STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Upon being nominated by his party to run for district attorney, Democrat Michael McMahon pledged to “build bridges” and reconnect communities on Staten Island.
The former North Shore councilman and Staten Island congressman accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination to run for DA during its convention at the Excelsior Grand in New Dorp Wednesday evening.
News of McMahon’s expected nomination broke a few hours before the convention.
Maria Guastella, Democratic commissioner for the city Board of Elections who had interviewed with the party for the DA’s race a day earlier, spoke highly of McMahon before he entered the stage.
“Michael has always championed the causes of Staten Island and the people of Staten Island,” she said. “He’s always fought hard for the people of Staten Island, he’s always been loyal to the people of Staten Island but most importantly, he’s known across Staten Island and he is going to win us this race.”
A verbal “aye” vote resulted in a resounding support to give McMahon the nomination with the exception of a few vocal “nays.”
Party Chairman John Gulino introduced McMahon as “somebody who’s going to make us proud; who’s going to permit us to take back the office of district attorney.”
He called McMahon “a proven vote-getter” who “can win Island-wide races.”
Once on stage, McMahon said the DA’s office must address the recent rash of gun violence on Staten Island, domestic violence crimes and heroin and opiate drug abuse.
“I am so thrilled that you think of me as someone who can serve you in that office and serve the people of Staten Island as well, because for me it is a dream come true,” he said.
As a lawyer he said he represented clients “in every court level in the state of New York from Staten Island to the Bronx to Albany, I have represented those who were victims, those who were accused of crimes.”
Having been born and raised on Staten Island and having been a community advocate and civic leader, he said he is poised to lead the district attorney’s office.
He recalled passing the New York State Supreme Courthouse in lower Manhattan as a young lawyer, seeing the words etched in stone of George Washington: “The true administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good government.”
He pledged to “build bridges” and connect communities on Staten Island.
He said he would work with his wife, Judge Judy McMahon, to ensure there is a veterans court on Staten Island, something that former DA Daniel Donovan supported.
He doesn’t foresee his wife’s position of administrative judge as one that will pose a conflict of interest.
“My wife doesn’t try criminal cases,” he said in an interview after hugging and shaking hands with supporters.
Judy McMahon sits on the state Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics “so you can be sure that nothing will be done in any way that’s anything but in conformity with my wife’s ethical reputation,” he said.
If elected as DA, McMahon would leave his job at Manhattan-based law firm Herrick, Feinstein LLP, he said.
Asked why he wants to be DA, McMahon said in the interview, “The skill set that I bring as a trial advocate and a community activist makes me well suited to be a champion for the people of Staten Island in this office at a time that I think it’s really needed.”
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