Senate race squeaker! Kaminsky declares win, McGrath says game's not over

Democratic Assemblyman Todd Kaminsky declared victory late Tuesday in his unusually nasty — and expensive — battle with Republican attorney Chris McGrath for the state Senate seat vacated last December when Dean Skelos was convicted of corruption.

But McGrath told supporters at Republican county headquarters in Westbury that "hopefully, when everything is counted, we’re going to win."

He issued a statement before midnight declaring that “the race is too close to call.”

“It will not be decided tonight,” McGrath said. “All the votes will have to be counted in the coming days.”

In unofficial results with all precincts counted, the Board of Elections said 780 votes separated Kaminsky, with 33,978 votes (49.96-percent), from McGrath, with 33,198 votes (48.82-percent). A Green Party candidate drew 772 votes (1.14-percent). There are reportedly 2,700 absentee ballots that have not yet been counted; the number of challenged ballots was unknown. 

Kaminsky, of Long Beach, and McGrath, of Hewlett Harbor, together spent a reported $3-million in the race that both camps viewed as crucial to their control of the Senate.

“We sent a message that the special interests and all the smoked-filled backrooms — we won’t take it any more,” Kaminsky told supporters at The Park sports bar in Long Beach.

The 9th District Senate seat represents the Five Towns and other South Shore communities.

In the presidential primary, the wide statewide margins tallied by Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump were mirrored in Nassau County and on the South Shore.

In the South Shore’s 4th CD, represented by Kathleen Rice, Trump had 65.70-percent to 22.72-percent for John Kasich and 10.45-percent for Ted Cruz; Clinton drew 62.24-percent to Bernie Sander’s 37.76-percent. Countywide, with 71-percent of precincts counted, Trump had 70-percent, Kasich 21-percent, Cruz 9-percent, and Clinton 61-percent to Sanders 39-percent.

Statewide, with 96-percent reporting, the Republican breakdown was Trump 60-percent, Kasich 25.2-percent and Cruz 14.8-percent; among Democrats, it was Clinton 57.7-percent, Sanders 42.3-percent.