STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Election day is just over a week away.
But you wouldn’t know it on Staten Island. That’s because we have only one contested race here.
One.
So I guess there’s nothing that Democrats and Republicans disagree on?
It’s nice that Staten Island Republican and Democratic elected officials can band together when they have to in order to protect the borough’s interests.
But not to the point that they leave each other alone come campaign time.
City Councilwoman Kamillah Hanks (D-North Shore) is the only elected official facing opposition on Tuesday. She’s being challenged by radio host Ruslan Shamal, a Republican who is running on the Safe Streets SI party line.
Democratic District Attorney Michael E. McMahon, one of the more conservative district attorneys in New York, is running unopposed.
McMahon for my money has been on the right side of the ongoing debate over criminal justice reform, including concerns over how the “Raise the Age” law has increased gun violence among youths.
But that’s me. I can’t imagine that far-left Democrats and those who marched in “defund the police” demonstrations would agree. But there was no primary challenge to McMahon.
No Republican stepped forward either. Assemblyman Michael Tannousis (R-East Shore/Brooklyn), the borough GOP chair, said that the party had sought a candidate to run against McMahon but were unsuccessful.
Pity.
Even if top Republicans, who know McMahon well after all these years, agree that the district attorney has done a good job, is there nothing at all worth debating?
McMahon’s certainly not alone in being alone on the ballot.
Also running unopposed are Councilmen David Carr (R-Mid-Island) and Joe Borrelli (R-South Shore), and Civil Court candidate Michael Pinto, also a Republican.
This is not to say that any candidate is subpar and shouldn’t be elected. It’s just stunning that nobody seems to want to have an exchange of ideas, including the political parties and all those…
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