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Partly Cloudy Eramo, Torres and Moore win Long Beach Democratic primary
Lomonte, Quinn and Higgins clinch most votes on Independence Party line in City Council race
In what many have called a stunning upset — and a historic win — Anissa Moore, one of two candidates who ran against the Long Beach Democratic Committee’s slate of nominees for City Council in last Thursday’s Democratic primary, edged out Karen Adamo and will run in November’s general election. Moore is the first African-American woman to run for City Council — and win a primary.
With all 24 election districts reporting, the incumbents, Councilman Anthony Eramo and Council President Len Torres, the Long Beach committee’s candidates, received 22 and 21 percent of the vote, with totals of 1,343 and 1,298, respectively. Council Vice President Fran Adelson is not seeking re-election.
“I was really happy that Len and I secured the most votes,” said Eramo, a field technician for Verizon who had the support of the Working Families Party, the Long Island Federation of Labor, the AFL-CIO and the city’s Civil Services Employees Association. “I think it’s telling that the community knows we’re working hard to move the city forward and doing great things.”
But their running mate, Adamo — a real estate broker and longtime Long Beach committee member who sits on the board of the Long Beach Housing Authority, among other groups — lost, trailing Moore by 61 votes. Moore, a professor at Nassau Community College, garnered 1,210 votes, or approximately 20 percent, according to the Nassau County Board of Elections.
“It was a primary election on a Thursday — in the rain — so there couldn’t have been more obstacles to get people out,” said Bonnie Garone, a spokeswoman for the Nassau County Democratic Committee. “But I think the fact that they elected one of the newcomers to run for the empty seat illustrated how much Democrats wanted change in Long Beach.”
The top three vote-earners will appear on the ballot in November. Moore’s running mate, Dave Yolinsky, a former city firefighter who now works in Scarsdale, had three fewer votes than Adamo, though absentee ballots had yet to be counted.
Republican candidates Angelo Lomonte, Brian Higgins and Catherine Quinn, meanwhile, clinched the top three spots on the Independence Party line, beating Torres, Eramo and Adamo.
