Nassau County clerk: Maureen O'Connell

MAUREEN C. O'CONNELL

REPUBLICAN

BACKGROUND: O'Connell, 58, of East Williston, where she was once deputy mayor, also has the Independence and Conservative lines. A graduate of Flushing Hospital and Medical Center School of Nursing in Queens, the registered nurse is also a graduate of St. Joseph's College in Patchogue and St. John's University School of Law in Queens. She was a state assemblywoman for eight years before becoming clerk in 2006 and lost a close race for state senate in 2007.

ISSUES: O'Connell said she has served residents with important personal and business issues and has put in "real time recording of land records" that is now the statewide model for electronic filings of court documents, while saving Nassau millions of dollars. She said the audit her opponent refers to was an improper demand to "co-mingle" state revenue the clerk collects with county treasury funds.