Todd Kaminsky is the better of two good choices in 9th Senate District race

On the surface, it is easy to say the special election for the 9th state Senate District should be about ethics reform, because the reason people are voting in April is to fill a seat vacated following the corruption conviction of former state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos. In our interviews with the candidates, Democrat Todd Kaminsky and Republican Chris McGrath, this editorial board found their visions for reform to be uninspiring and flawed. While we feel both are committed to reform, and there is no reason for us to believe that either would have any personal ethical failings as representatives of the district, neither struck us as capable of impacting any substantive change in Albany.

Our decision focused on who would be the most effective advocate for the district on the other key issues – taxes and the future of education. On these issues, the two candidates say many of the same things. Both support making a 2 percent property tax cap permanent and feel that Common Core needs to be completely rethought and that local school districts should have more power in determining their future.

On these issues, we feel Kaminsky, a former prosecutor at the U.S Attorney’s office and current Assemblyman, has outlined a more clear, candid and positive vision for the future of Nassau County and New York state than McGrath. For this reason, we urge voters in the 9th state Senate District to cast their ballots for Kaminsky in the special election on April 19. We feel his deep ties to the district and copious knowledge of how government works make him the better of two good choices.

Our biggest hesitation in endorsing Kaminsky was the recent episode of state Senate Democrats on Long Island supporting the wildly unpopular MTA payroll tax in the 2009 budget, when their party controlled the state Senate. When pressed on this subject and asked what he would do if faced with a similar scenario, Kaminsky delivered a response that quelled our concerns.

“The last chapter of that story did not end well. My goal is not to have the same end to that story,” he said, highlighting that six members of that conference were convicted of crimes, three of whom he was involved in prosecuting. “Do you know how hard it is to have six members of one conference convicted of corruption? It really was a terrible group of people running the chamber at the time. That is not who is there now.”

We encourage voters to hold Kaminsky accountable on his promise to stand up for Long Island residents if pressured by a New York City-centric conference to pass potentially harmful legislation for the suburbs, but also to not unfairly judge him for the past sins of his party.