Tinari raised $49,390 before dropping out of Suffolk surrogate race

Conservative District Court Judge Marian Tinari may have dropped out of the race for surrogate judge, but before her exit, she filed her first campaign finance report showing she had raised $49,390 for the contest.

The July 15 campaign finance report shows that she had contributions totaling $39,390, the bulk of it from various lawyers and law firms. She also loaned her own campaign $10,000.

The report also showed she spent $16,653 — $11,255 to Strategic Planning Systems, a firm owned by political consultant Michael Dawidziak and paid $4,020 to Irish Coffee Pub in East Islip, the site of her first and only fundraiser.

Tinari, wife of Suffolk Conservative chairman Frank Tinari, dropped out of the race after Republican Tara Scully, daughter of one of County Executive Steve Bellone’s deputies, filed petitions to run in Democratic and Republican primaries. The GOP later named Scully as their candidate, while Democrats and the Independence Party named Theresa Whelan, supervising judge of the Family Court as their candidate. Conservatives, meanwhile, named Family Court Judge Deborah Poulos as their surrogate candidate.

Tinari, who was part of a nine-judge cross-endorsement deal among the Democratic, Conservative and Independence parties, may be later considered as a candidate for state Supreme Court, say party officials, but those nominations are not made until September.