Print
Dems Sweep Elections, Led By Richard Brown
By John Toscano
Led by District Attorney Richard Brown, who ran with five-party endorsement, Queens Democrats swept everything on the ballot in yesterday’s elections, according to incomplete and unofficial returns.
Also running with five major parties backing him and winning easily was Robert McDonald, who took a state Supreme Court seat. The 45-year-old Astoria jurist has been a civil Court judge since 1992.
Other winning Democrats in yesterday’s balloting were:
*Toby Stavisky, who defeated Richard Jannaccio, of Flushing, for the 16th district state senate seat previously held by her husband, Leonard, who died earlier this year.
*Supreme Court Justice Daniel Joy, who won a new 14-year term, and Civil Court Judges Jeremy Weinstein, Laura Blackburne and Joseph Dorsa, whose victories in state Supreme Court races will move them up in the court hierarchy.
*James Golia, of Douglaston, Kevin Kerrigan, of Woodside, and Duane Hart, of Queens Village. Each won a 10-year-term on the Civil Court.
As we go to press, it appears that these candidates lost the election. Defeated in their bids for Supreme Court seats were Joseph Kasper, a 43-year-old attorney from ozone Park; Perry Reich, 50, of Bayside; Kerry Katsorhis, 54, of Flushing; and Joseph Dubowski, 54, a Douglaston attorney. All ran with Republican-Conservative backing and Katsorhis also had the Independence party line on the ballot.
I want to express my appreciation to the residents of Queens County for tonight’s overwhelming victory and the continued support that they have given to this office—and me, personally—in the fight against crime in Queens County.—exerpted from a statement issued by DA Brown.
Another Republican, Theodore Stamos, was defeated in his bid for a Civil Court seat.
In winning a new four-year term, his third, District Attorney Brown defeated Vinton Stevens, the Green Party candidate. Brown, a Forest Hills resident, was backed by the Democratic, Republican, Independence, Conservative and Liberal parties. A former judge, he was appointed district attorney by then Governor Mario Cuomo in June 1991 and has been a part of the law enforcement establishment in New York City that has brought about a sharp decrease in crime in recent years.
McDonald, who was first elected to the Civil Court in 1992, is the son of Robert McDonald, a former Democratic district leader, and Francis Luhmann McDonald, a community liaison for city Council Speaker Peter Vallone (D-Astoria).
Joy, 65, was first elected to the Supreme court as a Civil Court judge. He resides in Jamaica.
DA Richard Brown, above, and Toby Stavisky seen exiting the polls early yesterday morning after doing their civic duty.
Of the other new Supreme Court Justices, Weinstein, 49, is a former state senator who was elected to the Civil Court in 1993. He subsequently moved up to be the Administrative Judge on the court in Queens.
Dorsa, 63, has been on the Civil Court since only 1998 so his victory yesterday represents a rapid rise up the judicial ladder. Dorsa is a former Democratic Party district leader in the Flushing area.
Blackburne formerly chaired the New York City Housing Authority from 1990 to 1992, and she was first elected to the Civil Court in 1996.
Stavisky, of Whitestone, defeated Richard Jannaccio, 45, a Flushing community activist who ran against Leonard Stavisky for the senate last year and was also defeated. He ran on the Green Party line.
Stavisky, 61, will serve out the one year remaining in her late husband’s term. A longtime Flushing-Whitestone community activist, she will not be unfamiliar with her new post. She had been a constant figure in the state capital as a constant companion and unofficial aide to the late senator. She is also well known in the 16th district which takes in Flushing, Fresh Meadows, Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, Corona, Woodside and Kew Gardens Hills. Her husband served in both the senate and assembly during his 35-year career.
The new Civil Court Judges have also been familiar figures on the Queens political scene. Golia, 61, of Douglaston, served for many years as a top aide to Borough Presidents Donald Manes and Claire Shulman. Kerrigan, 43, of Woodside, served as a top assistant to city councilmember Walter McCaffrey and has been law secretary to Supreme Court Justice David Goldstein since 1995.
Because of publishing deadlines, the Gazette was unable to gather the complete returns on yesterday’s balloting after the polls closed at 9 p.m. Complete returns will be published in next week’s issue of the Gazette. We will also report on the balloting on the Charter Revision proposals, which were also incomplete as we went to press.
