DEMS SWEEP SOUTH SHORE; Rice beats Blakeman, Kaminsky tops Fertig

While Republicans cruised to control of both the U.S. Senate and the New York State Senate on Tuesday, Long Island’s South Shore was awash in blue, with Democrats handily winning the area’s two contested races.

Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice, emphasizing a liberal agenda, overcame a late surge by her conservative Republican rival, former Presiding Officer of the Nassau County Legislature Bruce Blakeman. The unofficial count on Wednesday morning was 85,294 to 76,515 (52.66 percent to 47.24 percent).

In the race to succeed retiring Democratic Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg, Democrat Todd Kaminsky topped Republican Avi Fertig by more than 10 percent — 16,411 to 13,810 (54.30 percent to 45.69 percent).

State Senate leader Dean Skelos, a Republican, was handily reelected for a 15th term against an inactive opponent, Patrick Gillespie Jr., 47,906 to 24,837 (65.83 percent to 34.13 percent).

The Rice-Blakeman count ran late Tuesday night, with Blakeman initially in the lead, so it was after midnight when Rice finally declared victory, telling supporters at the Garden City Hotel:

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

Accompanied at the podium by retiring Democratic Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a beaming Rice promised to work “toward solutions and away from the gridlock that is holding our futures hostage.”

She recounted her to-do list of domestic priorities, including an increase in the federal minimum wage (now $7.25 for most employees) and support for organized labor, small businesses, “heath care and health rights,” and Social Security.

“The way we grow the economy is by helping those struggling to feed their three kids, not those struggling to buy their third home,” she said.

“We grow our economy by helping small businesses find ways to expand their workforces, not by helping corporate America to find ways to send their jobs overseas.”

Foreign affairs, including Israel and the Middle East, were not mentioned in her victory remarks.