August 12, 2014
By Neal Tepel, LaborPress Publisher
This November, voters on the South Shore of Long Island will elect their first new Assemblymember in a quarter-century, replacing Harvey Weisenberg, who is retiring after having represented the 20th District since 1989. In that race—the southwestern corner of Nassau County, including Long Beach, Oceanside, and the Five Towns—LaborPress strongly endorses former federal prosecutor Todd Kaminsky, who will be running on the Democratic and Working Families party lines this November.
Kaminsky, 36, already has a long and remarkable record of public service. When he graduated from law school, he joined the Queens District Attorney’s office as a public prosecutor, putting away the worst among us with impressive skill. He then moved on to become an Assistant United States Attorney, taking on—and winning—some of the office’s highest-profile cases in recent years.
Kaminsky’s cases included the successful prosecution of dirty politicians, like former state Sen. Pedro Espada, and of drug kingpin James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond, who is now serving life in prison. For that one, Kaminsky was presented with the True American Hero Award from the Federal Drug Agents Foundation.
We are equally impressed by his devotion to his community. Kaminsky was born and raised on the South Shore, at the knee of two grandparents dedicated to public service as local school board representatives and a mother who taught public school. He has continued that legacy of service. After Hurricane Sandy, Kaminsky helped direct funds for local recovery efforts and held legal clinics for families hurt by the storm.
Hurricane Sandy made the need to address climate change much more urgent, Kaminsky says, but “those goals do not have to be at odds with another priority: economic growth. In fact, building better infrastructure and investing in alternative energy production will actually create new, good ‘green’ jobs that will make both our economy and environment more sustainable.” He has won the support of both the League of Conservation Voters and the health-care workers union Local 1199 SEIU.
In the Assembly, we have no doubt that Kaminsky will serve the South Shore effectively and admirably. We are particularly encouraged by his commitment to ensure local workers receive fair pay and compensation from both public and private employers, and his passion to fight for working families by making New York more affordable through tax relief.
For those reasons and others, we encourage the voters of the 20th District to elect Todd Kaminsky as their next Assemblymember, in the Sept. 9 Democratic primary and the general election.
