Herald Endorsement

Kaminsky remains the choice in the 9th S.D.

Posted

For the second time in seven months, voters in the 9th State Senate District will choose from among Democrat Todd Kaminsky, Republican Chris McGrath and Green Party candidate Laurence S. Hirsh for the district’s seat.

As a federal prosecutor, Kaminsky obtained convictions of several corrupt state legislators, and he remains a strident supporter of ethics reform. He sponsored legislation to strip legislators convicted of crimes of their state-supported pensions, wants to ban lawmakers from earning outside income to avert the conflicts of interest that have gotten some of them into trouble, and seeks to increase corruption penalties. He isn’t a strong supporter of term limits, but he sounds persuadable.

In the Assembly, Kaminsky set a record for the most bills passed by a first-year assemblyman. He supports a permanent state tax cap, and has introduced legislation aimed at education reform and ending the use of the Common Core learning standards.

He supported the passage of tax credits for Hurricane Sandy victims last year, and this year he endorsed what state lawmakers describe as the largest middle-class tax cut in recent memory. He also fought for the reopening of an emergency facility in Long Beach in the wake of the Long Beach Medical Center’s closure.

McGrath is a distinguished lawyer who has been lauded by experts in the legal field as well as his peers in the Nassau County Bar Association. He supports term limits and pension forfeiture — as does Hirsh — and has renounced Common Core. Hirsh would also like to eliminate cross-party endorsements.

Nonetheless, we believe Kaminsky is the strongest candidate, and remain confident that he will continue fighting for the 9th District. We urge voters to support him next Tuesday.