STATEN ISLAND — Assemblyman Ron Castorina Jr. defeated challenger Janine Materna in the Republican primary for the 62nd Assembly District Tuesday night, essentially clinching his seat in the general election.
After a bitter primary race, the freshman Assembly member defeated Materna with 68 percent of the vote in the South Shore race, according to the Board of Elections.
Since no Democrat filed to run, Castorina will run unopposed for the seat in the November election.
While no Democrat filed to run again for the seat in the November general election, South Shore Civic Association president Materna threw her hat into the Republican primary for the seat.
During the race, Materna claimed Castorina was arrested in Rhode Island — even though his only infraction was a speeding ticket 15 years ago — called him a carpetbagger who only moved to the district for the seat and blasted him for falsely claiming a $303 tax exemption on one of his homes.
For his part, Castorina said Materna, who ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for the City Council in 2009, only switched parties to have a chance of winning in the Republican leaning district.
During the campaign, Castorina vowed to tackle the borough's heroin problem, fight for better mass transit options in the district and work on repairing its infrastructure if elected.
