Voters gave State Sen. Marty Golden two more years in Albany on Tuesday with more than 57 percent of Southern Brooklyn voters pulling the letter for the GOP pol.
With 68 percent of voting districts reporting in, Golden received more than 26,000 votes. Democratic challenger Andrew Gounardes received just over 19,000, according to WNYC.org.
“I thought we’d get a good number,” said Golden as he soaked in his victory. “I’m happy that the good people of New York saw fit to send me back to the state senate.”
Gounardes, a lawyer and Eagle Scout, seemed a longshot to beat the popular legislator from the time he announced his candidacy in February. His campaign struggled for a focus in its early months, with Gounardes attacking the Republican’s record on everything from the gun control to the MTA budget.
Gounardes’s campaign gained a bit of steam when the 10-year incumbent suffered a pair of self-inflicted setbacks: in July Golden became an internet laughing stock when he advertised classes that would teach young women to “sit, stand, and walk like a model.”
Golden was also accused on flip-flopping on the NYPD’s surveillance of city mosques.
Reach reporter Will Bredderman at (718) 260–4507 or e-mail him at wbredderman@cnglocal.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/WillBredderman