24. Edward Mangano

Arguably the nicest guy in Nassau County—and that demeanor has nothing to do with his attachment to the NICE bus system—County Executive Ed Mangano must have had a case of déjà vu all over again when he faced off against the Democrats’ Tom Suozzi last November. Hadn’t he been there and done that in 2009? This time he won decisively—no drawn-out recount like the first go-around. But that doesn’t mean it’s gotten any easier to govern one of the richest counties in the country with some of the worst budget problems. Mangano has got his hands full, to put it lightly. Nassau is still under the boot heels of the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority as well as the scrutiny of the Wall Street bond raters. But at least Mangano persuaded NIFA to lift a three-year wage freeze on Nassau’s long-suffering public union workers. Looking ahead, Mangano will have to devise a viable plan to resolve the county’s projected $70 million budget gap. No small task, obviously, though it appears his plan to privatize Nassau’s sewage and wastewater systems is indeed on track. If his luck holds, maybe hurricanes will give the Island a break, and the county executive will have a chance to spend Federal Emergency Management Agency money to shore up the Bay Park sewage treatment plant before the next big one strikes.