Voters Guide: The races for borough presidents, Brooklyn DA

Borough Presidents:

MANHATTAN
Gale Brewer (D): Brewer is a Democratic city councilwoman from the UWS and chairwoman of the governmental operations committee. She won a crowded Democratic primary in September with nearly 40% of the vote.

David Casavis (R): Casavis is running on the Republican line and has run for Manhattan borough president as a Republican before.

STATEN ISLAND
James Oddo (R): Oddo is a lawyer and city councilman from the Mid-Island area.
Republican delegation.

Louis Liedy (D): Liedy was a public school teacher from the borough’s North Shore and a former Democratic Party official and campaign aide.

QUEENS
Melinda Katz (D): Katz was a city councilwoman and member of the state Assembly from Forest Hills. She won the Democratic primary with 44% of the vote.

Tony Arcabascio (R): Arcabascio is the Republican nominee, a technology executive with the North Shore-LIJ Health System and owner of Crimson Technologies.

Brooklyn District Attorney:

Longtime Brooklyn District Attorney Charles “Joe” Hynes switched to the GOP ticket after a Democratic Primary loss to ex-federal prosecutor Ken Thompson, who rose to fame representing the maid at the center of the Dominique Strauss-Kahn scandal.<NO1><NO>

Hynes, who has served as Brooklyn’s DA since 1990, initially said he would bow out of the race, but a few weeks later switched sides to run as a Republican.

He has largely run on the success of his more than two-decade tenure, saying he has made the borough a much safer place to live than it was when he first took office.

Thompson, 48, has since secured endorsements from The New York Times and Sen. Charles Schumer.

If elected, he would be Brooklyn’s first black DA. Thompson has said he wants to bring innovation to the office through new technology, and that he would not prosecute low-level marijuana cases, preferring noncriminal fines.

Both campaigns have taken a particularly negative turn that may sour some voters, said Hunter College political science professor Jamie Chandler.

“This whole race has been characterized by negativity, so I think that that’s probably going to affect the undecided voters somewhat,” Chandler said, adding that Thompson “is coming out a little better than Hynes in terms of negative attitude.”

Still, Chandler said that the drama surrounding the race has actually intrigued voters.

“I think obviously interest has been ramping up over the past couple of weeks because of the strange nature of the race,” Chandler said.