State and Nassau Republicans made clear last week their belief that suburban living in New York was under threat.

Or at least that suburban voters would support Republicans if they could be persuaded that the suburbs were under threat from New York City Democrats.

The latest threat, the second in four months, was legislation proposed by suburban Democrats in the state Senate and the state Assembly calling for local town and city elections outside of New York City to be held in November of even-numbered years.

Village primaries would be held on the first Tuesday after the second Monday in June of even-numbered years.

The bill, sponsored by Democratic state Sen. James Skoufis of Newburgh and Democratic Assemblywoman Amy Paulin of Westchester, claims that elections held in even-numbered years “will make the process less confusing for voters,” leading to greater turnout in local elections. Consolidating local elections would also provide fiscal savings to local municipalities, officials said.

“Studies have consistently shown that voter turnout is the highest on the November Election Day in even-numbered years when elections for state and/or federal offices are held,” according to the legislation.

The legislation, it should be noted, was simply proposed in election committees and had not been voted out of committee let alone approved by either the full Assembly or the full Senate this session.

And previous versions of the proposed legislation have been introduced every year since 2013 and failed.

And the bill would be left to die this year in the face of opposition by Republican and Democratic legislators within 24 hours. Democrats said hearings would be held on a proposed law that would exclude villages.

But Republicans had already gone to DEFCON 1, again raising the possibility of ruin for suburban living in New York state.

“New York Democrats are at it again, working to sneak through legislation that would illegally seize power and upend our entire election system in New York,” said state Republican Chairman Nick Langworthy. “They will stop at nothing to manipulate the system to rig themselves into total and permanent power. Kathy Hochul said it herself that her mission is to ‘wipe out the Republican Party in New York.’ ”

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and other Nassau Republican officials said the legislation would “eliminate the voice of the suburbs.”

“This is nothing more than a blatant attempt to centralize control of government in Albany,” Blakeman said at a news conference last week where he was joined by other GOP officials. “It is an attack against the suburbs, it is an attack against the rural counties and towns of this state and we stand here united to say we are not going to take this lying down.”

Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Jennifer DeSena said the bill is “a terrible idea” and that local issues would effectively be “buried” if the elections were held only during even-numbered years.

DeSena and Blakeman were both elected in November 2021.

Blakeman won in a race for county executive against Laura Curran, who received 140,476 votes vs. Blakeman’s 146,626 of the 286,000 votes cast – less than 14% of Nassau’s 1.1 million people eligible to vote. The 286,000 votes for both candidates represented 26% of registered voters.

That is a small minority of eligible voters no matter how you cut it.

In contrast, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the presidential vote in Nassau County by 10 percentage points in 2020 when nearly 720,000 people cast their ballots – 65% of the eligible voters. Biden himself received 36% of the nods from voters casting their ballots in Nassau County

Are Republican officials now saying in their opposition to increasing voter turnout that they could not win an election in which a majority of voters cast their ballots – especially in a county in which registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by 100,000 voters?

The solution to that problem would seem to be for Republicans to run better candidates with better policies. Not find ways to allow minority rule.

It is true that town and county races might receive less attention if they were held at the same time as races for president, governor, senator and congressional rep although that would seem to be less important in a state like New York.

Thanks to the Electoral College and New York’s large edge in registered Democrats, both Democratic and Republican candidates for president usually pay far less attention to New York than so-called swing states.

And in New York, with no Republicans holding statewide office and majorities in both legislative branches, U.S. Senate races do not receive the coverage that similar races in other states do.

Readers of these pages know that town and county races – not to mention school boards, school budgets, village and special district elections – receive far more attention than do presidential and U.S. Senate races.

Of course, the local election process could be improved to give voters a greater chance to focus on the issues.

Many of those now complaining about the loss of focus on local issues if the election years were switched have been unwilling to make themselves available for interviews with the media, including these papers.

You want more focus on local issues? How about requiring candidates to commit to three debates, submit to recorded interviews with local media and answer questions posed in writing?

One question we would like answered is why, in Blakeman’s words, moving town and county races to even years would be an “assault on suburbs.”

We do think Blakeman and other Republicans can legitimately ask why the same rules would not apply to New York City. What’s good for the goose ought to be good for the gander.

But in saying rules that encourage higher election turnout represent an assault on the suburbs, he also seems to be saying that the majority of Nassau voters themselves are not happy with the current state of Nassau County.

This seems to be a similar argument Republicans and a few Democrats made in February when Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed legislation to require municipalities to allow a minimum of one accessory dwelling unit on all owner-occupied residential zoned lots.

Also known as “granny flats” and “in-law units,” these are small homes located on the same lot as a primary residence, such as a modest apartment over a garage or a basement unit.

Hochul’s plan, which she soon withdrew in the face of opposition, was in response to a housing shortage in the metropolitan area that is leading to homelessness as well as rents and housing prices too high for many younger people to afford.

Blakeman, DeSena, Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin and Congressman Tom Suozzi a Democrat running against Hochul for governor, said the proposed legislation would – you guessed it – destroy Long Island suburbs by effectively eliminating single-family zoning.

President Trump had actually blazed a trail in this kind of talk when he campaigned on defending places like Nassau County during his race against Biden by boasting of his opposition to affordable housing.

“I am happy to inform all the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood,” Trump tweeted. “Your housing prices will go up based on the market, and crime will go down. I have rescinded the Obama-Biden AFFH Rule. Enjoy!!”

The heated response to Hochul’s proposal assumed two things.

The first is that there is, in fact, a great demand for affordable housing in Nassau County. The second is that many homeowners would like the freedom to add an apartment to their homes. Otherwise, why the great impact?

The question as to whether this would destroy the suburban quality of life is another matter. It certainly might result in major changes.

In a county in which zoning policies have helped Nassau remain one of the most segregated large counties in the United States, that might not be such a bad idea.

Based on the Republicans’ response to a proposal to increase election turnout, making Nassau County more accessible to new residents might even be the will of the people.