Kaminsky thrown under bus by Curran, Hochul should sign bill

Kaminsky thrown under bus by Curran

Often, politicians refuse to take ownership of their failure to win an election. In my opinion, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran threw county district attorney Democratic candidate Todd Kaminsky under the bus to save face and deflect responsibility ["Curran: Kaminsky cost me election," News, Dec. 15].

I closely watched the campaigns of County Executive-elect Bruce Blakeman and Curran. Throughout her campaign, I felt that she was not campaigning strongly enough.

I believe that, like so many other candidates, Curran thought she was a sure winner and didn’t need to campaign as hard against a Republican candidate originally doomed to lose.

Blakeman turned the tide, running a better campaign, using Curran’s ideas as his own. Curran’s apparent assumption that she would win was sensed by her supporters. She failed to bring Democratic voters out to the polls.

Kaminsky had nothing to do with her loss. Voters are intelligent enough to separate the position and duties of district attorney from county executive and to have seen Curran’s accomplishments and her flaws.

Curran is not a team player or she would have owned her loss.  

— Lynn Gergen, Lido Beach

Hochul should sign bill to aid special ed

Children with autism and other developmental disabilities urgently need Gov. Kathy Hochul’s help to save special education schools across the state ["Seeking a fair share," Our Towns, Dec.13]. A school funding bill, unanimously passed by both houses in June, and supported by the state Education Department, awaits Hochul’s approval.

The governor can finally correct more than a decade of discriminatory underfunding of the special education nonprofit schools that support the public schools’ children.

For too long, many special needs students have been denied a "free appropriate public education." There is nothing "appropriate" about subjecting special needs students to lesser-funded educational settings.

— John Lessard, Smithtown

The writer is chief executive of Developmental Disabilities Institute.