Angie Carpenter campaigns in diner aisle

Angie Carpenter walked Bay Shore's Peter Pan Diner yesterday morning, a pot of coffee in each hand -- one caffeinated, one decaf.

"Need a refill?" Carpenter, the Suffolk County treasurer and Republican candidate for county executive, asked customers.

They seemed surprised, and generally impressed, by the appearance of the 68-year-old woman in a gray business suit.

Cups refilled, she introduced herself and fielded questions. What's her platform?

"Smaller government and less bureaucracy," she said.

What does she think of her opponent, Democrat Steve Bellone?

"A young man," she said of Bellone, 42. "He's never held a job outside of government."

At one table, Jack Welsch, 75, of West Islip, observed Carpenter wasn't engaging in the usual pumping of hands. "She's a real worker," he said, watching the candidate make her rounds.

As the election nears, Carpenter's supporters say they are optimistic, although Bellone holds a wide fundraising advantage.

Carpenter, on the stump, talks about her own government experience, as a 12-year member of the county legislature, and, for the past six years, as county treasurer. Her message: The county needs an experienced hand during this time of economic turmoil.

Carpenter's last week of campaigning was filled with frenzied 17-hour days that usually began at 5 a.m., shaking hands at train stations. They'd end in the evening at community forums and Boy Scout dinners.

At community events, supporters said Carpenter displayed one of her biggest strengths: her ability to connect with a range of voters.

"She's real people," state Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset), a longtime friend of Carpenter's, said at a recent fundraiser for Herb Morrow, a Republican candidate for Huntington Town Board.

On Friday night, Carpenter, who once lost 80 pounds through Weight Watchers, chatted about that accomplishment with a group of women at the Smithtown Rotary's Little Italy Night fundraiser.

The night before, she cited her Italian heritage in responding to a question about harassment of Muslims at a forum on Long Island's growing diversity.

"I'm the daughter of immigrants," she said. "I remember them being ridiculed; I remember being taunted. We cannot tolerate that."

A couple of hours earlier, Carpenter stood speaking without a microphone to about 30 Holbrook Chamber of Commerce members in the dining room of the local country club. She said she was one of their own, having been president of the West Islip chamber.

After talking to the audience about the need to help businesses stay and thrive in Suffolk, she spoke quietly with Holbrook chamber president Rick Ammirati.

He told her, "To know you were president of a chamber elevates you to a new level of credibility for me."