Politics & Government

Spota Wins Primary

Suffolk's district attorney will run unopposed in November.

Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota has held off Republican primary challenger Raymond Perini with about 56 percent of the vote, setting up the 12-year district attorney to run unopposed for a fourth term in November.

The unofficial count from the Suffolk County Board of Elections after polls closed Tuesday was 11,711 to 9,260 with 1,034 out of 1,052 districts reporting. 

Perini, a criminal attorney who had worked in the district attorney's office in the narcotic division until the 1980s, was forced to primary Spota, a Democrat, after the Republicans gave the sitting attorney general their endorsement. Spota also has endorsements from Democrats, Conservatives and the Independence Party.

Perini also launched a lawsuit to bar Spota from running this year based on the county's term-limit law, but lost that bid after a state judge ruled that the district attorney's post falls under the rules of a state office.

Spota, 71, lives in Mount Sinai.


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