Rockville Centre's Laura Gillen discusses her run for Congress

Rockville Centre resident and former Hempstead Town Supervisor Laura Gillen announced on Feb. 24 that she is running for Congress in the 4th District. The seat will be open at year’s end, because U.S. Rep. Kathleen Rice, a Democrat from Garden City, announced last month that she would not seek re-election.

Gillen became the first Democrat to be elected town supervisor in more than 100 years in 2017, but lost her bid for re-election to current Supervisor Donald Clavin, a Republican from Garden City, in 2019.

Gillen told the Herald that she was motivated to run again because she wanted to help the congressional district’s constituents. “I’ve always believed in community service, and helping my community and serving in government,” she said. “I want to do the right thing and help the right people. I’ve been just waiting for the right opportunity to come along again, and when Kathleen Rice announced that she wasn’t running, I thought that this was another way that I could get involved and help my community.”

As supervisor, Gillen grappled with Republicans who held the majority on the Town Board, but still notched a number of accomplishments. She passed transparency legislation requiring all town contracts, budgets and other audited financial records to be scanned and made available online. She dedicated more than $59 million in her capital plan to fixing roads, introduced new information-technology infrastructure to bring Town Hall into the digital age and refinanced the town’s debt. She said she was also proud of having passed ethics legislation and having acquired benefits for veterans.

Although she had difficulty dealing with her Republican counterparts on the board, Gillen said, the experience taught her a great deal. “I was in a really difficult circumstance,” she recalled. “It was a Republican-controlled board, but sometimes we would come together and get things done.”

She added that the 4th District was important to her because she has lived in it for her entire life. She was born at Mercy Hospital in Rockville Centre, grew up in Baldwin, went to school in Hempstead and now lives in Rockville Centre with her husband and four children.

Gillen said that there are many issues that are important to her, including keeping Long Island affordable, keeping children safe, protecting women’s reproductive rights, national security, gun control, and reinstating the full federal tax deduction for state and local taxes. In addition, she said, she believes that both sides of governmental aisle should have representatives with more moderate views, rather than those on the extreme right and left.

“I entered public service 30 years ago and never left,” Rice posted in a statement on Twitter on Feb. 15. “It has been the honor of my life to serve as a prosecutor, district attorney, and U.S. representative in my beloved home state of New York. I have always believed that holding political office is neither destiny nor a right. As elected officials, we must give all we have and then know when it is time to allow others to serve.”

Gillen said she planned to run on the Democratic platform, which means there will likely be a primary: County Legislator Siela Bynoe announced on Feb. 22 that she, too, would run for Rice’s seat.

“I’m proud to announce I’m running for Congress to represent the values, hopes, and dreams of the extraordinary people of Nassau County’s CD-4,” Bynoe wrote on Facebook.

Bynoe, a Democrat from Westbury, has been a legislator since 2014 and represents Rockville Centre, Lakeview, Westbury, New Cassel, Hicksville and Uniondale. As the Herald went to press, Legislator Carrié Solages, a Democrat from Valley Stream, also announced his candidacy. He is the legislator for District 3, which comprises Elmont, Valley Stream, South Floral Park Inwood and portions of Lawrence and North Woodmere.

Gillen said she welcomed the challenge, and believed that her accomplishments on the Town Board showed her ability to work on behalf of her community. “We’re going to run a campaign based on my record of fighting for families in the Town of Hempstead, which comprises most of CD 4,” she said, “and I’m going to do it for the rest of the families in CD 4 as well.”