Rockville Centre resident to challenge Curran for Assembly

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 State Assembly seat that Brian Curran, a Republican from Lynbrook, has held 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 self-described “PTA dad” and “fiscally conscious moderate” who is worried about his wallet, Friedman said he sees the struggles families are facing. “It’s tough here,” he said. “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. “Schools need more money from the state,” he said, “not through property taxes.” He noted the dramatic cuts in state funding for education over the past two years, and added that he thinks schools must find a way to save money through structural changes that merge back-office functions while maintaining local autonomy.

Active in promoting New York state’s marriage equality legislation, Friedman has spent a lot of time in Albany over the past four years, talking with Republican legislators. Beyond the marriage equality issue, he said, 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.”

Friedman is openly gay, and says, “It’s who I am. I have a wonderful family.” He is married to his longtime partner, Andrew Zwerin, and the couple have an 8-year-old son who attends Wilson Elementary School. And although Friedman doesn’t plan to make his sexual orientation part of his campaign, he said, “If people have an issue with it, I can’t control that.”