Nassau district attorney candidates Kate Murray and Madeline Singas continue to rack up endorsements this week — and take aim at their opponent’s backers — as the Nov. 3 election approaches.
Major Conservative Party figure George Marlin made his first public endorsement of a Democrat Thursday, backing Acting District Attorney Singas in her bid for a full term.
Citing Singas’ investigation of the county’s contracting process earlier this year, Marlin said he thinks Singas is better equipped to combat political corruption than Republican Murray, who has been Hempstead’s town supervisor since 2003.
“We need a DA who is not under the thumb of political bosses and is committed to rooting out corruption, wherever it is and whoever is responsible,” said Marlin, a former head of the state agency that oversees the county’s finances and a Blank Slate Media columnist.
Both Marlin and the New York Times editorial board, which also endorsed Singas Thursday, raised concerns that Murray’s connections to powerful Republicans — such as former state Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) — would inhibit her ability to prosecute corrupt officials in her party.
Murray campaign spokesman Bill Corbett, Jr., dismissed Marlin’s endorsement, calling Singas “weak on crime.”
“Heroin deaths have doubled under her tenure. Nassau needs a tough district attorney — that’s Kate Murray,” Corbett said in an email.
Singas also touted her investigation of the county’s contracting process, which she said she launched in reaction to Skelos’ indictment on federal corruption charges.
Among other allegations of bribery and extortion, the indictment said he and his son, Adam Skelos, manipulated county officials to award a multimillion-dollar contract for Adam’s financial gain.
If she wins the Nov. 3 election, Singas said she would expand the contract review to the county’s three townships and two cities.
“My top priority is putting an end to pay-to-play politics in Nassau County,” she said.
Singas has raised questions this week about Dean and Adam Skelos’ connection to Hempstead officials, after Oct. 23 court filings alleged Adam tried to get his wife, Ann Marie Skelos, a seat on the town’s zoning board.
Murray said Thursday that Ann Marie Skelos’ name had never come before the Town Board for such a position, calling the allegations “a fantasy.”
Murray raised her own questions about a pair of tweets from a North Bellemore strip club announcing its support for Singas.
The club, Billy Dean’s Showtime, has proposed a second location in Wantagh near a residential neighborhood that Hempstead officials r rejected.
Appearing with Murray at a press conference, Wantagh resident Kevin Milano said Singas “laughed off” his question about whether she would try to stop the strip club from opening.
That reaction indicates Singas is “weak on the exploitation of women and quality-of-life crimes,” Murray said.
Singas’ campaign manager Isaac Goldberg noted that William Flanagan, a former Nassau deputy police commissioner convicted of corruption, has posted tweets supporting Murray.
“When you’ve never prosecuted a criminal case, never practiced criminal law, and your most vocal supporter is a convicted corrupt former public official, you find a pile of straws and grasp,” Goldberg said.
Murray received a high-profile endorsement this week from former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
In a TV ad, Giuliani echoed Murray’s “tough on crime” message, saying she would “give the problems of heroin, corruption and domestic abuse the attention they deserve.”
Singas’ campaign called the endorsement “laughable” and saw it as an opportunity to further attack Murray’s lack of experience as a criminal prosecutor.
A Singas news release said Giuliani has criticized Michael McMahon, a Democratic DA candidate on Staten Island, for having never tried a criminal case.
In his endorsement of Republican Joan Illuzi in that race, he said, “Her opponent — a career politician and Washington lobbyist — has never prosecuted a single case in his life.”
“We can only assume he finds Kate Murray’s candidacy just as insulting,” the Singas release said.
