Assemblyman D-Glen Cove, cruised to victory over Republican challenger Louis Imbroto in Tuesday's election for the state's 13th Assembly District.
With 78 percent of votes tallied, Lavine had 18,420 votes to Imbroto's 10,155, in unofficial results.
Lavine ran on a campaign of easing hurdles for local small businesses, securing funds for school districts and helping constituents obtain health care in compliance with the Affordable Care Act.
He attributed his wide margin of victory to the more than one dozen student interns who worked on his campaign.
"Their dedication and enthusiasm are the reason the numbers in this election seem to be so extraordinary," Lavine said. "We did not depend on the Democratic organization at all."
He said the campaign's main strategy was to locate and reach out to independent voters, knocking on thousands of doors and listening to people's concerns. Many of them had never received that attention from someone in politics, Lavine said.
He vowed to continue to work at bringing school taxes down, easing administrative burdens on small businesses and furthering what he called a financially conservative, socially progressive political philosophy.
Lavine said an Imbroto victory would have meant a representative in Albany with social positions "entirely inconsistent" with Nassau County and the rest of Long Island, citing his challenger's positions on abortion and marriage equality.
Imbroto was critical of Lavine for voting along party lines, saying he tended to act in the best interests of New York City residents on many issues rather than with Long Islanders.
Imbroto called Lavine "capable" but said his re-election would mean less-than-effective representation for Thirteenth District voters.
"I think they're not going to have as effective a representative as I would be," said Imbroto.
