I wish to acknowledge with pride the North Hempstead candidates: the re-election campaign of our New York State Comptroller, Tom DiNapoli, Robert Zimmerman’s stunning congressional candidacy, the re-election campaigns of New York State Sen. Anna Kaplan and Assemblymember Gina Sillitti.

Each in their own right and collectively, they are the embodiment of decency, integrity, intelligently operate on an “open door” policy and search for optimum legislation to benefit their constituents.

The following are some of the accomplishments provided by these candidates:

Fighting fraud, managing the State Pension Fund, providing oversight for New York taxes and prudent financial accountability are the important issues that have concerned our deeply principled comptroller, Tom DiNapoli, since he was first elected in 2007. Public service has been his mantra, which he has so ably demonstrated since his tenure as an assemblymember after winning the post in 1986.

Waste, fraud and abuse by public officials is like waving a “red flag” in front of Comptroller DiNapoli. Recognition of these abusive activities have resulted in hundreds of arrests and tens of millions in restitution. New York’s State Pension Fund is highly regarded due to DiNapoli’s leadership. Comptroller DiNapoli has invested millions of pension dollars for advantageous solid growth and returns.

New York’s tax dollars are of enormous concern to DiNapoli. It was particularly evident after the COVID-19 outbreak. He paid close attention tracking job loss, economic recovery and pandemic relief programs and warned of the consequences on restaurants, retail, the arts, culture, construction and tourism industries.

While Robert Zimmerman is a first-time candidate, he is quintessentially familiar with the political arena as a lifelong political leader, activist and a member of the National Democratic Committee. Zimmerman’s visibility has been noted due to his opinions sought and televised on national television. His credentials include the co-founding of a successful communications firm (which he will sell to his partner if he is elected). The firm has had connections to the government, which provided avenues to reach out on both sides of the aisle. He is a moderate and clear-thinking person on important issues such as reproductive rights, gun safety, the economy and infrastructure development.

Since Sen. Anna Kaplan’s election in 2018, her tenure has been nothing but laudatory on many fronts: She has strongly fought against hate, extremism and antisemitism. She has demonstrated unequalled support of the LGBTQ community, women’s reproductive rights, taxes, improving services in schools, protecting the environment, support for small businesses, gun safety and the rights of abused children.

Sen. Kaplan combined her efforts with Assemblywoman Sillitti focusing on hateful crimes against the Asian and community. With the rise of antisemitism and Holocaust misinformation, she passed the Holocaust Education Bill that will establish courses taught on the history of the Holocaust to New York students. She has fought to pass a permanent cap hike on property taxes. In the interest of making home ownership affordable, she delivered a $2.2 billion homeowner tax rebate. While her efforts to keep taxes low, she has also been a tireless advocate for our schools to provide an optimum education.

Her focus on the LGBTQ community resulted in amending the state constitution to confirm and protect marriage equality. The senator has also vowed to protect our environment. Consequently, she passed the Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Bond Act to invest $4.2 billion in green jobs and infrastructure. Understanding the financial struggles of small businesses following the impact of COVID-19, she passed legislation to help small businesses get direct assistance from the New York State agencies and regulators in addition to promoting the state’s local manufacturing sector.

Sen. Kaplan’s steadfast commitment for women’s reproductive rights has been visibly demonstrated in many ways. For example, she wrote a new law protecting medical professionals who provide legal abortions to out-of-state patients. She has vigorously fought for sensible gun safety legislation, such as safe storage legislation, raising the age to buy semiautomatic weapons, creating legislation against carrying a concealed weapon and enacted $224 million for gun violence prevention programs, including for local law enforcement. She has stood up for children, passing the Child Victims Act, which allows survivors of childhood sexual abuse more time to seek justice from their abusers and those who knowingly allowed their abusers to continue to prey on children.

Although Gina Sillitti has been an assemblymember for only two years, her accomplishments, services and legislation to benefit her constituents have been far-reaching and most valuable. They include: co-sponsoring a bill requiring social media companies to provide users with an easy method to report hateful conduct. She hosted the “Stop Asian Hate with Education” project to illustrate the rise of anti-Asian crimes in New York State and Long Island which resulted in supporting the Assembly bill to teach Asian-American history in New York public schools. Assemblywoman Sillitti created legislative action for the one-year Homeowners Tax Rebate Credit program and has been a staunch activist for gun safety measures and women’s reproductive rights.

Acknowledging all of the attributes of these candidates, I consider myself to be fortunate to live in the Town of North Hempstead and governed by people who demonstrate enormous concern for each and every constituent. Please join me in your vote of support. You would be doing yourself a great service in addition to the North Hempstead community.

Lois Schaffer

North Hempstead