News

2009 Elections: Nassau candidates at large

About the job 
Nassau County executive 
Term: 4 years 
Salary: $174,614 
Duties: Manages the county and its operations, including highway repairs, snow removal, park maintenance, social services, property tax assessments, consumer affairs, police and the county jail. The executive appoints all county commissioners, department heads and members of county boards and commissions, subject to confirmation of the county legislature. He also presents the county's annual budget to the legislature for approval.

Long Island

Nassau

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Nassau County executive: About the job

THOMAS R. SUOZZI 
DEMOCRATIC 
BACKGROUND: 
Suozzi, 47, of Glen Cove, is also running on the Independence and Working Families lines. A graduate of Boston College and Fordham Law School, Suozzi is both a CPA and an attorney. He served eight years as Glen Cove mayor before being elected county executive in 2001. He is seeking a third term. 
ISSUES: Suozzi says he restored fiscal stability to a county that was close to bankruptcy under his <a href="/topics/U.S._Republican_Party">GOP</a> predecessor. He cites his "no wrong door" initiative in which he put all services for the needy in one location, the preservation of open space and restoration of Nassau's historic courthouse. For a "sustainable future," he wants to reinvent 10 percent of the county through "cool downtowns" and the proposed Lighthouse project. His supporters cited Suozzi's efforts to develop Nassau's hub, including renovation of the Coliseum, and redevelopment of the former Grumman property in <a href="/topics/Bethpage_State_Park%2C_NY">Bethpage</a>, including 101 acres the county sold recently for $28.5 million to build a high-tech industrial complex.

Politics

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Nassau county executive: Thomas Suozzi

Thomas Suozzi-2009

EDWARD P. MANGANO 
REPUBLICAN 
&nbsp; 
BACKGROUND: Mangano, 47, of Bethpage, is also running on the Tax Revolt Party line. He has been a county legislator since 1996. He is a graduate of Hofstra Law School and works as an attorney with Rifkin Radler in Uniondale. 
ISSUES: He said his top priority is reforming the county's system for assessing property for tax purposes. He said he wants to create jobs, preserve the environment and make government more efficient. If elected, he said, his first action would be to try to repeal the 2.5 percent energy sales tax imposed earlier this year on oil and other home heating fuels. He said the second most important reason for running was that incumbent Democrat Thomas Suozzi would not rule out a run for higher office and the county needs full-time leadership next year as it battles with lower sales tax revenue and increasing costs. On the Lighthouse Project he said, "As soon as the Town of Hempstead finishes its environmental review, I look forward to supporting the project."

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Nassau County executive candidate: Edward Mangano

Edward Mangano-2009

Nassau County district attorney 
Term:4 years 
Salary:$166,300 
Duties:The county's chief law enforcement officer manages a staff of 377, including 190 assistant district attorneys and 47 investigators who investigate and prosecute crime. The district attorney also pursues grand jury probes and works with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies on investigations.

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Nassau County district attorney: About the job

JOY M. WATSON 
REPUBLICAN 
&nbsp; 
BACKGROUND: Watson, 50, of <a href="/topics/Hempstead%2C_NY">Hempstead</a>, is also running on the Conservative Party line. She worked as a prosecutor for nearly 20 years under former Nassau District Attorney Denis Dillon, including as chief of the Sex Offense and Domestic Violence Bureau and deputy chief of the Major Offense Bureau. When Rice was elected in 2005, Watson left the office and took a job as the principal law clerk to Nassau Supreme Court Justice Karen Murphy. She has a bachelor's degree from the University at Albany and a law degree from the Pepperdine University School of Law. 
ISSUES: If elected, Watson said, she will institute a no-exceptions residency policy for prosecutors, and will try to bring back many of Dillon's top lawyers. She also said she would dismantle the current district attorney's Early Case Assessment Bureau, where prosecutors review each case at the time of the arrest. She would replace it with a forensic evidence bureau, and separate gangs and narcotics bureaus to allow prosecutors to sharpen their expertise.

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Nassau County district attorney: Joy Watson

Joy Watson-Nass DA cand-09

KATHLEEN M. RICE 
DEMOCRATIC 
BACKGROUND:Rice, 44, of Locust Valley, is also on the Working Families and Independence lines. Rice began in 1992 as a prosecutor in the Brooklyn district attorney's office. In 1999 she became an assistant U.S. attorney in the Department of Justice's Philadelphia office. She was elected Nassau's first female district attorney in 2005. She has a bachelor's degree from Catholic University and a law degree from Touro Law School. 
ISSUES:In her first term, Rice said, she took a tough stand against drunken driving, pushing for tougher drunken driving laws in Albany, making fewer plea deals, and convicting two drunken drivers who killed people of murder, which is rare. She said she also has convicted more defendants of the most serious crime they were charged with than did her predecessor, launched a controversial initiative to clean up Hempstead's crime-ridden Terrace Avenue-Bedell Street area, and backed educational programs in the community.

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Nassau County district attorney: Kathleen Rice

Kathleen Rice-DA cand-09

About the jobs 
County comptroller 
Term: 4 years 
Salary: $166,300 
Duties: The comptroller is the county's chief paymaster and fiscal watchdog, overseeing contracts, accounting, audits, health insurance, payroll and vendor claims. The comptroller issues an opinion on the reasonableness of the county budget and a midyear report.

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Nassau County comptroller: About the job

HOWARD S. WEITZMAN 
DEMOCRATIC 
&nbsp; 
BACKGROUND: Weitzman, 63, of Great Neck Estates, where he used to be mayor, also has the Independence and Working Families lines. He is seeking his third term. A certified public accountant, the first to hold the comptroller's job in Nassau, he is a graduate of Queens College. 
ISSUES: He said he takes being the "fiscal watchdog" of the county's $2.6-billion budget seriously and has taken a hard look at the spending in large county departments and will continue to do so. Additionally, Weitzman said his unprecedented audit of town garbage and other special districts has been the driving force behind proposed reforms at the state level. He started the NassauRx Card, a prescription-drug discount program that saves residents money and doesn't cost the taxpayers. He said his administration has been one of the more active and aggressive county comptroller offices in the state.

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Nassau County comptroller: Howard Weitzman

Howard Weitzman-Nass Comp cand-09

GEORGE MARAGOS 
REPUBLICAN 
&nbsp; 
BACKGROUND: Maragos, 60, of Russell Gardens, also has the Conservative Party line. The founder of a 20-year-old financial technology firm in Manhattan and a former vice president at two of the nation's largest banks, he has a bachelor's degree from McGill University in Montreal and a master's from Pace University in Manhattan. 
ISSUES: He said the county is currently in a very difficult financial condition because of the failure of the current Democratic administration and comptroller to adequately anticipate and plan for the recession. "Their failure to fix the tax assessment system, which is unfair and is costing the county over $80 million annually, has compounded the fiscal mess," he said, adding he would fix the system and implement better budget planning and strong oversight of spending to ensure that tax dollars are well spent.

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Nassau County comptroller: George Maragos

George Maragos-Nass Comp cand-09

County clerk
Term: 4 years
Salary: $166,300
Duties: The clerk oversees the repository for the county's legal documents and public records. The office is responsible for real estate, court, licensing, notary and uniform commercial code documents.

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Nassau County clerk: About the job

CARRIE SOLAGES 
DEMOCRATIC 
BACKGROUND: Solages, 30, of Elmont, also has the Working Families line. A lawyer and one of Nassau's human rights commissioners, he is a graduate of Georgetown University in the District of Columbia and Boston College School of Law. 
ISSUES: Solages has said that the clerk's office has failed to modernize in any significant way under the current titleholder. He said that months, maybe years, could be cut from assessment appeals if the clerk, with whom they are filed, created direct digital secured access to the data instead of having it all on paper. He also accuses the current clerk of failing to implement any of the county Democratic comptroller's recommendations that accompanied his audit of that office. He cites the audit report that said "the Roslyn school district, where millions were stolen, had more controls [in place] than the clerk's office."

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Nassau County clerk: Carrie Solages

Carrie Solages-Nass clerk cand-09

MAUREEN C. O'CONNELL 
REPUBLICAN 
&nbsp; 
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.

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Nassau County clerk: Maureen O'Connell

Maureen O'Connell-Nass clerk cand-09

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