Editorial: Kathleen Rice for Nassau district attorney

Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice has shown there can be more to the job than prosecuting people police deliver to the courthouse door. Of course, bringing criminals to justice is the heart of the job, and Rice, 48, a Garden City Democrat seeking her third term, has done that quite capably. But she also has expanded the envelope to tackle social problems.

Her investigation of cheating on college entrance exams led to changes in test-taking security nationally. Murder convictions her office won in two drunken-driving cases were the first for Long Island. While her "Flush the Johns" sting -- which released names and photos to shame 104 men charged with soliciting prostitutes -- was a publicity stunt, her focus on sex trafficking is an important shift in how law enforcement should view sex workers.

Rice was forceful in the prosecutions of former Nassau police official William Flanagan for protecting the son of a police benefactor who stole equipment from a school, and of former county Legis. Roger Corbin for taking a bribe. As confidence in public servants fade, Rice could be more aggressive in pursuing official wrongdoing despite the political risks for an ambitious prosecutor with an eye for higher office.

Republican challenger Howard Sturim, 54, of Great Neck, was head of the arson bureau and a member of the major offense bureau under Rice's predecessor, Denis Dillon. Now a law clerk to Acting Supreme Court Justice Alan Honorof, he has a firm grasp of the criminal justice system. But his charge that Rice has not taken violent crimes seriously enough would be more compelling if violent crime were raging in Nassau County. It isn't.

Rice's profile was ratcheted up this year when she became president of the state District Attorneys Association and co-chair of the state's special commission on public corruption. She should use the posts to identify and promote changes in the law needed to help prosecute official corruption. Newsday endorses Kathleen Rice.