Democrats maintained their majority in the New York State Assembly but Republicans chipped away at that advantage and may have picked off at least one Democratic incumbent Assembly member on Long Island, if not two.
Assemblywoman Ginny Fields (I-Oakdale), lost her seat to Republican opponent Al Graf, who trounced Fields by a 27 percentage-point margin after Sayville businessman Ken Mangan beat Fields in the Democratic primary. Mangan received 28 percent of the vote.
On the East End, Daniel Losquadro, the Republican leader of the Suffolk County Legislature, won the unofficial tally in his quest to unseat Assemblyman Marc Alessi (D-Shoreham), but the 40-vote advantage does not factor absentee ballots that still need to be counted.
For the large part, incumbents kept their seats in the other 19 Assembly district races on Long Island.
Also in Suffolk, Fred Thiele (I-Sag Harbor) thwarted Republican challenger Richard Blumenthal and Dean Murray (R-East Patchogue) won his first full term in the race against Democrat Robert Calarco after Murray won that seat in a February special election. Steven Englebright (D-Setauket) fended off Republican Deborah McKee while Phil Ramos (D-Brentwood) trounced Republican Mohsen Elsayed.
Micheal Fitzpatrick (R-St. James) handily beat Democrat Richard Macellaro by similar margins that Phil Boyle (R-Bay Shore) topped Democrat Janice Sweet and Andrew Raia (R-East Northport) trumped Democrat Christopher Dempsey. James Conte (R-Huntington Station) also held on to his in the race against Democrat John Capobianco, as did Robert Sweeney (D-Lindenhurst) versus Republican Brett Robinson.
In Nassau, Joseph Saladino (R-Massapequa) trumped Democrat Kevin Gorman, Thomas McKevitt (R-East Meadow) won against Democrat Thomas Devaney and David McDonough (R-Merrick) topped Democrat John E. Brooks.
Charles Lavine (D-Glen Cove) bucked Republican challenger Robert Germino, Jr., Earlene Hooper (D-Hempstead) slayed GOP opponent Derek L. Partee with about 83 percent of the vote in and Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach) successfully defended his seat from Republican Joshua Wanderer.
Michael A. Montesano (R-Glenn Head), who won his seat in a February special election, won his first full term in the race against Democratic challenger Leon Hart.
In two races where the incumbent Republican Assemblyman had retired, the GOP held onto the seats. Republican Brian Curran defeated his Democratic opponent Dermond Thomas with about 61 percent of the tallied votes in the 14th District and Republican Edward Ra beat out Democratic hopeful Patrick Nicolosi for the 21st District with about 52 percentage points.
Democrats easily maintained their majority in the 150-seat Assembly though there could be enough losses to erode the 100-seat minimum needed for the party to override a governor’s veto.
This story was reported by Christopher Twarowski and Timothy Bolger. It was written by Bolger.
– With Associated Press
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