Floral Park Trustees Stewart & Longobardi Win Reelection

Jennifer Stewart and Michael Longobardi will serve another term on the Floral Park Village Board after winning uncontested reelection Wednesday, March 18, with results confirmed by Village Clerk Joseph O’Grady.

Stewart received 199 votes. Longobardi received 215. Neither faced opposition, and O’Grady reported no notable write-in campaigns. Both ran under the Citizens Party of Floral Park, the same political organization that has governed this Nassau County village for 70 consecutive years.

That kind of unbroken dominance would raise eyebrows in most places. In Floral Park, it’s simply the way things work. The Citizens Party has built a reputation for stable, low-drama local governance, and residents have largely rewarded that consistency with their continued support. When your village is clean, quiet, and functional, you don’t spend a lot of time looking to throw the bums out.

Still, the turnout numbers deserve a closer look. With a village population of roughly 16,000 and approximately 12,000 residents estimated to be eligible voters, Wednesday’s totals represent participation in the low single digits. Stewart drew around 1.7 percent of potential voters. Longobardi drew around 1.8 percent. Even accounting for the margin of error in those eligibility estimates, the numbers are thin.

For comparison, last spring’s village elections saw Mayor Kevin Fitzgerald, Deputy Mayor Lynn Pombonyo, and Trustee Frank Chiara each receive more than 260 votes. That race drew meaningfully more engagement, even if the numbers were still modest by any standard measure.

What’s driving the drop? Contested races attract voters. Uncontested races tend to attract almost no one. When the outcome is predetermined and no challenger steps forward to make an argument, only the most committed civic participants bother to show up. That’s not a knock on Stewart or Longobardi specifically. It’s a structural problem in village elections across Long Island, where the barriers to entry for challengers are low but the motivation to run is often lower.

Stewart is entering her third consecutive term of service, though not all of it was elected. She was originally appointed to the board in 2021 after Fitzgerald moved from a trustee seat to the mayor’s office, creating a vacancy she was tapped to fill. She then won her first elected term before securing this latest victory. Born and raised in Floral Park, she has a background in education and served as the board liaison for the fire department and the Cultural Arts Committee.

“I look forward to continuing to serve with dedication and a focus on what matters to our residents,” she said. “I am thankful for the trust the residents of the Village of Floral Park have placed in me.”

Longobardi, also a Floral Park native, has held his seat since 2022. He works in accounting and has served as liaison to the building department and to the village pool and recreation programs. His skill set fits his portfolio well. Building departments and recreation budgets are where municipal money gets spent and where residents notice the difference between good management and sloppy management.

“Floral Park is home to me,” Longobardi said. “My goal is to maintain Floral Park, keep it a great place to live, and continue to serve the residents.”

There’s nothing wrong with that sentiment. “Keep it a great place to live” is exactly what most Long Island homeowners want from their local governments. No grand reinvention, no ambitious spending programs. Just pick up the garbage, maintain the parks, keep the taxes from spiraling out of control, and fix the potholes.

The Citizens Party has delivered enough of that to keep winning, election after election, decade after decade. Whether the near-absence of electoral competition is a sign of satisfied residents or an organized civic culture that simply doesn’t encourage challengers is a fair question. Probably some of both.

For now, Stewart and Longobardi head back to the board with fresh mandates and familiar faces. Spring is coming, the pool will open in a few months, and the village of Floral Park will go about its business the way it usually does. Quietly, competently, and without much drama.

That’s not the worst thing you can say about a local government.