Minority turnout clinched Dem wins in 2 Nassau State Senate races

The Democratic vote in all of Nassau’s minority communities increased by more than 80 percent in this month’s State Senate elections compared with 2014, clinching victories for two of the five Democratic candidates who won on Election Day, records show.

In a few communities, the turnout more than doubled.

The number of Democratic votes in North Valley Stream, Elmont and Inwood — where African-Americans, Hispanics and other minorities make up the majority of registered voters — jumped an average 126 percent in the 9th Senate District race.

In that contest, incumbent Todd Kaminsky (D-Long Beach) beat Republican challenger Fran Becker, a former Republican Nassau County legislator from Lynbrook.

The high Democratic turnout on Long Island was key to the party's statewide success in retaking control of the Senate, which in January will have 40 Democrats and 23 Republicans.

Unofficial returns from the Nassau County Board of Elections show:

• In the communities of New Cassel, Lakeview and Roosevelt, more than 9 of every 10 votes went to Democratic candidates. In Hempstead Village, Lakeview and Uniondale, Democratic political newcomer Kevin Thomas of Levittown got 15,206 more votes than longtime Republican incumbent Kemp Hannon of Garden City. Republican votes from the rest of the Sixth Senate District cut into Thomas' margin, but he still won by more than 1,300 votes after the machine count on election night. A recount is underway but is not expected to change the overall results.
• Freeport and Roosevelt made the difference in the re-election of freshman Sen. John Brooks (D-Seaford) in the 8th Senate District.  Democratic votes gave Brooks a 10,830-vote advantage in those communities. Brooks, whose district extends into Suffolk, defeated Republican challenger Jeffrey Pravato, of Massapequa Park, by 10,042 votes overall.
• Democratic voters in Elmont, New Cassel and Westbury gave Democrat Anna Kaplan of Great Neck 80 percent of her winning 9,931 machine-vote margin over Republican incumbent State Sen. Elaine Phillips of Flower Hill in the 7th Senate District, unofficial returns show.
• State Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset) lost to Democrat Jim Gaughran of Northport, but there are no majority minority communities in the Nassau part of the 5th Senate District. Marcellino lost in Nassau by more than 6,000 votes. In the Suffolk portion of the district, Gaughran beat Marcellino by 3,883 votes.

Minority communities in Nassau and elsewhere traditionally vote Democratic but historically their turnout has been low, particularly in midterm elections when the presidential race is not on the ballot.

This year, overall voter turnout across the nation was nearly 50 percent — the highest in more than 100 years for midterm elections.

Many political experts said people were motivated to go to the polls by the performance of President Donald Trump, whose controversial tweets and comments generated both anger and support.

Nassau also saw a better than 50 percent overall voter turnout on Nov. 6. Democrats and activists cited Trump’s criticism of illegal immigration and the MS-13 street gang for bringing record numbers of minority voters to the polls.

“Obviously, what’s going on nationally charged up much of the base,” said Nassau County Legis. Kevan Abrahams, a Democrat from Freeport who also represents Uniondale and Roosevelt and leads the Democratic caucus on the county legislature.

“People are angry and are ready to exercise their vote,” Abrahams said.

Abrahams also attributed the larger turnout to increasing stability within minority communities, places that often have had high proportions of renters.

“People would live there a year or two and not really become invested, not to the degree of someone who gets a mortgage and plants roots,” said Abrahams. Now, “more people are planning to plant roots.”

Nassau Republican Chairman Joseph Cairo said, “I think there was, in general, a Democratic wave on Long Island. Democratic turnout was high especially in some of the minority areas.”

He said he believed Republican turnout also increased, “but the Democratic increase was more significant.”

In the Brooks-Pravato race, for example, votes from “good Republican areas like Seaford and Massapequa” were offset by the high Democratic turnout in the minority communities, Cairo said.

Michael Dawidziak, a political consultant who works mostly with Republicans, also acknowledged the large turnout in minority communities across Long Island.

He said independent voters — those not registered in a political party — came out in greater numbers than in 2014 while, “the Latino vote finally flexed its muscle.” He said it would be “guesswork” to give a reason why.

Nassau County Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs said the party “made a concerted effort to get out the vote in minority communities and up their numbers. We had people on the ground, at polling places. We did fairly extensive get-out-the-vote operations, targeting more likely voters.”

The party also instituted a new “stay-on-the-line” campaign. Party workers met voters outside their polling places and gave them flyers  “that made it clear to stay on the line” when they voted for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who was the top candidate on the Democratic ballot line, Jacobs said.

In the past, Jacobs said, voters often would skip lesser-known races. “We noticed when we were taking the results on election night that people did stay on the line,” he said.

Minority communities responded to the party’s effort, Jacobs said. “When people feel they are being paid attention, they respond.”

Daniel Altschuler, managing director of the Long Island chapter of the immigrant advocacy group Make the Road Action, said his organization knocked on 8,000 doors in Latino and African American neighborhoods of the Fifth and Eighth Senate Districts, encouraging votes for Gaughran or Brooks.

“In speaking to those voters, we generated and noted very significant enthusiasm among voters to make themselves heard," Altschuler said. "We saw that enthusiasm bear itself out on Election Day where by all accounts, turnout was high.”