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Overcast Primary for Legislature’s 5th District is heating up
By lunchtime on Tuesday, Baldwinite Jack McCloy, who was vying for Nassau County Legislator Laura Curran’s 5th District seat, announced that he was dropping out of the race. He then threw his support behind Village of Freeport Trustee Debra Mulé in the Sept. 12 Democratic primary for the post.
Curran, of Baldwin, is running for Nassau County executive.
“Due to an increasing number of family obligations, which would reduce the amount of time necessary for me to effect a viable primary run, I decided to suspend my campaign for Nassau County legislator,” McCloy said.
“After discussing my concerns on a number of local issues with candidate Debra Mulé, I am supporting her in the upcoming primary election,” he said.
In the primary, Mulé, 55, is likely to face Baldwinite Reginald Nicolas, 46, a registered case management nurse and newcomer to politics; Anthony Miller, 34, the Freeport Board of Education vice president; and George Siberon, executive director of the nonprofit Hempstead Hispanic Civic Association.
The 5th Legislative District comprises nearly all of Baldwin and much of Freeport, along with parts of Merrick, Oceanside and South Hempstead.
It is not the first time that McCloy announced his candidacy for the 5th District, only to later withdraw it. He did the same in 2013, when he was poised to run a primary against Curran. That primary never happened after McCloy dropped out.
Mulé announced her candidacy for the 5th District seat a month ago. She said she was grateful for McCloy’s support.
“I am very pleased that he is supporting me,” she said. “Jack and I had a good talk about the issues he cares about. I’m going to be certainly supporting many of those ideas because I think they are valuable to the people in the 5th District.”
Mulé said she is well qualified to run for the County Legislature, having served as a Village of Freeport and Board of Education trustee, along with taking part in activities throughout the community.
“I knew that Laura Curran would not be able to run for this seat, and she’s done a fantastic job in this role. The values I worked for are similar to what Laura has worked for. Laura is very responsive to the needs and concerns of the community, and I would continue that tradition,” Mulé said.
Miller graduated from Freeport High School in 2001 and went on to study at Nassau Community College.
He was a member of the recent Bond Referendum Committee, which developed plans to construct a new synthetic turf field at Freeport High School at no additional cost to taxpayers. He served on both the Board of the Commission for the Conservation of the Environment of Freeport and the Freeport Traffic Safety Commission. And he is a former member of the Executive Committee of the Freeport-Roosevelt NAACP, chairing the Political Action Committee.
Miller said he enjoys strong relationships with local civic leaders, and has been involved with Freeport’s youth, its senior citizens and its clergy.
Nicholas said he is running for the 5th Legislative District seat to give local residents a voice. “I am running for this seat because Baldwin needs a strong voice to continue to move things forward. For too long, we have been overlooked. Without that voice, I am afraid we will not progress,” he told the Herald this week.
Nicolas was born and raised in New York. He’s been married for almost 20 years, and has three daughters who all attend Baldwin Public Schools. He graduated from Hunter College with a Bachelor of Science in nursing, and later obtained his certification in case management. He has worked as a nurse for 23 years.
“I am a proven leader at my place of employment … I am responsible for the health and well-being of close to 200 patients. These patients include the chronically sick, the elderly and the disabled,” he said.
