Election season races to finish in Nassau

The following are summaries of county and town races as previously reported in the Herald.

County Executive

Nassau County Legislator Ed Mangano, a Republican, is challenging incumbent Democrat Thomas Suozzi for the county executive’s seat.

The race appears to boil down to three key issues: property taxes, a recently imposed 2.5 percent energy tax and the county’s troubled property-tax assessment system. Mangano is challenging Suozzi’s handling of all three issues, while Suozzi fires back that the county has consistently balanced its budget while improving its bond rating, which reduces the interest the county must pay when it bonds money for any
number of projects.


District Attorney

The race for Nassau County district attorney pits one-term Democratic incumbent Kathleen Rice, a former federal prosecutor and Brooklyn assistant district attorney, against Republican Joy Watson, a former assistant Nassau County district attorney who is now a law clerk for a county Supreme Court justice.

Rice, who has gained a reputation nationwide for her tough stance against drunken driving, says she is about more than convicting criminals. Her office is proactive in educating the public, in particular young people, about the dangers of DWI and drug use.

Watson, who served as chief of the D.A.’s Sex Crimes and Domestic Violence Bureau under former District Attorney Denis Dillon, said that she had dedicated her career to the district attorney’s office. She started out prosecuting DWI cases before moving to the Major Offense and Homicide Bureau and eventually to the sex-crimes division. In all, she spent 20 years in Dillon’s D.A. office.

County Comptroller

Two-term incumbent Howard Weitzman is seeking re-election as Nassau County’s comptroller. The Democrat from Great Neck Estates is being challenged by Republican