Kate Murray, Town Clerk, Town of Hempstead

KATE MURRAY

Republican

BACKGROUND:

• Murray, 59, of Levittown, was elected Hempstead Town Clerk in 2019. Murray served in the19th state assembly district from 1998 to 2001. She was the first woman to serve as Hempstead Town supervisor, from 2003 to 2015. She made an unsuccessful bid for Nassau County district attorney in 2015. Murray is also running on the Conservative and Tax Revolt party lines.

• Murray, a lifetime resident of Levittown, graduated in 1980 from the former Levittown Memorial High School. She graduated from Boston College and has a law degree from Suffolk University Law School in Boston.

• Murray worked as an Assistant New York State Attorney General in the Criminal Justice Section in Manhattan in the 1990s, handling prisoner litigation.

ISSUES:

• Murray said that during her current term as town clerk she fulfilled campaign promises by implementing a "stickerless, contactless" parking permit registration system and placing almost all applications online.

• Murray said she created a "first-of-its-kind" ID card providing first responders with medical and emergency contact information for people who cannot speak for themselves because of medical, emotional or physical challenges.

• Murray said she has implemented a "much more aggressive" program that assists working families in applying for U.S.passports at the town clerk’s office one weekend day a month, instead of one day a year as was previously the case. Murray said that during the COVID-19 pandemic she has increased the town clerk office’s services offered in local neighborhoods.