Todd Kaminsky declares win in State Senate race

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State Assemblyman Todd Kaminsky (D-Long Beach) had a narrow lead over Republican Chris McGrath in Tuesday’s special election for the 9th State Senate District seat as the Herald went to press at midnight.

The seat was vacated by Dean Skelos after his December conviction on corruption charges.

With all precincts reporting, Kaminsky had 33,978 votes and McGrath had 33,198.

“At the end of the day, we’re all here for one reason: We want a better Long Island for our children,” Kaminsky said. “We want to make sure we have an Albany we can be proud of, not an Albany that disgusts us.”

Kaminsky, a former federal prosecutor who helped prosecute seven state legislators prior to his election in 2014, aims to eliminate legislators’ practice of earning outside income.

The campaign was full of highly charged claims and counter-claims, as Democrats sought to tie McGrath to Skelos, and the GOP claimed that if Kaminsky were elected, potentially creating a Democratic majority in the Senate, “tax-and-spend Democrats” could run amok in Albany.

Substantive issues appeared to take a back seat to the battle for control of the Senate, which may now revert to Democrats with Kaminsky’s victory, depending on whether the break-away, five-member Independent Democratic Conference chooses to rejoin the majority of Democrats to organize the Senate.

McGrath and local Republican officials insisted that the race was too close to call, and the outcome would depend on a count of paper ballots. “It will not be decided tonight. All the votes will have to be counted in the coming days.”

If the results hold up, Kaminsky will complete Skelos’s unexpired two-year term, and must run again for the Senate seat in November.