By Jeff Lipton
McCarthy, Skelos, Weisenberg are other big winners in Nov. 7 vote
Republican Jim Darcy defeated Democrat Eleanor Sciglibaglio for the new Third District seat on the Hempstead Town Council while Republican Tony Santino beat back efforts by Democrat Jerry Lamonica in a bid for the Fourth Councilmatic District seat.
In unofficial totals, Mr. Darcy, a state assemblyman and former Valley Stream mayor, collected 23,819 votes and Ms. Sciglibaglio, a long-time school board member from Valley Stream, won 20,932 votes. Mr. Santino garnered 26,006 votes to Mr. Lamonica's 23,413 votes.
Final results were not available at presstime.
The Third District in Hempstead takes in Atlantic Beach and all of the Five Towns, except Hewlett, which is in the Fourth District.
In other races, incumbent Democrat Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy handily won reelection to a third term in the Fourth Congressional District, beating Republican challenger Greg Becker by a vote of 122,569 to 79,622 with 95 percent of the precincts reporting.
Eight-term incumbent State Senator Dean Skelos, a Republican, easily defeated Democrat Ed Oppenheimer for the Ninth Senate District seat by a vote of 57,421 to 35, 236.
Six-term Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach) coasted to a victory over Republican Peter McDonald for the 20th Assembly District seat .
"It doesn't really matter what the numbers in the polls are," Congresswoman McCarthy said as her lead piled up.
"What matters is taking care of people in Nassau County," she added.
Senator Skelos said, "There's an awful lot that has been written about the five state senators [from Nassau County]. But if I count correctly, we're all back."
Mr. Darcy and Mr. Santino won seats in the newly carved-out districts in the Town of Hempstead, which allows each councilperson to represent a specific area, instead of being a town-wide representative.
Mr. Santino, who has been an at-large councilmember since 1993, said the Republicans have fared well in this year's election "because of their outstanding record."
