Vote for McDonough in the 19th District

Year in, year out, Democratic candidates for State Assembly who challenge Republican incumbents claim they should be elected because then they would be in the majority, they would have power, and they would be able to get things done.

They especially like to note that, as a majority member of the Assembly, they would be entitled to a greater share of the member-item pot –– the fund set aside for Assembly members to hand out “special grants” to local nonprofit organizations, ostensibly because the legislators know which groups most need the state’s help.

We’ve never bought into either argument. We’ve long believed that a candidate’s credentials, ideas, drive and love of public service qualify him or her for elected office. Party affiliation is irrelevant.

That’s why we have endorsed Republican David McDonough for the Assembly since 2002, the year he first ran. Through his decades of service as a community activist and business leader in Merrick and his eight years in the Assembly, McDonough has made it clear that he cares deeply for the public good.

Moreover, he has demonstrated in no uncertain terms that a minority member of the Assembly can make a big difference legislatively. In 2005, as chairman of the Assembly Minority Task Force on Sex Crimes, McDonough held a series of public hearings around the state that captured the media’s attention by drawing attention to deficiencies in New York’s sex-crimes laws. He focused in particular on the five-year statute of limitations on rape cases, calling for it to be eliminated and conducting a massive petition drive against it.

With support from his Republican colleagues in the Senate, who were then in the majority — in particular, Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr. of Merrick — as well as Democrats in the Assembly, McDonough was instrumental in ending the statute of limitations on rape in 2006. It was a monumental legislative victory.