Acting Nassau DA Singas to face Scotto in primary, has eyes set on Murray

Bill San Antonio

Eight months into her first campaign for public office, Acting Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said she is only just now starting to get comfortable with the process.

“The whole thing is unusual,” the Democratic district attorney candidate said in a sit-down interview with Blank Slate Media Thursday. “It’s a whole different ball game, running for office.”

Singas, of Manhasset, is the former chief assistant to her predecessor, U.S. Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City), and assumed the district attorney role in January after her former boss was sworn into Congress and Gov. Andrew Cuomo declined to appoint a successor.

Though her sights are set on an Election Day showdown in November with Republican Kate Murray, the Town of Hempstead supervisor, Singas will first have to defeat Port Washington resident Michael A. Scotto in a Sept. 10 primary for the Democratic nomination.

“This is a job that I want, that I feel I’ve worked my entire career towards, and I intend to be doing it past November,” Singas said.

According to 11-day pre-primary campaign finance records filed Wednesday, Singas has a war chest of $807,027.35, with Scotto reporting $12,759.89. Murray had $538,188.19 on hand as of her most recent filing in July.

Born to Greek parents and raised in Astoria, Singas began her career in the Queens District Attorney’s office in 1991 and was eventually promoted to a leadership position in its Domestic Violence bureau. 

Rice hired Singas shortly after her election in 2006 to head the DA’s office’s new Special Victims bureau, and Singas in February told Blank Slate Media that cases of domestic violence and sexual abuse have been among the most significant for her throughout her career.

“Kathleen Rice created a legacy I’m proud of, for being tough, aggressive and progressive,” Singas said Thursday. 

“People think you can’t be aggressive and progressive, but I think Kathleen showed us that’s not the case,” she added, saying Rice was aggressive on prosecuting violent crime, illegal guns, “career criminals” and gang activity and progressive in collaborating with law enforcement and implementing youth programs.

According to statistics released last week by Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano’s office, major crime — which consists of murder, rape, burglary and robbery — is down 4.8 percent throughout the county in the last year and 30 percent over the last five years.  

In his interview with Blank Slate Media in late August, Scotto accused Rice and Singas of running a “reactive” district attorney’s office that would “chase headlines,” saying: “Nothing happens until it’s on the front page of Newsday first.” 

Scotto cited figures from the state Division of Criminal Justice Services that said nearly 30 percent of sentences for violent felonies in 2014 resulted in little to no jail time and show a steady decline in its felony conviction rate since 2010. 

But Singas said those figures are misleading, adding her office measures success beyond crime statistics that she said can be manipulated to fit any agenda. 

“If we get a 16-year-old dismissed and they don’t recidivate, that’s a success for us,” she said.

Curtailing drug trafficking and investigating public corruption would be among the highest priorities for Singas’ district attorney office, she said, having already called for an overhaul of Nassau’s contracting process amid a federal indictment against state Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) and his son Adam alleging the former Senate majority leader used his political power to attain no-show jobs, county projects, salaries and benefits for his son.

“I’m beholden to no one,” Singas said. “If there’s a crime being committed in the county, I’m going to prosecute it.”

Singas said she is uncertain Murray, also a former assistant attorney general and state assemblywoman, would follow the same standard, considering her standing as a longtime Republican town supervisor and relationships with Mangano and the GOP-controlled county Legislature.

She also said Murray lacks the experience as a prosecutor necessary to leading the district attorney’s office, dismissing Scotto’s theory that Murray would hire a top assistant DA —  similar to Rice and Singas’ relationship — who would analyze major decisions but let Murray make the final call.

“You can’t turn to someone underneath you to say should I sign my name to this,” Singas said. “That’s the person who should be running for DA, not you.”

Murray in a statement said she would “investigate all allegations of wrongdoing on the part of public officials,” adding “the only considerations in my office’s investigations will be the facts in each case.”

Singas and Murray were each endorsed by their respective party’s Nassau committees in May and have continued to gain key support in recent weeks. 

Murray has been backed by the county’s three police unions, the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association, the Suffolk County Superior Officers Association and Suffolk County Detectives Association as well as the mayors of Mineola, Valley Stream and Lynbrook.

Singas, who said she has the backing of several “rank-and-file” law enforcement officers, has been endorsed by North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth, state Assemblyman Charles Lavine and Nassau Legislator Judy Jacobs, all major local Democratic figures.

In a general election against Murray, Singas said she’d “appeal to people’s intuitive sense that the person most qualified to do the job should do the job,” adding she’d campaign on the grounds that Murray has never been a prosecutor and has not practiced law in 17 years. 

“People have a real statement to make about what kind of district attorney they want to have in Nassau County,” Singas said.

Murray cited her record as Hempstead town supervisor and time as a state assemblywoman, in which she served on the codes committee and supported Megan’s Law and the assault weapons ban, assistant state attorney general and advocate for domestic violence victims with the Suffolk University Battered Women’s Advocacy Project.

“Nassau County needs a proven leader as district attorney, not a lawyer who has never led,” she said.

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