Ari Brown's re-election campaign focuses on antisemitism and crime

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As he campaigns for re-election to the 20th District seat in the State Assembly, Ari Brown aims to tackle antisemitism, crime and other community issues while leveraging his experience in local governance, construction and business operations.

This will be Brown’s third election for the Assembly seat — a two-year term. The first was a special election in 2022, to fill the vacancy left by Melissa “Missy” Miller when she joined the Town of Hempstead board. Tina Posterli, of Long Beach, is running against Brown.

Brown, a construction business owner and Franklin Square native, moved to Cedarhurst 33 years ago, and is now deputy mayor and a 25-year village board member.

Brown is a part of the Assembly’s state education and small business committees, as well as a ranking member of the local governments committee.

“I think the reason why they put me so quickly as the ranking member for local governments, I run a very tight ship in Cedarhurst,” Brown, a father of seven, said.

Former Cedarhurst Mayor Andrew Parise asked Brown to run the business improvement district in Cedarhurst, before Brown was elected to the village board, he said, nearly 30 years ago. At the time, the district had a vacancy rate of 20 percent vacancies, and now it’s down to zero, Brown added.

As the first Orthodox Jewish Republican assemblyman, Brown said he plans to keep combating antisemitism, which is at the forefront of his platform, with six specific bills, he introduced.

One bill would strip scholarships from students who engage in antisemitic acts, and another would mandate student sensitivity training related to antisemitism. Brown also created a bill to update the definition of the practice of antisemitism to protect its victims, he said.

“A lot of them have something to do with antisemitism, but they all defend good and decent people,” he said.

With still another bill, Brown said he hoped to designate certain offenses against law enforcement as hate crimes.

“Let’s say you’re at some rally,” he said. “They’re coming out against the Jewish people. Police defend the Jewish people. They go after the cops just for defending innocent protesters.”

Another big-ticket item for Brown is doing away with cashless bail, he said, adding it’s something that could be putting stores, such as CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid, out of business.

“I don’t care if you steal a piece of gum — throw them in jail, let them have their day in court, it’s a crime,” Brown said.

His stance is modeled after former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s popularization of the “broken windows” theory to crack down on minor crime, creating a sense of lawfulness.

“Unless we’re going to go after every single criminal, why should there be cashless bail?” Brown said. “I don’t even understand, ‘Oh people can’t afford it.’ Don’t commit the crime, I mean, that’s all.”

Brown also plans to work to reverse the regressive commuter tax, or congestion pricing.

“If people can’t afford to go to Manhattan, gas prices are so high and now you have this other layer, 20 to 30 dollars extra — that’s not going to happen,” Brown said, citing costs as just another deterrent from visiting the city.

When it comes to projects involving offshore wind, Brown said he has not been entirely against the idea, but has met with the leaders of these potential projects that would impact his constituents to propose alternative paths of travel for transmission lines. He has suggested less dense, non-residential areas for them, but to no avail, he said.

Brown added that the electromagnetic fields associated with offshore wind developments could damage infrastructure and cause cancer.

He said he believes he’s the most suited to return to his Assembly seat, because “I’m a Long Islander first and foremost.”

Based on Brown’s half-Italian, half-Jewish background, diverse wealth of connections and decades of construction in the communities he represents, he’s well versed in the demands of his constituents, he said.

“I’m very well aware what’s needed,” he said.

District 20 includes the villages and hamlets of Cedarhurst, East Rockaway, Hewlett, Inwood, Island Park, Lawrence, Oceanside, Woodmere and the barrier island from Atlantic Beach to Point Lookout.