Friedman to challenge Curran for assembly seat

With a formal announcement in the offing, Rockville Centre resident Jeffrey Friedman has been busy with fundraisers and financial statements, preparing a run for the seat that Brian Curran, a Republican from Lynbrook, has held in the state Assembly for the past two years.
“Long Island needs more voice in the Assembly,” said Friedman, 43, a non-practicing attorney who plans to run as a Democrat. “There’s a power struggle between city Democrats and upstate Republicans, and moderate Long Islanders get lost in the shuffle. We need to help struggling economies upstate and the real poor in our cities, but the middle class here on Long Island has really been neglected.”
A “PTA Dad” who describes himself as a fiscally-conscious moderate who is worried about his wallet, Friedman says he sees the struggles families are facing. “It’s tough here. People with two incomes are having challenges just making ends meet.”
At the top of Friedman’s legislative agenda are taxes, which he says are too high. “We have to start talking about true issues. How we fund our schools would make a big difference,” Friedman said. “Schools need more money from the state, not through property taxes,” he said, noting the dramatic cuts in state funding to education over the past two years. Friedman also said he thinks that schools must find a way to save money with structural changes that merge back-office functions while maintaining local autonomy.
Active in promoting the New York marriage equality legislation, Friedman regularly traveled up to Albany during the past four years. He spent a lot of his time in the capital speaking with Republican legislators and said that beyond the marriage equality issue, there is much about Long Island on which everyone can agree.
“I think we need somebody who’s able to unite our Long Island legislators to come together in a powerful force and make real change here,” he said. “We have small communities and our issues are all the same. We have to address those issues. [Curran] hasn’t been able to do what we sent him up to do.”