By Herald Staff
In the race for State Senate, Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), who has held onto his 9th District seat since 1984, handily defeated Democrat Odelia Goldberg of Lawrence. According to Skelos's spokesman Tom Dunham, the senator won Rockville Centre with an unofficial 76 percent of the vote.
"Our responsibility with a changing government is to work cooperatively, while retaining our Republican principles in the Senate to protect our residents," Skelos said after his election night victory.
"I think we did an amazing job," Goldberg said in her concession speech in which she committed to run again for Skelos's seat when it is up in 2008. "We fought tooth and nail, and we did it with dignity and honor. I'm running again for sure."
In what appeared to be a tight race early on, Republican Assembly incumbent Robert Barra, of Lynbrook, defeated his Democratic challenger, Daniel Torres of Baldwin Harbor. Barra received 59 percent of the 14th assembly district vote to Torres's 41 percent.
"It was a difficult election but a solid win," Barra said. "Even though the climate was bad this year for Republicans, if you work hard for the people they will return you to office. I am honored that they did that...I will look to reduce taxes, and provide people with needed relief in that area."
Before becoming an assemblyman, Barra was a Lynbrook village trustee, a Hempstead town councilman and chief of staff for state Senator Dean Skelos.
This was Torres's second attempt to unseat Barra. This time around, core issues were school tax reform and renewable energy. "I am more of a problem solver than a professional politican," Torres said.
Congresswoman McCarthy easily won a fifth term in the House of Representatives, receiving 65 percent of the vote against Marty Blessinger. In her victory speech at Nassau County Democratic election headquarters, at La Piazza in Westbury, McCarthy (D-Mineola) said that with a Democratic majority in Congress for the first time since being elected in 1996, she and her colleagues will now get to work on passing a minimum-wage increase and a prescription drug plan, and work to reduce interest rates on college loans.
"What you're going to see is us working with our Republican colleagues," she said.
In statewide races, Democrat Eliot Spitzer was elected governor and will succeed George Pataki in January after defeating republican opponent John Faso. U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton defeated Republican challenger John Spencer. Democrat Andrew Cuomo beat Jeanine Pirro for attorney general. And in spite of his recent ethics scandal and loss of top endorsements, Democrat Alan Hevesi defeated Republican J. Christopher Callaghan for state comptroller. Sen. Clinton won in Rockville Centre garnering 55 percent of the vote in the area, according to unofficial results released by the Nassau County Board of Elections.
