Election Analysis

How Rice won the 4th C.D., despite Democratic losses

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Republicans on Tuesday won control of many Democratic seats in Congress, but not Rep. Carolyn McCarthy’s.

Her successor, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, beat Bruce Blakeman, a former Republican leader in the County Legislature, in New York’s 4th Congressional District race. The district covers much of Nassau’s South Shore.

Rice received 52.7 percent of the vote to Blakeman’s 47.2 percent, according to unofficial County Board of Elections results. Some 8,800 votes separated the two.

Rice gave a victory speech before more than 100 upbeat supporters in a ballroom of the posh Garden City Hotel, where her campaign held its Election Night party.

“We proved that positivity and ideas beat fear-mongering and dirty campaigning,” Rice said.

Rice did not enter the ballroom until the Board of Elections announced that she led the vote count with 99 percent of precincts reporting. At a quarter past midnight, she took to a podium crowded with supporters and family members. McCarthy, who will soon retire, was also there to make introductory remarks.

The congresswoman-elect thanked many people and summarized her campaign in an eight-minute speech. She also said that Blakeman “very graciously congratulated me on our victory tonight” in a phone call, and she dedicated the win to her parents.

“I am … going to Washington to get something done,” Rice said. “Too often our politicians think that the enemy is the other party, when in reality the enemy is the gridlock that’s leaving too many families out of our economic recovery. We have got to change that.”

Blakeman addressed the Republican faithful at the county GOP’s party Tuesday night at Mirelle's Restaurant in Westbury.

“We started this race against all odds,” Blakeman said. “We lost at the wire, and those things happen, but there’s a lot of reason to celebrate.”

Despite President Barack Obama’s low public approval ratings and expectations of Republican gains in both houses of Congress, Blakeman was unable to overcome Rice’s fundraising and name recognition.

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