McGrath confronts protesters outside office

Mimi Pierre Johnson, a community organizer for New York Communities for Change and resident of Elmont, accused Chris McGrath, right, and his campaign of disseminating “racist, fear-mongering literature.”

Ben Strack/Herald

Fred Brewington confronted McGrath at a protest outside the State Senate candidate’s office on March 31.

Ben Strack/Herald

Sergio Argueta, a community activist, told McGrath that the term “illegal immigrants,” used in one of his ads, is derogatory to undocumented persons.

Ben Strack/Herald

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When a group of protesters led by civil rights attorney Fred Brewington gathered outside the law office of State Senate candidate Chris McGrath Thursday morning, the Republican hopeful defended himself amid calls that he drop out of the race, saying the outcry was politically motivated.

A recent ad handed out by McGrath’s campaign to residents of Elmont and other towns was among the issues that spurred the demonstration, amid a race to fill the 9th Senate District seat once held by former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos that has turned ugly in recent weeks and will culminate in a special election on April 19. About a dozen people stood outside the firm Sullivan Papain Block McGrath and Cannavo, in Garden City, claiming that the campaign flier was racist.

Brewington also criticized McGrath for the firm’s representation of former New York City firefighter Jonathan Walters, who, during a Labor Day Parade in Queens in 1998, donned blackface, tied himself to a truck and re-enacted the gruesome death of James Byrd Jr., who was dragged to death in Texas by members of the Ku Klux Klan that same year. Walters was subsequently fired, which the courts upheld in 2006.

The campaign ad claims that McGrath’s opponent, Assemblyman Todd Kaminsky (D-Long Beach) supports “giving illegal immigrants free college, welfare and the right to vote” as well as “allowing welfare benefits to be spent on alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets and at strip clubs.” The last line reads, “If Todd Kaminsky is elected … New York City wins and Nassau County families lose.”

Brewington said that the ad’s language encouraged Long Island residents to hate their neighbors in the boroughs, which he added was not acceptable.

“If indeed you’re going to continue with these ads that are attempting to separate people, then we’ve got to raise serious questions about your judgment, [and] about the decision to allow ads to go on that tell people to go thumbs down on our sisters and our brothers who happen to be coming into this country seeking to pursue the American dream,” Brewington told McGrath, who had “There’s a real concern when you try to feed on fear instead of deal with the issues.”