SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Patrick R. Vecchio LI's Best Contender

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Patrick R. Vecchio He could have been and should have been a contender—for Suffolk County executive. But Patrick Vecchio, who created a bridge between Suffolk and New York City’s maverick Mayor John V. Lindsay—as a NYPD detective sergeant he was Mr. Lindsay’s head of security—had to settle to staying on as a town supervisor.

And did he stay on!  Smithtown Town supervisor for 40 years, he became the longest-serving town supervisor ever in Suffolk County. Indeed, he became the longest-serving town supervisor in New York State.

Now 87, Mr. Vecchio was narrowly defeated in a Republican primary last month to run again for re-election. He regretted the loss saying he had “so much more to do.”

Before he takes leave of the Suffolk governmental stage, Mr. Vecchio should be celebrated. He has been among the spunkiest, most dynamic, most straightforward people in politics in Suffolk I’ve known through the years. 

Mr. Vecchio’s inspiration to get into politics was golden-haired Mr. Lindsay, mayor from 1966 to 1973, and before that a congressman representing the “Silk Stocking” district, Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Mr. Lindsay’s independent-minded approach was clear while he was in the House—he was a leading member of a group of GOPers voting for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, advocated Medicare and establishment of the National Foundation for Arts and Humanities 

As mayor, he continued his independent ways. And in 1969 he lost the Republican nomination to run for re-election. But unlike Mr. Vecchio this year, he already had minor party support—the Liberal Party. And he ran on the Liberal line and won.

In 1971, he switched his enrollment to Democrat and made an unsuccessful bid to be the Democratic candidate for president in 1972. In hindsight, Mr. Lindsay would have been a stronger Democratic candidate against Republican Richard Nixon than George McGovern, who carried only one state, Massachusetts. 

In 1977, Mr. Vecchio, a resident of Fort Salonga, ran as a Democrat for Smithtown supervisor. I hosted a TV program at that time, an interview with Mr. Lindsay and Mr. Vecchio sitting alongside each other. The bond, the affection between the two, and the political similarity—that common independent-minded focus—was apparent.

Mr. Vecchio had been, through Mr. Lindsay’s tenure as mayor, his bodyguard, although he preferred his job to be referred to as head of security. The bottom line no matter what the title: he was there to take a bullet for the mayor if it came to it. That takes a certain kind of courageous person. And it was not just Mayor Lindsay he protected through the years. As a young New York City detective, Mr. Vecchio served in the NYPD guard unit protecting candidate John F. Kennedy in 1960 and then President Kennedy on numerous occasions thereafter, as well as other notable figures.

Mr. Lindsay was excited about Mr. Vecchio being in governmental office.

Then, a few years later, came an opportunity for Mr. Vecchio to get into politics on the  county level—to run for Suffolk County executive (a kind of county equivalent of mayor).

The year was 1979 and then Suffolk County Executive John V. N. Klein of Smithtown, eight years in the post, in a Republican primary lost his bid to run for re-election. (Mr. Klein was a former Smthtown supervisor himself and also a Suffolk County legislator representing Smithtown as well as presiding officer of the legislature.) Islip Town Supervisor Peter F. Cohalan of Bayport (now county historian), focused in the primary on the unfolding scandal involving the $1.2 billion Southwest Sewer District—the biggest sewer project ever undertaken in Suffolk and quite the boondoggle—and won.

With a split GOP, a strong Democratic candidate running for county executive—Mr. Vecchio—would have had a good chance.  

But long-time Suffolk Democratic Chairman Dominic Baranello of Medford, also New York State Democratic chairman then, instead steered the party’s nomination to Martin Feldman, a dentist from Dix Hills and a member of the Suffolk Legislature. Dr. Feldman was trounced by Mr. Cohalan, losing by a still remarkable near100,000 votes. 

Not only in hindsight, but I and many others believed then that the charismatic and colorful Mr. Vecchio would have been a stronger Democratic candidate for county executive that year. Instead, Mr. Vecchio ran in his first of many re-election campaigns for Smithtown supervisor, and won handily. That decision by the late Mr. Baranello to pass over Mr. Vecchio for county executive was at the core of Mr. Vecchio becoming a strong critic of the Democratic chairman and, like Mr. Lindsay, subsequently switching parties—but for him, it was going from Democrat to Republican. He tried again to be a candidate for county executive, in 1983, but lost in a Republican primary to Robert Gaffney of Miller Place, the eventual winner.         

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.