Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice and her supporters went door-to-door in East Hills on Sunday to meet with residents and spread the word about her campaign for re-election this November.
The East Hills campaign trail went to Circle Lane, Entrance Road, Salem Road, Wildwood Avenue and Millburn Lane, a spokesman for the Democratic candidate said, after Rice met with potential voters outside Syosset High School earlier in the day.
“Walking door-to-door is one of my favorite things to do. It’s a great way to hear directly from local families on the crime problems they’re most concerned about,” Rice said in a statement. “I want people to be able to share ideas with me because they’re the best eyes and ears our public safety strategies can have. The people in East Hills were great and I hope they found the conversations helpful.”
Rice, who defeated long-time District Attorney Denis Dillon in 2005 and was recently named to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s task force on state-wide public corruption, is facing an electoral challenge from Republican Howard Sturium, a clerk for 10th Judicial District Judge Alan Honoroff who once headed Dillon’s major offense bureau.
Deborah O’Rell, an East Hills resident of Sherrard Street who recently moved to the village from Queens, said she had been interested in campaigning on behalf of Rice and Nassau Executive Candidate Thomas Suozzi for some time before Democratic supporters knocked on her door about a month and a half ago.
“I had been thinking about it and meaning to do something and one day, somebody knocked on the door talking about Suozzi, Kathleen, [County Legislator] Wayne [Wink, D-Roslyn], all the locals, and I said, ‘Oh my gosh, I was just going to look for you,’” O’Rell said. “It took me a little while and I was finally able to clear a weekend. I had never done anything like this, knocking on doors. It was so much fun.”
Since taking over as district attorney, Rice has formed an anti-Medicaid fraud task force and recently led a prostitution sting operation that led to the arrest of more than 100 johns.
Rice was re-elected in 2009.
O’Rell said she first heard of Rice’s accomplishments from friends who lived in the area, adding she supports the district attorney’s gun buyback program.
“She’s a real dynamo and somebody I could really get behind and support,” O’Rell said.
As a mother of two who has worked on political campaigns in the past, O’Rell said increasing voter engagement is a significant issue for her. Each of her children, she said, has accompanied her to the voting booth from an early age and registered to vote on their 18th birthdays.
“When someone is volunteering, maybe one guy is out there mowing his grass or another is in the back reading a paper, but they’d be interested in knowing these things,” O’Rell said. “It’s really the same way I was impacted.”
