Francesca Carlow aims to unseat Kemp Hannon

It has been 21 years in the state Senate for Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Garden City), and his challenger, Francesca Carlow (D-Plainview), aims to be the first to unseat the longtime incumbent. 

Carlow, who describes herself as an independent candidate for the people, characterizes her opponent as a “career politician.” During her travels throughout the district, Carlow said, the discussion has focused on removing incumbents who have been in office during tumultuous times in Albany. 

The people “know that the mess up in Albany has been created by the career politicians, and they want it cleaned up,” she said. 

But Hannon insists there is still plenty of unfinished business for him to take care of in Albany and for the residents of the 6th Senate District, which includes parts of East Meadow, Salisbury, Levittown, Garden City, Lakeview, Franklin Square and other communities.

Hannon, the former chairman of the Senate Health Committee and now the ranking Republican member, explained that more needs to be done to combat Medicaid fraud and abuse, which costs the state billions of dollars. He spearheaded the establishment of the Senate Medicaid Task Force, in addition to sponsoring several health-related bills during his tenure. 

These changing and demanding times call for experience, Hannon insisted. “I would be scared if there was someone without experience trying to implement the federal health care reform in the state without knowledge of how the system [works],” he said during a recent Meet the Candidates forum at the East Meadow Public Library. 

Hannon also signed the pledge known as New York Uprising, an effort led by former New York City Mayor Ed Koch to promote reform in Albany. Hannon said he agrees with the pledge’s call for reform of the budgeting and ethics policies as well as an independent redistricting process. He emphasized the importance of a transparent budgeting process, which he said was lost when the Democrats took over the Senate majority in 2008. 

“When we got to the budget this year, it was in shambles,” Hannon said.