POLITICS

Legislative candidates address voters

Field questions at N. Merrick meeting

Posted

Democrat Rita Kestenbaum and Republican Steve Rhoads, the two candidates in the Nassau County Legislature’s 19th District, squared off last Thursday not so much against each other as against a roomful of likely voters given free rein to ask or say what they pleased.

The candidates, both of Bellmore, appeared at a forum at the North Merrick Public Library, which the library and the North and Central Merrick Civic Association sponsored. Library President William Pezzulo and NCMCA leaders Claudia Borecky, Francine and Lenny Goldstein, and Daniel Yngstrom ran the forum. Borecky and Yngstrom both previously worked as chiefs of staff to former Democratic legislator Dave Denenberg, who resigned in January before pleading guilty to federal mail fraud charges.

The moderators had the candidates make opening statements and then field questions and comments from the audience of about 65 people. Kestenbaum and Rhoads did not address the same questions, exchange rebuttals or make closing statements. No one stopped audience members when they heckled speakers, or the candidates when they went off topic, spoke erroneously or exceeded their time limits. The moderators also had a sergeant from the Nassau County Police Department’s 1st Precinct detail recent area crimes in between the candidates’ two presentations.

The candidates

Kestenbaum, a homemaker, nonprofit founder and former Hempstead Town councilwoman, won a coin toss to speak first. She portrayed herself as a neighbor and family woman, not as a politician, though this is her third election bid. Kestenbaum gave few specifics about what she hopes to achieve in the Legislature, but pledged to bring “common sense” to governing and to be independent of special interests. She warned that a Rhoads victory would bring Republicans close to a supermajority in the Legislature and argued that a viable opposition should check the party in power.

Kestenbaum pointed to Hurricane Sandy recovery and combating heroin use as priority issues. She expressed concern about high property taxes, but she also recognized a need for new revenue in a county strapped for cash.

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