Fear and Loathing in Nassau County

The views expressed in this post are my own and

are in no way reflective of the opinions of my law firm or my partners. It is, because of that association, that I have been unable to express, with more freedom my thoughts concerning the race for District Attorney in Nassau County. That race pits a life long prosecutor, Madeline Singas against a life long politician, Kate Murray. The race, as of this writing, remains “too close to call” though I fully anticipate that given the direction that this county has been trending over the past ten to fifteen years I fully expect that Ms Murray will be elected. That that is the likely outcome of this race should outrage every resident of Nassau County.

Ms Murray is a career politician with the strong support of the County’s Republican Party. It is with great confidence that I suggest that Ms Murray is being “parked” in that position by the Republican Party in anticipation of her seeking either countywide office (when the County Executive is either forced to not seek re-election or makes that decision on his own) or higher office (i.e. Congress) following the path recently pursued by Kathleen Rice. The big difference between Ms Rice and Ms Murray is that while Ms Rice was a highly experienced prosecutor, Ms Murray has absolutely no experience in criminal law and, in fact, has not engaged in any type of law practice for more than twenty years and, even then, it was within the confines of the attorney general’s office where I suspect she first honed her skills as an administrator and not as a practicing attorney. Given the number of Republican politicians under investigation by Ms Singas' office there should be concern that one of the GOP's priorities in running a politician rather than an experienced prosecutor for this critical office is to put an end to those investigations.

Ms Singas, on the other hand, was a very highly regarded prosecutor in Queens County when she was enticed to come to Nassau County about ten years ago to head the County’s special victim’s unit under Kathleen Rice. She is very experienced and highly regarded not only by the legal community but by the ADAs working on her staff. That the County is at risk of electing someone who knows nothing about criminal law or criminal prosecutions at a time that it faces rampant corruption, gang violence and a drug epidemic should be a concern to everyone who lives in this county.

The question to be put to Ms Murray is a simply one: were she accused of a crime and in need of legal counsel, would she hire someone who is an attorney in name only but has not practiced for twenty years and simply works in a government office or would she hire a skilled and experienced criminal defense attorney. The answer, it would seem, is a simply one, and easily answerable even for a professional politician. It should also be a simple answer to be reached by the residents of this county. Sadly, I fear the tide of Republicanism in Nassau County will blind its residents to so simple an answer.

Addendum: I am pleased to report that despite my worst fears the residents of Nassau County did fully appreciate the need for electing a DA who actually knows what it takes to prosecute a criminal complaint by electing Ms Singas and in a landslide. Quite remarkable when one considers that the County has been leaning so heavily Republican over the past ten to fifteen years. While Ms Murray is the big loser in all this (she has never lost an election and rarely won with less than a 3-1 margin of victory) the Republican party lost as well. The degree of hubris it took to offer up Ms Murray for an office for which she had no qualification and expect that simply because of the strength of its machine the GOP would be able to dictate terms is astonishing but not surprising. I cannot be happier for this outcome...for the small sense of satisfaction that the County voters saw the election for what it was and voted...at least once...for some semblance of sanity and in their self-interests.