Rockville Centre resident running for county clerk

Rockville Centre resident Laura Gillen announced that she will be running for the position of County Clerk in the November election.

Gillen, a 10-year resident of Rockville Centre, will be running with Tom Suozzi on the Democratic ticket against incumbent Maureen O’Connell.

“My parents grew up in Nassau County, I grew up in Nassau County, I’m raising my kids in Rockville Centre here in Nassau County,” Gillen said. “That trend of people coming back to Nassau County year after year, generation after generation, is so important and really makes our communities strong and vibrant. And, quite frankly, I’m very fearful that that trend will not continue if Nassau County keeps going down the path it’s been going lately.”

The 43-year-old Gillen is a counsel to the Uniondale law firm of Westerman Ball Ederer Miller & Sharfstein, LLP, where she practices commercial litigation.

A mother of four, Gillen said she is running because she no longer wanted to sit on the sidelines and watch.

“If I wanted to change things, I had to be part of the change,” she said. “So I decided to run for county clerk. I want to be part of the team that’s going to rehabilitate our broken county government.”

Gillen said that, if elected, her goals are to make the office of the county clerk more efficient, accessible and technologically advanced. “And the real thing I want to do is work hand-in-hand, hopefully with the Suozzi administration, or whatever administration I have, to make that office a real part of the solution for Nassau County,” said Gillen.

Gillen said she believes the office of the clerk could be part of the solution for the county’s woes because it is a revenue-generating office.

According to Gillen, the upcoming election is not about politics, but about fixing the county.

“It’s about what team is going to have the long-term thinking, the long-term solutions to make a fiscally sound county government,” she said. “I believe that I’m one of the people that can do that, and I do believe that Tom Suozzi is another person who can do that.”