Kaminsky defeats McGrath in State Senate rematch

As local Democrats anxiously awaited election results at Westbury Manor into the late hours of Tuesday night, Nassau County Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs approached the ballroom’s lectern with a smile, though not a wide one.

A large screen behind him showed Hillary Clinton trailing Donald Trump, and as midnight loomed, some county Democrats were in races too close to call. But Jacobs’s smile widened as he pointed to the man on stage to his right, and the crowd applauded louder than it had all night.

“I want to reintroduce to you our state senator who was re-elected tonight,” Jacobs said. “I can tell you that we are sending certainly a great state senator back to Albany.”

Democratic Sen. Todd Kaminsky defeated Republican Chris McGrath — as he did in April’s special election — to retain his seat, after another close race came down to the wire. Kaminsky, of Long Beach, took 51.5 percent of the vote, while McGrath, an Inwood native who now lives in Hewlett, captured 47.4 percent, a margin of 5,700 votes, according to the Nassau County Board of Elections. Green Party candidate Laurence Hirsh, of North Woodmere, collected 1 percent of the vote.

Kaminsky, a former federal prosecutor who focused his campaign on ethics reform and ending corruption in Albany, claimed the seat of former State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos nearly seven months ago, edging McGrath by 886 votes. About twice as many voters turned out this time around.

The candidates traded criticism over the past few months, and in the weeks leading to the rematch, McGrath, an attorney, ran ads claiming, “Kaminsky is the vote [Mayor Bill] de Blasio needs to turn Nassau County into New York City’s ATM.”

“In this race,” Kaminsky told the crowd of more than 100 people, “it was a really clear choice between a campaign of negativity, of hatred or deception, and a campaign based on real answers for fighting against corruption in Albany, which, frankly, people are fed up with. That fight will continue no matter what the lineup is in the Senate next year, and I will always continue to be a voice for honest good government …”

In addition to Kaminsky’s filling the vacant seat of Skelos, who was convicted of corruption last year, ethics in government was once again brought to the forefront last month, when Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano and Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto were charged in a 13-count federal indictment with conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and honest services fraud.

“We had a message that resonated, we had a plan, and we are going to execute that plan, because the days of pay-to-play and cronyism have to be over,” Kaminsky said. “We’ve seen too much of it in the last few years.”

Sam Pinto, a career firefighter in Long Beach and the president of the Eastholme Civic Association, said he was not shocked by Kaminsky’s victory. “It was a very up-and-down campaign, a lot of mudslinging, but he kept a clean face — he really represented the best foot forward, and he’s going to continue doing that,” Pinto said. “He’s done a lot for Long Beach, he’s done a lot for the South Shore and his constituency, and it really resonated with the voters.”

West End Neighbors President John Bendo said he knew Kaminsky before he was elected to the State Assembly in 2014, and recalled the free legal clinics that Kaminsky offered for victims of Hurricane Sandy during a dark time for the city four years ago. That selflessness, Bendo said, helped earn his vote.

“He volunteered his time and services for that, and that kind of impressed me,” Bendo said of Kaminsky. “I never forgot that, that he was there to help people.”