4th Congressional District
U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a Democrat running for her seventh term in the House, is being challenged by Republican Jack Martins, the mayor of Mineola.
McCarthy, the first congresswoman from Long Island, is the chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities and serves on the Education and Labor, and Financial Services committees. She is a lifelong resident of Mineola and has more than 30 years’ experience as a nurse.
Martins has been Mineola’s mayor since 2003, and he implemented the village’s first Comprehensive Master Plan project in 60 years. He also began televising village board meetings and launched the village’s first Web site. He, too, has lived in Mineola all his life.
Martins said he believes people should be given tax credits to pay for their health care. He proposed credits of $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families. McCarthy said that tax credits would not be enough, with the average family paying $12,000 for health insurance.
Martins said that the House Committee on Financial Services’ Subcommitee on Oversight and Investigatons, on which McCarthy sits, did not start its review of banking institutions and predatory lending until the financial situation hit rock bottom. What was needed in the first place, he said, was a stimulus package that would have allowed more liquidity in the credit markets.
McCarthy said that Congress had started to curb predatory lending in 2005, adopting regulations on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and that Republicans did not want any oversight whatsoever in the 10 years before that. That is why, she said, “we’re in the mess we’re in today.”
On the issue of gun control, both candidates agree that it is up to the federal and state governments to control who can purchase guns, and that there should be a “cool-down” period so a gun buyer can not take a gun home the same day.
— Mary Malloy
6th Senate District
Republican incumbent Kemp Hannon, a lifelong Garden City resident who has held the seat since 1990, is being challenged by Democrat Kristen McElroy, a criminal defense attorney. This is McElroy’s first campaign for public office.
The candidates are vying to represent a district that encompasses Franklin Square, West Hempstead, Lakeview, East Meadow, Salisbury, Garden City and Hempstead, among other areas.
As the chairman of the state Senate’s Standing Committee on Health, Hannon, 62, said he has worked diligently to create and support legislation that addresses health issues and improves patient care. This year alone, he said, he has sponsored more than 10 laws aimed at enhancing health care services and patient safety, and he took part in a joint effort with the Long Island delegation to secure $750,000 in state funding for the creation of a Medicaid fraud unit in Nassau County, which is now in the works. He also serves as the co-chair of the Senate Medicaid Reform Task Force.
Hannon is running on the Republican, Conservative and Independent party lines.
McElroy, 33, also a lifelong resident of Garden City, said she is running because she wants to bring “a real change in leadership in Albany.” She said the district needs a fresh face, someone who will bring “new and bold ideas” to the Senate.
McElroy also said that one of her strengths is that she is not a career politician, and does not owe any favors to special-interest groups and lobbyists. As a taxpayer, an attorney and a mother, she said, she knows firsthand how difficult it has become to raise a family on Long Island.
If elected, she said, she wants to create legislation and initiatives that “hold the line on taxes and provide real property tax relief.” She is in favor of a property tax cap on school spending as well as a “circuit breaker” that would cap property taxes based on income.
McElroy is running on the Democratic and Working Families party lines.
— Dana Williams
7th Senate District
Democratic Sen. Craig Johnson is being challenged by Plandome Manor Mayor Barbara Donno.
Johnson is a relative newcomer to the Senate himself, having won the seat in a special election in February 2007. He spent seven years in the Nassau County Legislature.
Donno, a Republican, is a former member of the Manhasset School District Board of Education. She said that her experience gives her a unique perspective on the burden of unfunded mandates on school districts. She said she supports the 4 percent tax cap passed by the Senate this year.
Johnson said he has an idea, called the “triple play property tax plan,” which would include the cap, relief from unfunded mandates and an expanded rebate program.
Earlier this year, Johnson, the ranking Democrat on the Senate’s Racing, Wagering and Gaming Committee, voted against renewing the New York Racing Association’s contract to operate Belmont Park, Aqueduct and Saratoga. The contract was approved, but Johnson said NYRA must work to be a better neighbor. He supports the installation of video lottery terminals at Belmont, and said he also wants the community to be actively involved in discussions about an economic development project at the site.
Donno, too, said that a major revitalization project is needed at Belmont, and she supports turning it into a tourist destination. She said she wants to see new restaurants and retail shops there — anything to create good, permanent jobs. A successful revitalization project at Belmont, Donno explained, would have a positive impact on other areas of Elmont.
— Andrew Hackmack
9th Senate District
Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos has served the district since 1984. The 60-year-old Republican from Rockville Centre, who was elected to his leadership post by Senate Republicans last June, is seeking his 13th term.
Challenging Skelos is Democrat Roy Simon, 59, a West Hempstead resident and a professor of ethics at Hofstra University’s law school who is making his first run for public office. A Chicago native who moved to Long Island in 1992, Simon graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts and NYU Law School. He was a litigator for several years before he became a professor at Washington University in St. Louis.
Skelos, a Rockville Centre native, graduated from South Side High School in 1966, and earned a degree in history from Maryland’s Washington College in 1970 and a law degree in 1975 from the Fordham University School of Law. He is counsel to the Mineola-based law firm Ruskin Moscou Evans & Faltischek.
Skelos takes great pride in and is well known for “bringing home the bacon” — delivering state grants that support a variety of community organizations throughout the district. He is the author of Megan’s Law, which created the New York State Sex Offender Registry; he led a crackdown on Medicaid fraud; and he serves as the state representative on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Capital Programs Review Board.
If elected, Simon said, he would clean up Albany and fight for the people of Nassau County. He said that despite all the talk about reducing property taxes, Skelos does not have a plan to do so. And, he added, Skelos’s largesse could be threatened if Democrats take over the Senate.
Finding a way to lower the property tax burden while continuing to provide strong financial support to the area’s schools tops both Skelos’s and Simon’s list of legislative priorities. They support the proposed 4 percent property tax cap, while insisting that it must be part of a larger solution to burdensome property taxes. Both candidates say that if the cap is enacted, the state must supplement funds not raised through taxes, and provide relief for unfunded mandates that have strapped local schools. They also agree that school districts should be encouraged to share services, but they differ on how to go about this.
— Judy Rattner
21st Assembly District
Democrat Alan Smilowitz is challenging Republican incumbent Tom Alfano in a district that includes North Valley Stream, Franklin Square, Elmont, Malverne and West Hempstead and that Alfano has served since 1996.
Smilowitz is a West Hempstead resident and an attorney. He describes himself as a social liberal but a fiscal conservative, and says he would like to see state lawmakers cut spending, rather than raise taxes, to deal with the multi-billion-dollar deficit. He supports a property tax cap for schools, with the provision that the state provide more funding for education.
Alfano, who lives in North Valley Stream, said he will continue his fight to ensure that Long Island school districts receive their fair share of state aid. He also wants the state to do its part to promote the development of more affordable housing. Young people and senior citizens especially, Alfano said, are finding it harder and harder to afford to live on Long Island.
Belmont Park is a major issue for Alfano, who said he wants to see a major development project there to create job and boost the local economy. He said it is important that members of the local community have their say on the future of the racetrack property.
Smilowitz supports legalizing same-sex marriage and opposes the death penalty. He said that the 21st District is less conservative than it used to be, and he feels he could represent the area well.
— Andrew Hackmack
