48.0°,
Light Rain Fog/Mist Big night for Nassau GOP on the South Shore
As of Wednesday morning, Republicans in Nassau County-wide races were inching toward a GOP sweep.
Bruce Blakeman, the Republican Town of Hempstead councilman, had surged past incumbent Democrat Laura Curran in the race for county executive, with 92 percent of precincts reporting. At press time, an official winner had not been declared in the race, but Blakeman had 52 percent of the vote to Curran’s 47 percent. Close to 20,000 absentee ballots remained to be counted, however.
On Wednesday morning, Curran had not conceded the race, saying, "This is not over, and we must trust the process."
"I think the Republican Party was on the right side of the issues," Blakeman said. "The two biggest issues were taxes and people were very upset with the broken reassessment system. They were very upset they were not getting the tax relief they were entitled to."
What was certain: Republican Anne Donnelly, a 32-year career prosecutor in the Nassau district attorney’s office, was declared the winner in the race for D.A. Donnelly defeated State Sen. Todd Kaminsky, a Democrat from Long Beach. Donnelly had 60 percent of the vote.
In the race for Town of Hempstead supervisor, Don Clavin also appeared headed toward an easy victory over Democrat Jason Abelove, at press time nearly doubling his vote.
In the 3rd Legislative District, Democratic incumbent Carrie Solages, from Lawrence, won a decisive victory over Republican challenger Bernardin Fleurima of Valley Stream. Solages won roughly 71 percent of the votes.
Republican William Gaylor, of Lynbrook, representing the 6th Legislative District, retained his seat for a fourth term against Democratic challenger Laura Burns of Rockville Centre. Gaylor won 60 percent of the vote. He successfully defended his seat against Burns two years ago.
In the 7th District, Howard Kopel, of Lawrence, secured his seventh term beating East Rockaway Democratic challenger Lisa Daniels for a second time. Kopel won roughly 70 percent of the vote. He successfully defended his seat against Daniels in 2013.
