Last Tuesday, Nov. 3, a cool 98.5 percent of all US congressional incumbents waltzed to re-election victories. Long Island proved to be no exception to this iron rule: Lawmakers representing the Roslyn area, Gary Ackerman and Peter King, had no trouble fending off their invisible challengers. Only Carolyn McCarthy, who was re-elected with 52 percent of the vote, endured anything resembling a real race.

In local races, the results were the same as State Senator Michael Balboni, and State Assemblymembers Tom DiNapoli, Maureen O'Connell and David Sikidman were all handily re-elected.

But one incumbent was defeated last Tuesday. Statewide races saw ticket splitting in the senate and governor races. In the senate race, Roslyn area voters helped challenger Charles Schumer unseat Senator Al D'Amato.

In Roslyn, the vote was 188-96, Schumer; in Roslyn Estates, 809-332; in Roslyn Harbor, 194-165; in Roslyn Heights, 1,156-647; in East Hills, 1,761-991, with the incumbent coming out on top in all the above numbers. Only Flower Hill voters chose D'Amato; in this case, by a 821-721 margin.

Gov. George Pataki prevailed over his challenger, Peter Vallone in all six Roslyn area communities. Only in Roslyn Estates (571 for Pataki, 539 for Vallone) were the numbers very close.

--by Joe Scotchie