Bellmore-Merrick incumbents headed toward re-election

As the Herald went to press early Wednesday, preliminary election results showed incumbent candidates holding commanding leads in the 3rd Congressional District, 8th Senatorial District, and 18th and 19th Assembly Districts.

With 37 percent of election precincts reporting, U.S. Rep. Peter King, a Republican from Seaford, held a nearly 21,000-vote lead over Howard Kudler, a Democrat from Merrick, according to the Nassau County Board of Elections. King had 73 percent of the vote to Kudler’s 27 percent, and King was the predicted winner.

King told the Herald that he was “gratified and overjoyed” to have won re-election.

With 46 percent of precincts reporting, State Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr., a Republican from Merrick, held a nearly 11,000-vote lead over his challenger, community activist Carol Gordon, a Democrat from Massapequa. Fuschillo had 68 percent of the vote to Gordon’s 32 percent.

Meanwhile, incumbent Assemblyman David McDonough, a Republican from North Merrick, had double the number of votes his opponent, John Brooks, a Democrat from Seaford, had received. McDonough had 10,987 votes, or 68 percent of the total, to Brooks’s 5,007 votes, or 32 percent of the total.

Assemblywoman Earlene Hooper Hill, a Democrat from Hempstead who represents a small section of south Merrick, was victorious.