Rumble for McC’s seat: Rice, Blakeman at gate

Kathleen Rice, Nassau County’s top prosecutor, bested Kevan Abrahams, the highest-ranking Democrat in the County Legislature, in Tuesday’s Democratic primary for the 4th Congressional District seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Carolyn McCarthy. In the Republican primary, Bruce Blakeman, a former presiding officer of the County Legislature and a Port Authority of NY and NJ commissioner, defeated Frank Scaturro, a New Hyde Park attorney and former Republican staffer for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.

Unofficial results were reported early Wednesday by the County Board of Elections. The district covers much of Nassau’s South Shore including the Five Towns.

The board reported that Rice captured 56 percent of the Democratic vote to Abrahams’s 44 percent, and that Blakeman took 65 percent of the Republican vote to Scaturro’s 34 percent.

Blakeman also won the Conservative Party primary, with 66 percent of the vote, according to the board. His name was the only one printed on the ballot, but Scaturro sought to take the ballot line through write-ins, as he did in 2012.

The 4th CD has about 206,000 registered Democrats, 171,000 Republicans and 135,000 voters who are not members of either party, according to the State Board of Elections.

Just 12,300 Democrats, 13,000 Republicans and 951 Conservatives voted in Tuesday’s primaries, the County Board of Elections reported. Voter turnout is often low in primaries in midterm election years. This is also the first year the federal primaries took place in June. Primaries for state offices are scheduled in September.

Rice has, to date, widely outraised and outspent the other candidates in the race. The most recent Federal Election Commission numbers, from June 4, show Rice has raised $2.1 million and spent $640,000. Abrahams, on the other hand, spent most of his campaign’s war chest — $112,000 of $162,000. Blakeman has amassed $403,000 and spent $161,000, Scaturro $198,000 and $129,000.

The district attorney has the greatest name recognition of any candidate in the field. She also received the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s backing and the endorsement of Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, who is retiring. Jay Jacobs, the Nassau County Democratic Committee chairman, declined to back either candidate, citing the longstanding ties both have to the party and the county.

Both Rice and Abrahams said they support gun control measures, want to increase gender equality and protect women’s reproductive rights, and raise the federal minimum wage. Both touted their records and argued they were best qualified to fight for constituents’ interests in Washington.

When Blakeman announced his candidacy in a press conference earlier this year, several Nassau Republican heavyweights stood beside him, including Rep. Pete King. Blakeman received the endorsements of the Nassau Republican, Conservative and Independence parties, and that of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Scaturro was a man without a party, but he petitioned his way onto the Republican primary ballot using the campaign experience and name recognition he had gained in two prior runs for McCarthy’s seat, in 2012 and 2010.

The two traded barbs over who is more truly conservative and who stood the best chance of beating the Democrats’ nominee in November. Both said they want to repeal the Affordable Care Act, reduce government spending and taxing, spur private-sector job growth, and they have criticized President Barack Obama’s record and that of congressional Democrats.

Rice, 49, of Garden City, became the first female district attorney in the county’s history after she won election in 2005. She was re-elected in 2009 and 2013. In 2010, she lost a campaign for state attorney general. Formerly, Rice was an assistant U.S. attorney in Philadelphia and an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn.

Abrahams, 39, of Freeport, has been elected seven times to the County Legislature since 2002. His district now includes parts of Baldwin, East Meadow, Freeport, Hempstead, Roosevelt and Uniondale. With the support of his fellow Democrats, Abrahams has been the Legislature’s minority leader since 2012. He also works as a senior analyst for the North Shore-LIJ Health System. Formerly, Abrahams was budget director for the County Legislature’s Democratic caucus, a legislative aide to McCarthy and a legislative aide to Rep. Floyd Flake.

Blakeman, 58, of Long Beach, is an attorney and businessman who won election to the Town of Hempstead Council in 1993 and the County Legislature in 1995 and 1997. With the support of his fellow Republicans, Blakeman was the Legislature’s first presiding officer from 1996 to 1999. In 1998, he was the Republican candidate for state comptroller, but he lost the election. He then lost his 1999 bid for re-election to the County Legislature. From 2001 to 2009, Blakeman was a Port Authority commissioner. He finished third in the 2010 Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat that Kirsten Gillibrand holds.

Scaturro, 41, of New Hyde Park, is a partner at the law firm FisherBroyles, LLP. He was formerly a visiting professor at Hofstra University’s law school and counsel to Republicans on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. He lost Republican primaries for this congressional seat twice before to County Legislator Francis Becker. He beat Becker in the 2012 Conservative Party primary via a write-in campaign.