Patrick Mullaney for Nassau Legislative District 4
Nassau County Legis. Patrick Mullaney (R-Long Beach) is running for reelection. Credit: James Escher
Find out the candidates Newsday's editorial board has selected on your ballot: newsday.com/endorsements2026
The 4th District includes the South Shore from East Atlantic Beach and Long Beach to Point Lookout, plus Island Park, Barnum Island, Oceanside and parts of Jones Beach Island.
Patrick Mullaney is a 51-year-old operations lieutenant in the New York City Fire Department serving in his second term as a Nassau County legislator in the GOP majority caucus.
The Long Beach resident expresses particular pride in co-sponsoring the "blue envelope" initiative to protect neurodivergent drivers and passengers when communicating with law enforcement in traffic stops and other emergencies; the bill passed in July. He supported the popular initiative to have the county turn over the blighted former Long Beach Motor Inn in Island Park to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation to develop supportive housing for veterans.
Opposing Mullaney is Democrat Michael J. Pentola, 35, of Long Beach, who has been working for nearly four years for the New York City Department of Education. If elected, he says he would focus on the cost of childcare as a way to address affordability and help alleviate the pressures on small businesses in his district. Pentola told the editorial board he’d also like to work toward "making more of an investment in Long Beach’s vibrant arts community" including musical venues. More broadly, he challenged the spending priorities of the Blakeman administration.
Newsday Opinion endorses Mullaney.
ENDORSEMENTS ARE DETERMINED solely by the Newsday editorial board, a team of opinion journalists focused on issues of public policy and governance. Newsday’s news division has no role in this process.
