Editorial

Power to the people –– Nassau elects Singas

Posted

In a good year, many, if not most, Nassau County voters are cynical about local politics. Two powerful machines, led by the major political parties, exercise tight control over candidates for elected office. This year, though, the people had even greater reason than usual to feel jaded.

With Republican Party Chairman Joseph Mondello in charge, the GOP put up Kate Murray, the Town of Hempstead supervisor, for Nassau County district attorney, even though she had no prosecutorial experience and did not demonstrate a solid command of the often arcane practices and procedures of a district attorney’s office –– certainly not the command that her opponent, Democrat Madeline Singas, exhibited.

That, of course, was because Singas is not a career politician like Murray. Singas had long served as an assistant and later a deputy district attorney before becoming acting district attorney after the former D.A., Kathleen Rice, resigned to become a congresswoman earlier this year.

Strangely, however, only a month before last week’s election, it looked like Murray might pull off a victory. A Newsday/News 12/Siena College poll indicated that she was up by 6 points. And according to the poll, voters thought that Murray, at best a prosecutorial neophyte, would do a better job of handling cases than Singas, who had a quarter-century of courtroom experience.

The problem was name recognition. While Singas spent two and a half decades as a behind-the-scenes prosecutor, Murray was out and about, presenting awards and cutting ribbons for countless “grip and grin” photos. People knew her. Her name was plastered in bold letters on every town sign. So Mondello and the GOP machine thought they could elect her D.A.

We’re thankful they were wrong. The people came through. In the days leading up to the election, Murray and Singas were in a statistical dead heat. On Election Day, Singas trounced Murray by a 16-point margin. Folks clearly responded to Singas’s forceful message: Nassau County needs a prosecutor with experience. And the system did what it was supposed to do.

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