To the campaign theme of, "I can do it because I've done it," Glen Cove Mayor Thomas Suozzi proved himself right with a surprise victory in the Democratic Primary for County Executive over his opponent, entrenched Democratic Party politician Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli. On Sept. 25, Suozzi defeated DiNapoli by more than 5,000 votes. With all 1,072 Nassau County Election Districts reporting in to the County Board of Elections at 11 a.m. on Sept. 26, the final tally in the primary is: 36,796 votes for Suozzi; 31,719 votes for DiNapoli. The turnout is a record and larger than the turnout in the last Presidential Primary between Al Gore and Bill Bradley.

The news delivered by Suozzi for County Executive campaign chairman Jay Jacobs at 10 p.m. Tuesday night electrified the crowd of supporters gathered in a catering hall on Old Country Road. "Twenty-two of 24 Election Districts in Long Beach have gone to Thomas Suozzi," said Mr. Jacobs. From that moment, the vote totals delivered to Suozzi supporters by Mr. Jacobs continued to energize the crowd.

At 10:52 p.m., Mr. Jacobs announced that Mr. DiNapoli had called Mr. Suozzi to concede the election. Soon afterward, a victorious and admittedly overwhelmed Tom Suozzi took the podium. "We won a big victory tonight. I have great respect and admiration for Tom DiNapoli. He is a great Democrat and a good leader. I look forward to working with him in a partnership. When I started this race on Jan. 13, my late brother Joe's birthday, I dedicated this to his memory. I dedicate this victory to his memory, to the memory of the victims of Sept. 11 and to the thousands of heroes of that same day. It is important we participated in democracy by voting. We proved the political process doesn't have to be mean spirited and negative. Everything was against us...even the weather. But the people were with us and I am proud of everybody. I will ask the DiNapoli team to work with us for victory in November," said Mr. Suozzi.

Meanwhile Assemblyman Tom DiNapoli thanked all his supporters at their gathering and said, "We all look forward to big changes in Nassau County. This is a great night for the people of Nassau County and a great night for the Nassau County Democratic Party. We can work together to make Nassau County the greatest county it can be."

New York State Democratic State Committee Chair Judith Hope, who came to the Suozzi Campaign gathering after the election results were pretty much certain, said, "I'm confident Tom Suozzi will be an excellent County Executive and that all Nassau County Democrats will unite behind him."

Some concerns arose over the amount of support that Mr. Suozzi would receive from the Democratic Party, who chose to support Mr. DiNapoli in the County Executive Race.

"We were fortunate to have two outstanding people running," said Judy Jacobs, presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislature. "Right now it's incumbent upon all of us to pull together."

When asked if she would be supporting Mr. Suozzi in the November election, she said, "Absolutely. That would never be a question."

Thomas Suozzi faces Republican Bruce Bent in the Nov. 6 election.