Tom Suozzi

For D.A.: the political pro vs. the prosecutor

Posted

The most high-profile race in Nassau County on Election Day will be the contest for district attorney. Public polling data reveals that voters believe the most important thing the Nassau County D.A. needs to do is to fight public corruption.

Combating the rising scourge of heroin, street crime, DWI’s, elder abuse, cyberbullying, domestic violence and the normal purview of the district attorney are all important, and require a competent D.A., but voters have a different focus right now. The past year of indictments of public officials and the front-page stories of local scandals at the town and county levels have the public looking for a D.A. who will ferret out those who abuse the public trust.

As predicted, Kate Murray, the supervisor of the Town of Hempstead, holds an early lead based on her strong name recognition, her solid base of support in the town — which makes up 50 percent of Nassau County — and her superior political operation. But the race is tightening, with Madeline Singas, the career prosecutor, down by six points and closing as she becomes more well known.

Singas has done an excellent job of building her name recognition and selling the message that she is “a prosecutor, not a politician.” Her message is clearly resonating with voters from all different parties. Murray has come up with an effective response, however. While she has never been a prosecutor and has never really been in the courtroom, she argues that it’s important that she’s a manager and the “captain of the ship.” Singas’s effective comeback, that “Murray can’t be a very good captain if she’s never even sailed a rowboat,” has yet to emerge from the campaign noise. Unfortunately, voters can’t follow all the back-and-forth without massive amounts of spending behind each message.

Singas can clearly hit a home run if she can tap into voters’ concern about public corruption. Only the candidate who is not part of the establishment can prosecute corruption in the establishment. Singas isn’t part of the establishment and isn’t a politician, as she has said many times.

Page 1 / 2