POLITICS

Denenberg to stay on State Senate ballot

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Though Nassau County Legislator Dave Denenberg has said he is no longer a candidate for State Senate, he will remain on the ballot next month in the 8th Senate District race.

Denenberg, a Merrick Democrat, announced he was ending his campaign just hours after civil fraud charges against him came to light on Sept. 23. But New York election law prohibits parties from replacing candidates after Sept. 22, unless one dies, moves out of state or is nominated for a state judgeship.

Jay Jacobs, chairman of the Nassau County Democratic Committee, told reporters last week that he would seek to get Denenberg nominated on a minor party line for a judgeship, and Jacobs floated names of Democrats who might replace Denenberg in the 8th District race.

Lawrence Levy, executive dean of the Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, said Monday that he believed the Democrats had “no viable way forward” in the 8th District.

Jacobs backed off the plan to put Denenberg up for a judgeship, saying Tuesday that no worthy Democratic candidate wanted to enter the race at so late a date. “We had to have what I would call a top-tier candidate, who comes with a base, to have any chance of winning,” Jacobs said. “And we had several interested, all of whom decided it was just too short a period of time” before the Nov. 4 election.

Jacobs shrugged off Republican criticism of the plan to replace Denenberg by putting him up for a judgeship, saying that the GOP has done the same maneuver several times over the years.

Denenberg said Tuesday that “the timing and the politics” of the lawsuit filed against him precluded his party from nominating a replacement candidate.

So far Denenberg has not directly addressed the allegations in the suit, but he suggested he would do so soon. “With respect to the civil action, we will be answering the complaint, asserting our denials and our claims,” he said.