Steve Levy

In 2011 Levy announced he would not seek reelection to a third term as county executive. The Suffolk District Attorney's office conducted an investigation of "issues with regard to fundraising." No charges were filed. Contributions were returned to original donors.

On March 19, 2010, Levy announced that he would switch political parties, seeking the Republican Party's nomination for New York Governor, competing with former New York Congressman Rick Lazio and Buffalo developer Carl Paladino for the party nomination. Though he changed his voter registration to the Republican Party, this change came after the deadline for making such a change. For legal purposes, Levy remained a Democrat until November 2010, with the registration change taking effect after Election Day.

Reflecting concerns of many residents in the county about rising numbers of immigrants, especially undocumented ones, Levy has promoted anti-immigrant policies, including employer verification of worker status and restrictions on drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants. In November 2008 seven local high school students attacked and murdered Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant who had lived and worked for 16 years at a cleaners in Patchogue, Suffolk County, supporting his mother in Ecuador. Levy described the killing as not "a question of any county policy or legislation," but "a question of bad people doing horrific things." The students admitted to anti-Latino attacks, and were sentenced to varying terms.

Levy, then a Democrat who identified as fiscally conservative, ran for the office of Suffolk County Executive in 2003. He opposed Republican Edward Romaine. Levy entered office in 2004. On November 6, 2007, he was overwhelmingly re-elected to a second term with cross-endorsement and receiving 96% of the vote.

Steve Levy was born in Glendale, Queens. Along with his brother and sister, he was raised in Holbrook, New York by his father Andrew Levy, who owned a Brooklyn appliance store, and his mother, Marie Cavalcante Levy. His father was Jewish, descended from immigrants from Alsace-Lorraine, and his mother was Italian-American and Catholic (Levy was reared as a Catholic). He is a graduate of Sachem High School in Holbrook (1977), the State University of New York at Stony Brook (1981, magna cum laude) and St. John's University School of Law (1984). Levy married Colleen West on December 2, 1994, at St. Ann's Episcopal Church in Sayville, New York. They live in Bayport, New York with her children from a previous marriage.

In 1984, Levy was elected to the Suffolk County Legislature where he served for 15 years (1985–2000). In 2000, he was elected to the New York State Assembly, where he represented the 5th Assembly District from 2001 to 2003.

Steven A. "Steve" Levy (pronounced LEE-vee; born August 25, 1959) was the seventh County Executive of Suffolk County, New York, elected on November 4, 2003. Originally a fiscally conservative Democrat, Levy joined the Republican Party in an unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination for governor.