Melinda Katz Declares Victory In Queens District Attorney Race

QUEENS, NY — Queens Borough President Melinda Katz has declared victory in the race to serve as the borough's next district attorney, one of the most powerful positions in the criminal justice system. She will be the borough's first new DA in nearly three decades and the first woman to hold the position.

Katz defeated her Republican opponent, defense lawyer and former cop Joe Murray, with nearly 75 percent of the vote, according to preliminary results Tuesday night.

"We're facing here an opportunity to make a national model for criminal justice reform and if we don't do it right here, it's gonna have massive effects all throughout this country," Katz said in a victory speech Tuesday night at the Queens County Democratic Party headquarters in Forest Hills. "We need to make sure we get it right here."

Just 14 percent of Queens voters cast a ballot in the election Tuesday, the preliminary results show. There were nearly 1.3 million registered voters in Queens as of Nov. 1, according to state election data.

Congratulations to @MelindaKatz the Queens County District Attorney elect! pic.twitter.com/OJMcGmOJlf
— Queens Dems (@Queens_Dems) November 6, 2019

Katz, the party's pick, out-raised her competitors in a contentious primary election and racked up endorsements from scores of elected officials and labor unions. Among her biggest donors were real estate developers and law enforcement unions.

Still, she just narrowly defeated insurgent candidate Tiffany Cabán in June's six-person race for the Democratic nomination, after a manual recount and legal challenges kept the outcome in flux for six weeks. In the end, Katz won the nomination by just 55 votes.

Murray, a registered Democrat who voted for Donald Trump, was able to secure the GOP nomination through the state's Wilson-Pakula law, which allows a party to nominate a candidate who isn't registered with that party, according to the Queens Daily Eagle.

In August, Murray replaced lawyer Dan Kogan as the GOP nominee and the party nominated Kogan as a judge in New York's Supreme Court.

Preliminary results show Murray receiving a quarter of the vote Tuesday, though just 11 percent of Queens voters are registered Republicans, according to state data.

His strongest showings were in the Rockaways, Bayside and Little Neck, the preliminary results show, but Katz still beat him in every assembly district in the borough.

The election results won't be official until the NYC Board of Elections counts absentee ballots, which are due by Nov. 12, and certifies the tally.