Cast your vote for Gonsalves in 13th L.D.

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The Herald encourages voters to return Norma Gonsalves to the 13th Legislative District seat, which she has held since 1997.

With nearly two decades of government experience, Gonsalves, a Republican who became the Legislature’s presiding officer in 2012, knows the issues forward and backward. She understands the dire need for the county to generate revenue while making living here more affordable, and pledges to address those challenges.

On the local level, Gonsalves remains a watchdog for the communities she represents — East Meadow, North Bellmore, North Merrick and portions of Seaford and Wantagh. If a problem arises that affects residents’ quality of life, she doesn’t waste any time nipping it in the bud.

While her name has become almost synonymous with Nassau County government, she likes to remind people that her involvement in politics began on the grass-roots level. Before becoming a legislator, she was a teacher who regularly attended community meetings, a president of the Coalition of East Meadow Community Organizations and a founder of the community’s Crime Watch patrol.

Gonsalves insists she hasn’t lost that grass-roots mindset in her time in the Legislature, and her long history of local advocacy and problem-solving is evidence of that.

Her challenger, Eileen Napolitano, a Democrat and a newcomer to politics, appears to have done her research, and knows the issues. She seems to genuinely care about her community. But her credentials don’t even match those of the pre-Legislature Gonsalves.

Gonsalves’s critics tend to entwine her with Nassau County’s overall shortcomings. Because she is its governing body’s presiding officer, perhaps that criticism has some validity. But we believe the constituents of the 13th District should choose the candidate best qualified to meet their needs, and that is clearly Gonsalves.