Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano remained coy when asked Wednesday if the Republican will run for a third term following a pre-trial hearing in his corruption case at Central Islip federal court.
Mangano reiterated that he will not heed calls to resign and declined to comment on the Nassau GOP nominating former New York State Sen. Jack Martins (R-Old Westbury) to replace the county executive in the November elections. Judge Joan Azrack scheduled the next hearing in the case for Nov. 13, ensuring the allegations will remain unresolved until after Election Day.
“There’s a lot to think about,” Mangano told reporters while refusing to discuss politics as he left the courthouse. If he were to challenge Martins, his campaign would have to begin circulating petitions next month to get on September primary ballots.
Prosecutors have said Mangano was involved in a kickback scheme in which his friend, indicted restaurateur Harendra Singh, gave the county executive’s wife, Linda, a no-show job in exchange for lucrative county contracts.
Linda was also arrested in October. Both she and her husband have pleaded not guilty, as did former Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto, who was charged in a related scheme before he resigned in January.
During the latest hearing, prosecutors said they are nearly done turning over tens of thousands of pages of documents that make up the evidence in the case. Defense attorneys for the trio have until mid-August to file pre-trial motions in the case and prosecutors will have two months to file their responses. The anticipated motions are expected to be the topic of the next hearing scheduled for November.
At the previous court hearing in February, Judge Azrack set the tentative trial start date for Jan. 15, 2018.
Although it’s unclear if there will be a Republican primary, two Democrats have already challenged their party’s nominee. Nassau Democrats announced Nassau Legis. Laura Curran (D-Baldwin) as their candidate, although Assemb. Charles Lavine (D-Glen Cove) and County Comptroller George Maragos, a Republican who recently switched parties, have said they plan to run against her in a primary.
