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Mostly Cloudy Becker, Scaturro vie for 4th District seat
They faced each other two years ago, but this time around, congress hopefuls Francis Becker and Frank Scaturro are running in a significantly different district. On June 26, they will face off in the Republican primary in the 4th Congressional District, a seat now held by Democrat Carolyn McCarthy of Mineola.
When the district lines were redrawn in March, the 4th District, which encompasses much of southwestern Nassau County, including East Rockaway and Lynbrook, added Merrick, Bellmore, Wantagh, Long Beach, Lido Beach and Island Park.
Becker, a Lynbrook resident and a Nassau County Legislator, defeated Scaturro in the 2010 primary, with 10,361 votes to Scaturro’s 7,733, but eventually lost to McCarthy by a margin of 7.2 percentage points. This time around, however, he said, the new district lines will work in his favor. “It’s really a wonderful opportunity, I believe,” Becker said, “for Long Island to get an opportunity to get representation in Washington that reflects our beliefs.”
With the new district lines, Scaturro said, it is even more important to replace McCarthy in Congress, but simply putting any Republican in the seat is not enough. Nassau County Republicans have not guided the county successfully in the past, he said, noting that its finances are being supervised by the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, a state control board. Scaturro said he believes that Becker would only echo the county’s current Republican policies in Washington. “Things have not gotten better,” he said.
Since the 2010 election, both candidates have had more time to campaign while learning about the public’s needs. Becker said that 4th District residents are concerned about high taxes in the county and across the country, and that President Obama’s administration, as well as congressional Democrats like McCarthy, have allowed spending to get out of control. The federal government’s debt ceiling, now nearly $15 trillion, is unacceptable, according to Becker.
