http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/07/nyreg ... ref=slogin

[quote]By BRUCE LAMBERT
Published: July 7, 2007

BABYLON, N.Y., July 2 — When black and Hispanic members of the State Legislature blocked a routine renewal of a 1 percent sales tax for Suffolk County, they seemed to be hitting the county executive, Steve Levy, where he lives.
Steve Levy, the Suffolk County executive, has seen his approval rating rise to 80% during the dispute over hiring halls for immigrant laborers.
But the lawmakers’ gambit, intended as leverage to pressure Mr. Levy on the issue of creating halls for hiring immigrant day laborers, may have backfired: Many here agree with Mr. Levy’s aggressive stance against illegal immigration, and seem far more outraged by the far-off legislators’ withholding of $320 million from the county’s budget than by their much-loved local leader whose views provoked it.

“They gave him a wonderful platform to be at center stage on immigration, again, and set himself up as the protector of the people of Suffolk,â€