26 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • SEPTEMBER 2017 26 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • SEPTEMBER 2017 26 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • SEPTEMBER 201TUTU111
And the two parties seem content
with that.”
Money talks
In forgoing re-election to run for
county exec, Maragos makes the
Nassau Comptroller’s seat the only
one of the four incumbent-free,
non-judicial countywide contests
on LI to not have a cloud of a federal
investigation hanging over it.
The outgoing comptroller is running
on a ticket with the small business
owner he hopes will replace
him: Ama Yawson, who is challenging
the Democratic nominee, Long
Beach City Manager Jack Schnirman.
General election opponents
Steven Labriola, the Republican
nominee, and Laurence Hirsch, the
Green Party candidate, await on
Election Day in that race.
“There’s no magical solution for
turning it around quickly,” Schnirman
said of the cash-strapped
county’s fiscal woes that have
kept it under watch of the Nassau
Interim Finance Authority for 16
years. “There’s not a huge chorus
out there calling for draconian cuts
in services, or calling for dramatic
tax hikes. It took many years to
cause these problems, and those
problems are not going to be solved
overnight.”
Yawson said her priorities include
ensuring small businesses are
afforded equal access to winning
government contracts. If elected,
she would be the first woman and
first African American to be Nassau
comptroller.
“I understand the burden our
community is living with as we try
to afford these homes, which are ...
more expensive than 70 percent of
the homes in the nation,” she said.
“As we try to afford these taxes,
which are four times the national
average.”
Regardless of whether Yawson
wins, Schnirman will be on general
election ballots on the Working
Families and Women’s Equality
party lines.
The last time a county comptroller
didn’t seek re-election in Nassau
was in 1993, after U.S. Rep. Peter
King (R-Seaford) resigned the post
upon his election to Congress. His
interim replacement didn’t run to
keep the job.
In Suffolk, 99 problems
On the opposite side of the county
line, the other pair of top-level seats
are being vacated after two more
unrelated FBI probes.
Although the outgoing incumbents
haven’t said the cases had anything
to do with their decisions, the timing
speaks for itself.
Suffolk County District Attorney
Thomas Spota, a Democrat who
had been repeatedly cross-endorsed,
opted against seeking a fifth
term after reports that his public
corruption bureau chief, Christopher
McPartland, is under federal
investigation. Additionally, Spota’s
former protigé, disgraced Suffolk
Former New York State Sen. Jack Martins announces his run for Nassau
County Executive outside Mineola Village Hall on April 26, 2017.
(Long Island Press / Rashed Mian)
Police Chief James Burke, was
sentenced to two years in federal
prison after pleading guilty to beating
a suspect. That led to calls from
lawmakers for Spota’s resignation.
Neither Spota nor McPartland have
been charged with wrongdoing.
It’s been 26 years since an incumbent
Suffolk DA hasn’t run to keep
their job. The last time it happened,
in ‘89, Republican Patrick Henry
bowed out after a special investigative
report was issued on corruption
in Suffolk law enforcement.
Democrats backing Suffolk County
Police Commissioner Tim Sini, the
Democratic nominee to replace
Spota, successfully petitioned for
what’s known as an Opportunity to
Ballot – an invitation for write-in
primary candidates – to challenge
the Reform Party line of his Republican
rival, Ray Perini, who ran an
unsuccessful GOP primary against
Spota four years ago.
“It’s clear that Democratic Party
Leader Richard Schaffer is
attempting to take the vote away
from the voters and get Sini every
line that he can get,” said Perini,
noting that Sini is also running on
the Working Families, Conservative
and Independence party lines.
“We haven’t had a chance to vote
for a DA for so long,” he added,
referring to Spota’s cross endorsements.
“I think the voters … are
ready for a change.”
The Sini campaign referred a
request for comment to the Suffolk
Democratic committee, which did
not return requests for comment.
In the jailhouse now
As for Suffolk Sheriff Vincent
DeMarco, the lone Conservative to
hold a countywide seat, he declined
to seek a fourth term after he tipped
authorities off to political corruption
in his ranks.
The Suffolk Conservative Party
indicated that it would not back
DeMarco after he helped get its
ex-chairman, Ed Walsh, convicted
of fraud for $200,000 in wage
theft. Based in part on information
DeMarco provided to the FBI,
Walsh was found guilty of golfing,
gambling and politicking while on
the clock as a corrections lieutenant
at the county jail. He was sentenced
to two years in federal prison, but
his attorneys are asking a judge to
consider granting a new trial.
The GOP nominated state Sen.
Phil Boyle (R-Bay Shore) to replace
DeMarco, but Boyle’s Republican
nomination is being challenged
by two candidates: Peter Krauss,
a former New York City police
sergeant, and Lawrence Zacarese,
the Stony Brook University police
deputy chief. Former Huntington
Town Councilman Stuart Besen is
the Democratic candidate in the
general e Nassau Legis. Laura Curran faces off against Comptroller George lection in that race.
Maragos in the Democratic primary for Nassau county executive.