Anne Donnelly beats challenger Nicole Aloise in race for Nassau DA
Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly celebrates her reelection victory Tuesday night at the county GOP's party at the Coral House in Baldwin. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
Republican Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly defeated her Democratic challenger, Nicole Aloise, Tuesday in the battle for the county's top law enforcement position, according to Board of Election results, which showed the GOP swept all four countywide races.
Shortly before midnight, with more than 75% of election districts reporting, Donnelly held a roughly 10-point lead over Aloise, a former prosecutor in the district attorney's office.
The incumbent declared victory from the stage of the Coral House in Baldwin, joined by County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who also won reelection, and other Republican candidates.
"I'm going to spend the next four years making sure we stay the safest county in America," Donnelly told supporters after winning her second term.
Donnelly, 61, of Garden City, spent 32 years working under three district attorneys in the office she now leads. Her surprise 2021 election made her the first Republican in 15 years to claim the seat.
Aloise, 42, worked 11 years in the Queens District Attorney's Office, prosecuting major crimes before joining Nassau in 2019 under former District Attorney Madeline Singas. She quit in 2023 after a disagreement with Donnelly.
She did not address supporters at the Nassau Democrats gathering in Garden City. Jay Jacobs, the county and state Democratic chairman, spoke generally about the party's unsuccessful races: "I have never been prouder of or seen a finer crew of candidates."
Donnelly and Aloise, both career prosecutors and mothers of three, agreed on key policies.
They opposed a state law that eliminated cash bail for most criminal defendants, whether they face misdemeanor or nonviolent felony charges. Donnelly used the issue to her advantage in her 2021 victory over Democratic State Sen. Todd Kaminsky, of Long Beach, who played a role in shaping the controversial law.
She and Aloise also both campaigned on the ending county's opioid crisis, removing illegal firearms from the streets and each claimed support from different labor unions.
Different campaign paths
But while Donnelly and Aloise have similar biographies and platforms, their respective campaigns took different paths.
Donnelly portrayed Aloise as soft on crime and closely aligned with New York City Democratic Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
One Donnelly mailer called Aloise and Mamdani "Political Twins" with an image of them wearing matching beige suits, a nod to the 1988 film "Twins" starring Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Aloise, who said she did not support Mamdani and his policies, sent a cease and desist letter to the Nassau County Republican Campaign Committee, calling the ad "completely fabricated, false and defamatory."
The Democratic candidate, meanwhile, accused Donnelly of mismanaging the office, pointing to the more than 90 assistant district attorneys that left for other prosecutorial jobs. Other senior prosecutors were asked by Donnelly to leave.
Donnelly, who previously served as deputy bureau chief of the Organized Crime and Rackets Bureau and the Economic Crimes Bureau, has cited her lengthy record as a prosecutor.
She points to the convictions of several MS-13 gang members, recent cold case indictments and launching the first inquiry into former Rep. George Santos, a Republican who was expelled from Congress in 2023 for defrauding campaign donors and later sentenced to 7 years in prison for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
President Donald Trump commuted Santos' sentence in September after he served less than 3 months behind bars.
Tough on crime pledges
Donnelly has said she will add new units within the office to focus on getting illegal guns off the streets, find "pill-pushing" doctors and others who prescribe narcotics and address hate crimes in communities.
Aloise worked on narcotics and gangs cases during her time in the Nassau District Attorney's Office before transitioning to the homicide bureau.
She had pledged to advocate for increased resources for diversion services offered by the county’s Veterans Treatment Court and to combat the rise in sex trafficking on Long Island fueled by opioid addiction.
The district attorney oversees an office with a $62 million budget and a staff of almost 300 full-time assistant district attorneys, according to the comptroller's online database.
There were several other countywide races in Nassau and Suffolk counties. They included:
- The battle for Nassau comptroller, in which first-term incumbent Elaine R. Phillips, 65, a Republican, defeated Wayne H. Wink Jr., counsel for the Nassau Legislature’s minority caucus. Phillips previously served as mayor of Flower Hill, where she resides, and as a state senator. Wink is a former Nassau legislator and North Hempstead Town clerk.
- The contest for Nassau County clerk. Republican Maureen C. O'Connell, 74, who was first elected clerk 20 years ago, beat Democratic challenger Joylette E. Williams, 54, of Hempstead, a long-tenured professor at Nassau Community College.
- Two countywide races in Suffolk were uncontested. Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney, a Republican, won for a second term. Sheriff Errol D. Toulon Jr., a Democrat, won a third term.
Newsday's Candice Ferrette, Bahar Ostadan and Sam Kmack contributed to this story.
Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.
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