State Sen. Todd Kaminsky (D-Long Beach) began his campaign for Nassau County district attorney by raising more than $425,000 in the past two weeks, campaign officials announced Monday.
With the near half-a-million-dollar increase over the past two weeks, Kaminsky’s total campaign finance efforts rose to more than $1.9 million. The donations Kaminsky received were from the Mason Tenders District Council of Greater New York Political Action Committee and a variety of local workers unions, including Local 338 and 1102 Retail, Wholesale, Department Store Union, Communications Workers of America Local 1104 Union.
“I am thrilled to receive so much support in such a short amount of time since we announced my campaign for Nassau County district attorney–and our momentum continues to grow every day,” Kaminsky said in a statement. “As a former federal prosecutor and assistant district attorney who has a record of putting serious criminals in jail, I have the experience to keep our county safe.”
Kaminsky, who announced his candidacy in late June, attended law school at NYU and spent a decade working as a prosecutor on the federal and state levels. He worked as an assistant district attorney in Queens County under Madeline Singas in the Domestic Violence Bureau, who has just left the Nassau DA post to join the New York State Court of Appeals. Kaminsky later served in the Eastern District of New York as an assistant U.S. attorney and acting deputy chief of the district’s Public Integrity Section.
Some of the high-profile cases Kaminsky worked on included an investigation of Jimmy Rosemund for drug trafficking, obstruction of justice, firearms violations and other financial crimes and the prosecution of former state Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada on embezzlement and federal corruption charges.
State and county Democratic Committee Chairman Jay Jacobs touted Kaminsky’s efforts to enhance law enforcement throughout Long Island.
“Sen. Todd Kaminsky is a fearless former federal prosecutor who has put Long Islanders’ safety first his entire career,” Jacobs said in a statement. “When fringe groups were crying ‘defund the police,’ Todd did the opposite: he added more money for Long Island cops and strengthened our criminal laws.”
Kaminsky also received support from Nassau County Executive and fellow Democrat Laura Curran.
The Nassau County Republican Committee, on Facebook, criticized Kaminsky as “soft on crime, pro-criminal and anti-law enforcement.” The Republican Committee has not yet named a candidate to run against Kaminsky for district attorney in the November special election.
Kaminsky is running to fill the district attorney seat formerly held by Singas, who was confirmed by the state Senate to the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, on June 8.
Singas, a Manhasset resident, filled a vacancy on the state court left by Judge Leslie Stein, who retired last week, and will take a 14-year term on the court. Singas was succeeded by Joyce Smith, a longtime assistant district attorney and special victims prosecutor, who is the county’s first black district attorney.
