Town and County

Elections are local this year

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The next district attorney of Nassau County will be chosen in a little more than a month, the marquee race on this year’s Election Day ballot. Voters will head to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 3, to decide on candidates in numerous town and county races.

Will Madeline Singas lose “acting” from her title and become the district attorney for the next four years, or will voters put the office in Republican hands for the first time in a decade?

Singas, a Democrat, was elevated to acting D.A. when Kathleen Rice was elected to Congress. Her opposition is Kate Murray, the Hempstead town supervisor since 2003. Normally, this post is up for election with other county-wide positions — county executive, comptroller and clerk — but Rice’s departure for Washington reset the clock on district attorney, though the winner will earn a full four-year term.

The Singas campaign has attacked Murray’s qualifications, saying she has not practiced law in more than a decade and has never prosecuted criminal cases. “Madeline Singas is a lifelong prosecutor with two decades’ experience locking up violent criminals,” said Singas’s campaign manager, Isaac Goldberg, “and we look forward to giving voters the choice between a career prosecutor and a career politician for district attorney.”

Singas says she wants to continue Rice’s “legacy of aggressive and tough prosecution,” with a focus on public corruption and violent criminals.

Murray, meanwhile, has raised concerns about the growing heroin problem in Nassau County, saying that would be her major focus if she were elected. She has been endorsed by the county’s three major law enforcement unions — the Nassau Police Benevolent Association, the Nassau Detectives’ Association and the Nassau County Superior Officers Association.

“We’ll continue to spread our message of battling the heroin epidemic and working to make our county the safest in the nation,” Murray said.

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