Established political figures carried the day in Thursday's primary election, which featured some contentious races in heavily Orthodox areas of Brooklyn.
Simcha Felder easily won the Democrat nomination for a newly created state Senate seat, the 17th district, with a critical mass of Orthodox Jews in Flatbush and Borough Park. Felder, a former Councilman and currently deputy comptroller of New York, won 83 percent of the vote against Abraham Tischler, a building managment consultant from Borough Park.
Tischler's brother, Moshe, lost his bid to wrest the nomination for Assembly in Borough Park and Flatbush from veteran incumbent Dov Hikind, who won 85 percent of the vote, according to results late Thursday night.
The news was not as good for Assemblyman Steve Cymbrowitz, who represents Manhattan Beach and part of Brighton Beach and other shorefront areas. Cymbrowitz narrowly defeated Ben Akselrod, a political activist and nursing home manager born in the former Soviet Union. Cymbrowitz, who took office in 2000, won about 52 percent of the vote, with a margin that could be as low as 150 votes.
Steven Mostofsky won the Democrat nomination for Civil Court judge, beating Theresa Ciccotto and Charles Finkelstein.
Felder now faces Republican David Storobin in a battle for the "super-Jewish" Senate seat that is sure to be a heated one. Storobin narrowly won the Senate seat vacated by Carl Kruger earlier this year, but the district lines have since been radically redrawn.
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