David Mejias drops out of State Senate race

Nassau County and state Democrats united behind insurgent Francesca Carlow Thursday after David Mejias dropped out of the race for the State Senate barely a week after being arrested on charges of stalking and menacing his former girlfriend.

"My continued candidacy would replace a meaningful debate about the future of our great state with distraction and sensationalism," Mejias said at a news conference at Carlyle on the Green in Farmingdale. "Long Island deserves better."

Mejias quit the race for the Democratic nomination to oppose Republican Sen. Kemp Hannon of Garden City a day after the Democratic leadership of the State Senate, which is fighting to maintain its slim majority, belatedly threw its support behind Carlow.

Carlow, a longtime civic activist who owns a hardware store in Plainview, said Mejias' withdrawal was "in the best interest of the residents of the Sixth [Senate] District and all of New York State . . . My campaign - and I want not a shred of doubt about it - has from the start been about integrity and honesty and the community working together."

Hannon did not respond to a request for comment about the development, but State Senate Republicans took the occasion to issue, on his behalf, a general criticism of Democrats.

"Regardless of which candidate the Senate Democrats are supporting today, that candidate is running to join the New York City-led Senate Democrat conference which enacted the MTA payroll tax, eliminated the STAR rebate checks and voted to shift school aid to New York City at Long Island's expense," a Republican statement said.

Jay Jacobs, chairman of both the Nassau and state Democratic organizations, supported Mejias initially and waited to comment until Mejias formally withdrew - although his name will remain on the ballot Tuesday. "We look forward to fully supporting Francesca Carlow and defeating Kemp Hannon," Jacobs said Thursday.

According to several knowledgeable sources, the Senate Democratic endorsement of Carlow came after days of intense, behind-the-scenes pressure on local Democrats to abandon their support of Mejias, a former county legislator with a private law practice in Glen Cove.

Democratic sources said State Senate leader John Sampson and other Senate leaders had become increasingly concerned that if Mejias stayed in the race, Republicans would dredge up the case of Democrat Hiram Monserrate of Queens, who was expelled from the Senate earlier this year following a trial and conviction on charges of assaulting his girlfriend.

Hannon has been a state legislator for 34 years, first in the Assembly, and is a biennial target of hopeful Democrats. In 2008, newcomer Kristen McElroy, a Democrat, lost to Hannon by 3,000 votes out of 110,000 votes cast.