Dems vote on THURSDAY: Singas v Scotto for DA

UPDATE: The headline for the print edition of this story said the vote is on Tuesday. As explained in the story, the primary election vote is actually on THURSDAY because of a scheduling conflict with Labor Day and Rosh Hashana.

Before one of them get to face off against Republican Kate Murray for the Nassau County District Attorney seat, Democrats Madeline Singas and Michael Scotto have to face each other in a primary next Thursday, Sept. 10. (The primary election was moved to Thursday, from the following Tuesday, because of Rosh Hashana.

Singas, the incumbent, was appointed to the position by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in January after former D.A. Kathleen Rice was elected to the House of Representatives last year. Before that, she served as Rice’s top deputy. She has been a prosecutor for her entire career, working at the Queens D.A. office and then Nassau. In 2006, she helped create the county’s Special Victims Bureau, and was Rice’s chief assistant district attorney since 2011.

Scotto, her challenger, is also a career prosecutor. He is currently a sole practitioner of law with a focus on white-collar defense. But for more than 20 years, he was an assistant district attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s Office. In the office, he worked for years in the Labor Racketeering Unit, and was appointed chief of the unit in 2001. In 2010, he was made chief of the Rackets Bureau and deputy chief of the Investigation Division.

Scotto has been critical of Singas’s experience, saying that she is unqualified to continue as district attorney.

“Ms. Singas, in my view, is unprepared and unqualified to be district attorney,” Scotto said. “I’ve handled every type of case a prosecutor can bring, including street crime, domestic violence, white collar crime, political corruption, organized crime, tax evasion and even terrorism charges. I’ve lead teams of prosecutors and investigators. Ms. Singas has not.”

But Singas has touted her time as the acting district attorney, as well as her years of pervious experience, as her qualifications.