to build a broad bipartisan patriotic coalition to defend American democracy."

Avlon said he does not know what’s next in his personal future or whether he might run again.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

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