Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan cruised to victory in Tuesday night’s special election to claim disgraced former Rep. Michael Grimm’s old House seat.
Donovan, who drew national attention last year when a grand jury he empaneled declined to indict a cop in the death of Eric Garner, defeated Democratic City Councilman Vincent Gentile by capturing 60 percent of the vote with 96 percent of the precincts reporting.
“You sent a message to Barack Obama and, yes, even to Bill de Blasio,” the Republican prosecutor said during his victory speech at the Hilton Garden Inn in Bloomfield.
“Government is nickel- and-diming people to death, and when you die, we tax you again,” he said in echoing his campaign promises to keep taxes low.
The 11th Congressional District seat, which encompasses Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, has been vacant since January, when Grimm resigned after pleading guilty to tax fraud.
Donovan made headlines when he failed to win an indictment of NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo, in Garner’s death last summer.
Garner died after Pantaleo placed him in a chokehold as the cop tried to arrest him for selling untaxed loose cigarettes outside a convenience store last July.
The incident was captured on video.
The decision not to indict Pantaleo sparked nationwide outrage and protests in New York, but it was hailed by police supporters.
Donovan will serve the remainder of Grimm’s term through 2016.
Grimm, a former FBI agent, was elected last November to a third term even though he was under federal indictment at the time.
He resigned two months later after pleading guilty to tax-evasion charges linked to a Manhattan health-food restaurant he partly owned. The Republican faces up to three years in prison at his June 8 sentencing.
Donovan, a Staten Island native, had been the clear favorite since the campaign started. His roots were believed to give him an advantage over Gentile, who hails from Brooklyn.
“While we may have fallen short of our goal, this campaign was a triumph for the values we hold dear as Democrats,” Gentile, who garnered 38 percent of the vote, said of his defeat in the Republican-leaning district.