POLITICS

Kate Murray running for district attorney

Pol likely to face Rice deputy

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Kate Murray, the Town of Hempstead’s supervisor for 12 years, is giving up the relative safety of her post for a run at higher office: Nassau County district attorney.

Murray, 52, a Levittown Republican, announced her candidacy — which had been more or less an open secret for months — late Monday at a hometown restaurant.

In an interview Tuesday, Murray said she has long been inspired to pursue law and public service by her late father’s time as an FBI agent. She described her run for D.A. as “the next logical step” in a career in which she helped write state law as an assemblywoman for four years and came to know community issues as town supervisor.

“I’ve crafted” laws, Murray said. “I’ve seen the effects of them on our residents. And now I would like to be the chief law enforcement officer and enforce those laws.”

Among her top goals would be tackling the heroin epidemic, cybercrime, domestic violence and environmental pollution, Murray said. She did not offer many specifics, other than that she would aggressively pursue drug dealers, move addicts toward treatment, and work with schools and local organizations to help prevent drug use.

Murray had been scheduled to make a campaign announcement at noon Tuesday at the Levittown Fire Department’s headquarters. But she said Monday afternoon that she was postponing the event in deference to Brian Moore, a New York Police Department officer and North Massapequa resident who died hours earlier. Moore was shot in the head while on duty last Saturday in Queens.

“I am postponing a political campaign announcement,” Murray said in a statement. “This is a time to pray for officer Moore and all of those affected by his death at the hands of a senseless and vicious killer.”

Rather than postpone her announcement, however, Murray moved it up to Monday night. She seemed intent on declaring her candidacy before the Nassau County Republican Party’s nominating convention on Wednesday night, after press time, at Wisdom Lane Middle School in Levittown.

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