Ideal politics an illusion

ALBANY - A very small number of voters on Staten Island and on Long Island filled three vacant state Assembly seats on Tuesday in special elections that again dramatized how the ideal and the reality of democracy can be very different.

On Staten Island's North Shore, about 5,900 of the 61st Assembly District's almost 71,000 voters, or about 8 percent, turned out to elect lawyer Matthew Titone to fill the seat left vacant by the death of fellow Democrat John Lavelle.

On Staten Island's South Shore, only about 4 percent of the 62nd A.D.'s almost 77,000 voters went to the polls to elect Republican Louis Tobacco to fill the seat vacated by the GOP's Vincent Ignizio after he was elected to New York's City Council.