Elections 2014

Rice defeats Blakeman for congressional seat

Republicans retake majority in state legislature

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In the race to fill the 4th Congressional District seat being vacated by Carolyn McCarthy, Democrat Kathleen Rice, Nassau County’s district attorney, beat Republican Bruce Blakeman.
The race was tight at times, but as the night went on, Rice eked out a solid lead over Blakeman, beating him 53 to 47 percent.
Sen. Dean Skelos, a Rockville Centre resident and the State Senate’s co-majority leader, sailed to an easy victory over challenger Patrick Gillespie as polls closed on Tuesday night, securing his 15th term as a state senator.
“It’s a great day to win our majority back,” Skelos said of the State Senate. “It’s so nice to have a majority of Republicans because we’re going to bring balance back to Albany, fiscal responsibility to Albany, focus on private sector jobs, make New York affordable, and say no to Mayor Bill DeBlasio.”
State Assemblyman Brian Curran (R-Lynbrook) was also returned to his seat, defeating Democratic challenger Adam Shapiro. Curran was elected to his third term.


In the vacant 8th Senate District in southeast Nassau, Republican Michael Venditto was the winner. He defeated Democrat and fellow county Legislator David Denenberg, who suspended his campaign after allegations of civil fraud.

“I’m looking forward to executing the game plan we’ve set out: cutting taxes, creating jobs, getting our fair share of funding on Long Island and restoring integrity to Albany," Venditto said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo secured his re-election as well, becoming the first Democratic governor to do so since his father, Mario, won a second term in 1986. The governor defeated his Republican challenger, Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, 53 to 41 percent.
With about 85 percent of the precincts reporting, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli was poised to keep his seat, garnering nearly 60 percent of the vote.
And with a similar number of precincts counted, the race for state attorney general was all but decided. Democratic incumbent Eric Schneiderman had 55.5 percent of the vote, well ahead of John Cahill, a Republican challenger and his closest opponent, who had 41.5 percent.