Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos lost his nearly year-long bid to oppose Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand for her seat in the U.S. Senate, attributing low voter turnout as a key determinate in his third-place finish in Tuesday’s Republican primary.
New York City lawyer Wendy Long captured 52 percent of the vote to win the GOP primary race, while U.S. Rep Bob Turner earned 35 percent to easily finish ahead of Maragos, who received 13 percent.
“We’re in the process of analyzing what went wrong that we were not more successful,” Maragos said Wednesday. “We were obviously very disappointed with the low turnout across the state.”
In the Republican primary race for the 4th Congressional District seat, Nassau County Legislator Francis Becker (R-Lynbrook) soundly defeated Frank Scaturro drawing 55 percent of the vote to his challenger’s 44 percent. In raw numbers, Becker drew 6,357 votes to Scaturro’s 5,175.
Army Reserve Lt. Col. Stephen Labate also officially secured the GOP’s nomination on Tuesday to oppose six-term U.S. Congressman Steve Israel (D-Dix Hills) for his 3rd District seat in November’s general election.
Labate ran unopposed for the opportunity to face Israel, who is running for re-election in a newly reconfigured district.
For decades, New York has held its primaries in September, but a federal court moved the state’s congressional primary to Tuesday to ensure that people in the military using absentee ballots were not disenfranchised.
According to Maragos, having the primary moved ahead by nearly three months played a huge part in the results of Tuesday’s election. Less than 5 percent of Republican voters statewide turned out to vote in this week’s primary.
“I think it hurt significantly because it seems that it was after schools closed, a week before the July 4 weekend.” Maragos said. “A lot of people seemed to plan their vacations and were gone.”
Maragos, a 62-year-old Village of Russell Gardens resident, originally declared his intention to run for Gillibrand’s U.S. Senate seat last August.
In March, Maragos received 27 percent of the vote at the Republican Convention in Rochester to be placed on the primary ballot. Long received 47 percent of the convention vote, while Turner earned 25 percent.
Over the past five years, Long has served as the chief counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network, which is dedicated to procuring the nomination of conservative-leaning justices for the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal judiciary appointments. She entered in the GOP primary race in February.
“I want to congratulate Wendy Long for a great win last night,” Maragos said. “I will be fully supportive of her.”
Last year, Turner won a special congressional election to take over the seat representing parts of Queens and Brooklyn, which was vacated by Democrat Anthony Weiner, who resigned in the midst of a scandal involving lewd pictures and text message he sent to various women.
Turner entered the race to oppose Gillibrand in March. He indicated that his intention to run arose because his New York City congressional district was up for elimination due to redistricting.
“I think we did everything that we had to do,” Maragos said. “We ran a good campaign and it just didn’t work out.”
During the course of his “statewide” campaign, Maragos said he visited most of New York’s counties “multiple times.”
“We thought this was a every good, competitive campaign amongst three good candidates,” Maragos said. “I expected a much better turnout.”
“It’s another day today and I’m pretty optimistic,” he added. “I gave it my best shot. Unfortunately it didn’t work out.”
Maragos said he will now go back to committing his full attention to Nassau County’s finances.
“Right now I’m going to be focused on being the county comptroller, as I have been,” he said. “We have some budget issues that we need to work out so that’s going to be my highest priority.”
For Becker, the outcome of Tuesday’s primary election was much more favorable.
“I’m thankful for the support of all the Republicans and I’m not going to disappoint them in my effort to defeat Carolyn McCarthy in November,” Becker said. “I expected a strong organizational effort. And we were successful in that regard.”
McCarthy (D-Mineola) is the long-time Democratic incumbent in the 4th Congressional District. The 4th Congressional District covers New Hyde Park, Floral Park, the Willistons, Mineola, Garden City, Rockville Centre, Franklin Square, Westbury, East Meadow, Freeport, Oceanside and in its new configuration also includes Long Beach, Wantagh, Bellmore and Merrick.
Becker said he planned to start working on his campaign against McCarthy immediately, primarily focusing on fundraising.
“There’s a lot of work to be done in the summer months,” he said.
Scaturro wasn’t conceding victory to Becker on Wednesday and suggested he might stay in the Congressional race.
“I’m not ruling anything out,” he said.
Scaturro, who ran unsuccessfully against Becker two years ago, said he was still awaiting a final vote count and claimed victory on the Conservative line, where he drew 253 write-in votes to top Becker’s total of 194 votes.
“We haven’t yet conceded the Republican line. We want to take a closer look at everything,” Scaturro said.
Becker was the choice of the county Republican party and as he did two years Scatturo said he offered Republicans an independent voice.
Becker’s victory two years ago came in a three-way race with Scaturro and Tea Party candidate Daniel Maloney.
For Labate, the race against Israel will likely be an uphill climb.
Since his induction in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2001, Israel has served the 2nd District, which encompassed all of Suffolk and portions of eastern Nassau counties.
Israel is now running for re-election in a district, which includes areas of Great Neck and Queens that were previous strongholds of retiring veteran Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-6th District).
In Nassau County, the 3rd District will include all or part of Oyster Bay, Great Neck, Manhasset, Port Washington, Roslyn, Williston Park, Floral Park and New Hyde Park.
The new 3rd District also encompasses the Queens neighborhoods of Whitestone, Beechhurst, Little Neck, Douglaston, Fort Totten, Bay Terrace and a portion of Bayside.
One of the highest ranking Democratic U.S. Congressmen, Israel has served on the House committees on appropriations, armed services, financial services and science. He is currently chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which oversees his party’s efforts to regain a majority in the House.
Attempts to reach Labate for comment on this story were unavailing.
