At her inauguration to her first full term Monday, Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas renewed her pledge to make fighting public corruption the foundation of her administration, as it was the foundation of her 2015 campaign.
Speaking to local elected officials, police officers, political supporters and family, the Manhasset resident said her election confirmed that she speaks “for the people, all of the people” as the county’s top prosecutor.
“Those that think they can abuse their position of trust, exploit the taxpayers or manipulate the government for their own process and their own profit must think twice,” Singas told the crowd at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City. “Every crime against public trust, no matter how insigificant, corrodes our faith in government and corrupts our very institutions.”
Singas, 49, took the helm of the Nassau DA’s office in an acting capacity last January, when former DA and current U.S. Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City) took her seat in Congress. Janet DiFiore, the newly appointed Chief Judge of the New York State Court of Appeals, administered her oath of office.
Singas won a full term in November, beating former Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray, a Republican from Levittown, with 58 percent of the vote to Murray’s 42 percent.
In the race, Singas touted her work toward contract reform in Nassau County following the indictment of former state Sen. Dean Skelos, the Rockville Centre Republican, last May.
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman called Singas a “rock star of reform” and said her election in November was “one of the most important shots fired in the battle for reform in the State of New York.”
“You have elected a leader who seeks to do justice at a time when people are really hungry for justice,” Scheiderman said, noting he and Singas were both honored for their reform efforts by the Long Island Progressive Coalition last week.
The fall’s district attorney race saw Singas, a 24-year prosecutor who had never run for office before, take on Murray, an entrenched and highly recognizable Nassau Republican figure.
Singas overcame a six-point polling deficit in October to beat Murray by a wide margin, despite a Newsday/News 12/Siena College poll released just before the Nov. 3 election showing the race nearly tied.
Singas thanked Nassau Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs for his and the party’s support, as well as the Republicans and Independents who crossed party lines to elect her.
“Against all the pundits, against all the political wisdom, against all the naysayers, here I am,” she said.
An Astoria, Queens native, Singas started her prosecutorial career in the Queens District Attorney’s office in 1991, following her graduation from Fordham University Law School. She is also an alumna of the Bronx High School of Science and Barnard College at Columbia University.
She came to lead Queens’ Domestic Violence Bureau before Rice tapped her to help start Nassau’s Special Victims Bureau in 2006. Singas then became Rice’s chief assistant DA in 2011.
Singas credited her work ethic and success to her parents, Greek immigrants who came to own an Astoria pizzeria.
She briefly addressed her aunts and uncles in Greek; and thanked her husband, Theo Apostolou, and children, Demi and Billy Apostolou, for their support during her campaign.
“At school we were learning about elections, but we were living it at home,” Billy Apostolou said.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Singas’ victory was proof of democracy in action.
“It’s a great day for all the 1.4 million people of Nassau County because they’re going to get great representation in the DA’s office,” Schumer said.
