Herald endorsement

Return McDonough to office in the 14th Assembly District

Posted

North Merrick Republican Dave McDonough, 81, was first elected to the State Assembly in a special election in 2002 and was re-elected to his ninth term in 2016.

His sincerity and dedication to his constituents are clear. He is community-oriented, actively playing a role in civic affairs for decades. In the past, he has served as president of the Nassau County Council of Chambers of Commerce, representing 50 chambers and more than 6,000 small businesses.

Voters should return him to office.

McDonough was chairman of the Assembly Minority Task Force on Public Safety, and has experience working with various agencies, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, FBI, Secret Service, police and law enforcement and volunteer fire departments.

In the Democratically controlled Assembly, Republicans like McDonough must often hand their initiatives off to a colleague on the other side in order to make things happen. We asked McDonough about this. And, while McDonough admitted as much, he clearly did not see it as a drawback. Rather, he narrated for us the winding road that one of his bills — requiring private schools to report abuse incidents to law enforcement — took to become state law. Bottom line: He knows how to get the job done.

Mike Reid, of Merrick, is challenging McDonough for the second time. He is friendly with McDonough, and for years he has done tremendous work in the community. We encourage him to remain in politics. Reid’s ideas are strong, and he is sincere. If he keeps up with the great community work he has done on drug abuse prevention, and his work for Sen. John Brooks in Albany (should Brooks win another term), those two experience tracks will serve him well.

Still, we cannot see unseating a popular and effective legislator such as David McDonough. Vote the incumbent on Tuesday.