ELECTION Your guide to the candidates, the issues and local polling information A Blank Slate Media Special Section • October 30, 2020
20 ELECTION GUIDE 2020 • Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, October 30, 2020
CONGRESSIONAL SEATS 3RD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT Representing Manhasset, Roslyn, Port Washington, Great Neck and Floral Park, among other areas, the district stretches from Whitestone, Queens, to Kings Park in Suffolk County.
Congressman Tom Suozzi (incumbent) Democratic Party/ Working Families Party/Independence Party
Bio: The former mayor of Glen Cove who served as Nassau county executive for seven years, Suozzi won his first term in Congress in 2016 against former state Sen. Jack Martins, and won re-election in 2018 against former Navy SEAL Dan DeBono. In the spring, Suozzi won the Democratic primary against challengers Melanie D’Arrigo of Port Washington and Michael Weinstock of Great Neck, and is seeking a third term. Views: Suozzi said in an interview with Blank Slate Media in May that he supported the House passage of the HEROES Act, which calls for federal funds to be distributed based on rate of infection in all states, has a priority of reinstating the state and local tax (SALT) deduction, and wants to send funds to local municipalities, villages, towns and cities, “regardless of their population size all the way down to the smallest ones.”
George Santos Republican Party/ Conservative Party
Bio: A native of Queens who currently lives in Whitestone, financial professional Santos worked for Citigroup’s real assets division, Turkeybased hospitality firm Metglobal, and at Goldman Sachs before joining LinkBridge Investors, and now serves as the regional director of Harbor City Capital, an alternative investment group. Santos’ campaign announced in March that he had tested positive for COVID-19, one of the first confirmed cases in the borough of Queens, and he was treated at Elmhurst Hospital prior to recovering. Views: Santos said in an interview with Blank Slate Media that he supports funding updates to infrastructure; and that he opposes the Green New Deal, a universal income and Medicare for All.
4TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT Representing central and southern Nassau County, including Floral Park, Garden City, Hempstead, Mineola, Carle Place, New Hyde Park and Westbury.
Congresswoman Kathleen Rice (incumbent) Democratic Party Bio: Rice previously served as the district attorney for Nassau County and
a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Philadelphia office and assistant district attorney in Brooklyn. Rice resides in Garden City and is seeking a fourth term in office. Views: Rice’s top priority is helping school districts, small businesses, hospitals and nursing homes recover from the coronavirus pandemic. She said that beyond providing these entities with “targeted financial relief,” she seeks to help them develop and implement plans to avoid recurrent coronavirus surges, as well as to combat future pandemics. She added that robust federal investment is necessary for this to happen. This federal aid should be used to help create jobs, provide relief to local businesses and help the families that have been most affected. She has also been vocal on climate change, repealing the cap on SALT deductions, immigration reform and gun control legislation.
Douglas Tuman Republican Party/ Conservative Party Bio: Tuman currently serves as the commissioner of engineering for the Town
of Hempstead, along with practicing as an attorney and professional engineer. He is also the host of a YouTube show called “Monero Talk,” discussing cryptocurrency. Views: Tuman said his campaign platform centers around infrastructure improvements, improving representative democracy and making Nassau County a more affordable place for young families to live. If elected, Tuman would push to fortify the South Shore by implementing measures such as installing floodgates. Such initiatives would save the district billions of dollars in potential damage from storms, he said. Tuman advocates moving swiftly to reopen the economy to “allow our open and free society to flourish again.” He added that he does not believe the financial crises that the pandemic has caused can be fixed by simply handing out money.
League launches electronic voter guide The League of Women Voters of Nassau County announced that its electronic voter guide, Vote411. org, is now live for the 2020 election. Candidate information is available for Presidential Candidates as well U.S. Congressional Candidate districts as well as State Assembly and State Senate districts as well as Supreme Court Justices, County, Family and District Court Judges running in Nassau County. Vote411.org includes biographical information
and responses to questions posed by the League, as well as links to candidates’ social media and campaign websites. This information can be accessed online at www.vote411.org in an easy-to-use electronic format. Voters can enter their addresses to see their customized sample ballot and compare candidates’ positions. Candidates who have not yet submitted their information are listed with “Candidate Has Not Responded;” and their responses will be posted as
soon as the candidates provide the information. Additional local candidates and races will be added in the coming weeks. Voters can also use Vote411.org to check their voter registration status, find their early voting and Election Day poll sites, and find deadlines for voter registration and absentee voting. The 2020 general election will be held on November 3. Early voting will be held from Saturday, Oct. 24 through Sunday, Nov. 1.
Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, October 30, 2020 • ELECTION GUIDE 2020
Re-Elect
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Assemblyman, 19th District
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22 ELECTION GUIDE 2020 • Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, October 30, 2020
STATE SENATE SEAT 7TH SENATE DISTRICT Representing Floral Park, New Hyde Park, Williston Park, Mineola, Garden City Park, North Hills, Albertson, Old Westbury, East Hills, Roslyn, Roslyn Harbor, Roslyn Estates, Albertson, Searingtown, Lake Success, Manhasset, Munsey Park, Plandome, Plandome Heights, Plandome Manor, and the entireties of the Great Neck and Port Washington peninsulas.
Sen. Anna Kaplan (incumbent) Democratic Party Bio: Kaplan was elected to serve the Town of North Hempstead’s 4th District
as a councilwoman in 2011. In 2016, she sought election to the House of Representatives, but lost to incumbent and current Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) in the Democratic primary. Kaplan defeated former Flower Hill Mayor Elaine Phillips in 2018 to represent the state’s 7th Senate District. Views: Kaplan has most notably supported “sensible gun laws,” the Reproductive Health Act and the Child Victims Act. Kaplan has also been vocal on social justice movements, and overwhelming disapproved of the job that President Donald Trump has done over the past four years, and with the handling of the coronavirus. She has also been a proponent of ending hate speech and anti-Semitism throughout the district and has most recently called for the police to investigate an incident of 12 swastikas spray-painted in a Port Washington building.
VOTE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2020
Dave Franklin Republican Party Bio: Franklin worked at MSG Networks for two years, and in 1983 accepted a job as an operations technician for HBO in Hauppauge. Franklin spent 36 years at the company, moving up to a position as a radio frequency technician, then an operations supervisor, working
nights to raise his sons during the day. In 2010 Franklin ran for office for a seat on the Port Washington Police District’s Board of Commissioners. He won that race plus two other terms in 2013 and 2016, before losing his seat last year. Views: With the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Franklin said he is in favor of creating jobs through creating facilities that produce personal protective equipment and ventilators, both in the district and in places upstate. Franklin is also in favor of supporting the openings of vocational high schools, streamlining bureaucracy, arts education in schools and trades. He also looks forward to having town halls and hearing what can be worked on. Among the issues that Franklin sees is bail reform. “The crimes that qualify for bail include criminal sale of an illegal substance on school grounds, criminal sale of an illegal substance to a child, reckless assault of a child. That shouldn’t be,” he said in an interview with Blank Slate Media.
STATE ASSEMBLY SEATS 13TH ASSEMBLY DISTRICT Representing Roslyn, Greenvale, Sea Cliff, Glen Cove and parts of East Hills and Westbury.
Assemblyman Charles Lavine (incumbent) Democratic Party/ Working Families Party Bio: A Glen Cove resident, Lavine worked as a lawyer for the Legal Aid
Society of New York and for the Glen Cove Community Development and Industrial Development agencies, also serving as chairman of the Glen Cove Democratic Committee. He served on the city’s Planning Board and City Council before his election to the state Assembly in 2004. He previously served as chairman of the bipartisan Assembly Committee on Ethics and Guidance and as co-chair of the New York State Legislative Ethics Commission, and currently serves as chair of the Assembly Elections Law Committee. He is running for an eighth term. Views: On his website, Lavine said he is “dedicated to making higher education more affordable” and supports universal pre-K and “equitable school funding,” seeks to reform how the state invests “economic development dollars,” and told Newsday that he seeks to regulate utilities such as PSEG and New York American Water.
Andrew Monteleone Republican Party/ Independence Party/ Conservative Party Bio: A Syosset resident and a graduate of Bucknell University who
MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT NOVEMBER 3, 2020
received a master’s degree from LIU Post and a law degree from Fordham University, Monteleone practices criminal defense and personal injury law as a partner in a Mineola law firm and serves as a board member of the Criminal Courts Bar Association of Nassau County. Views: In an interview with Newsday, Monteleone said he seeks to change the Bail Reform Act, saying that the “extreme to which the Democrats in power went was … unnecessary.” He said “reckless spending must be stopped” and “reasonable tax legislation passed to stop the exodus from the state,” and he intends to sponsor a criminal justice reform act that would address the unfairness he said the old system brought upon defendants while accounting for public safety.
Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, October 30, 2020 • ELECTION GUIDE 2020
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STATE ASSEMBLY SEATS 16TH STATE ASSEMBLY DISTRICT Representing Great Neck, Port Washington, Manhasset, Roslyn Heights, North Hills, Flower Hill, Lake Success, Baxter Estates, Manorhaven and Sands Point, the seat is currently occupied by Assemblyman Anthony D’Urso (D-Port Washington), who announced his retirement this year.
Gina Sillitti Democratic Party/ Working Families Party Bio: A resident of Manorhaven who graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in political science, Sillitti began her career working
for former Nassau County Legislator Dave Mejias before joining the Department of Community Services for the Town of North Hempstead, where she organized “constituent-based” community events. She later worked as deputy chief of staff and director of legislative affairs for then-Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman. Currently, she works as human resources director for the Nassau County Board of Elections. Views: On her website, Sillitti said that she wants to invest in “infrastructure projects and smart economic development that pays a prevailing wage so that our neighbors get those jobs instead of out of state companies with an out of state workforce,” increase state funding for schools and other community organizations such as fire departments, and enact automatic voter registration and universal absentee voting.
Ragini Srivastava Republican Party/ Independence Party/Conservative Party Bio: A resident of Manhasset Hills who emigrated from India as a young adult, Srivastava’s website states that she began participating in her community by
volunteering for groups that focused on assisting domestic abuse survivors and encouraging women’s advocacy. She was later appointed to the Nassau County comptroller’s Minority and WomenOwned Business Enterprise Council, after owning and operating a small business. In 2019, Srivastava was the Republican nominee for the Town of North Hempstead’s 2nd District, but lost to incumbent Councilman Peter Zuckerman. Views: Srivastava’s website states that her goals including repealing the Bail Reform Act, which she states can “endanger witnesses to crimes by releasing their identities and private contact information,” controlling taxes and “runaway spending” by “creating dynamic economic corridors,” investing in infrastructure, including Long Island roadways, the LIRR and other mass transportation, and supporting the police, calling for “stricter criminal penalties for those who commit crimes against the police.”
ELECTION DAY IS NOVEMBER 3, 2020
LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD
2020 GET OUT AND VOTE
24 ELECTION GUIDE 2020 • Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, October 30, 2020
STATE ASSEMBLY SEATS 19TH STATE ASSEMBLY DISTRICT Representing Glen Head, Old Brookville, Old Westbury, New Hyde Park, Williston Park, Garden City Park, Garden City South, Garden City and Mineola.
Assemblyman Ed Ra (incumbent) Republican Party Bio: Ra, a native of Franklin Square and current Garden City resident, was
first elected to serve the district in 2010, beating Democratic foe Patrick Nicolosi by more than 3,000 votes. Prior to his election, Ra served as a deputy town attorney for the Town of Hempstead and as a legal aide in the office of the New York state attorney general. Views: Ra voted against the Reproductive Health Act, a New York statute enacted in January 2019 that decriminalized abortion and expanded abortion rights throughout the state. Ra said he does not model his conduct on President Donald Trump, but called the way national officials from both parties interact with each other “unfortunate.” Ra said he remains optimistic that a federal relief package will be passed and a potential package will have to include a combination of an undisclosed amount of federal funding and some revenue from tax increase proposals or sports betting.
VOTE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2020
Gary Port Democratic Party Bio: Port, a lawyer, and retired Army lieutenant colonel is running in the 19th District for the fourth time. He lost the first three races, but this time, he said, is different because of the district’s demo-
graphic changes and the importance of the election. Port served in the U.S. Army and Army Reserve for 28 years. He is a founding member of the law firm Port and Sava, which practices divorce and commercial law. He has also done legal work for veterans in the area. Views: Port said the most pressing issue that Long Islanders are faced with is the coronavirus pandemic. Port, unlike Ra, said Gov. Andrew Cuomo has done his best under the circumstances to make a plan to safely open schools and “bring people together.” Port said the issue of gerrymandered voting districts is a problem that disenfranchises voters. He has also pledged to work for social justice ranging from systemic racism, which Port believes is prevalent in the county, state and nation, along with LGBTQ rights. Port also supports protecting veterans and providing benefits, working with entities such as the Hofstra Law School in the past to accomplish his goals in that aspect.
Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
E L E C T RAGINI SRIVASTAVA
FOR NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY Fighting For A Brighter, Stronger, Better New York Repealing Bail Reform Fighting for Taxpayers and Our Families Protecting Small Businesses Supporting our Police Investing in Infrastructure ELECT A CARING COMMUNITY LEADER WHO IS A FIGHTER FOR HER COMMUNITY
www.electragini.com
VOTE NOVEMBER 3rd, 2020