New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a Democrat, was re-elected Tuesday to his second term as the top prosecutor in The Empire State after successfully fending off Republican challenger John Cahill.
The incumbent won 52 percent of the vote over Cahill, a former aide to Republican ex-New York Gov. George Pataki, according to unofficial results from the state Board of Elections, which reported Cahill had 39 percent with a majority of counties reporting.
“Maybe we didn’t win tonight, but it’s my dear hope that maybe we changed New York a little bit,” Cahill said in his concession speech. “We’re not gonna give up because we love this state.”
Schneiderman, 59, also ran on the Independence, Womens Equality and Working Families parties lines while Cahill, 56, additionally had the Conservative and Stop Common Core party lines.
Also running for the attorney general’s office were Carl Person, a 78-year-old Manhattan attorney who was the Libertarian Party candidate, and Ramon Jimenez, 66, of the Bronx, who ran on the Green Party line.
Cahill had run ads linking Schneiderman to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s controversial decision to terminate his Moreland Commission on public corruption before its investigation was complete—a move that federal prosecutors are now investigating.
The GOP hopeful, who co-founded the Pataki-Cahill Group, a private business consulting group, also ran ads criticizing the attorney general after Thomas Schellhammer, Schneiderman’s former Conviction Review Bureau chief, recommended—and ultimately secured—the release of Ronald Bower, a man who spent nearly 23 years in prison for rapes an ever-growing number of law enforcement officials believe he did not commit.
Schneiderman, a former state Senator from Manhattan, ran on his record of pushing for passage of I-STOP, a new database deigned to stop prescription painkiller abusers from the practice of doctor shopping in which addicts stockpile pills.
He also led the lawsuit that ended in an unprecedented $13 billion settlement from JP Morgan Chase for their role in causing the 2008 financial crisis—$613 million of which went to state coffers. And after Sandy, he secured fines against price gougers in addition to investigating unscrupulous charities.
