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Hempstead Town Councilman Bruce Blakeman, a lifelong politician, was tapped by his party to challenge Curran, a Democrat who has been at the helm in Nassau since being sworn into office on Jan. 1, 2018.
Blakeman, age 65, of Atlantic Beach, was a private-sector attorney who was first named to the Hempstead Town Council in 1993. He was then named the first presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislature three years later in 1996 when the county restructured its government.
During his political career, Blakeman also unsuccessful ran for state Comptroller in 1998, Congress in 2014, and was temporarily in the running for New York City Mayor before bowing out of the race and conceding to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Following the announcement of his nomination to run against Curran, Blakeman immediately vowed to ramp up Nassau’s COVID-19 vaccination program, citing a new mobile site that was established in Hempstead and to bring equity to the county’s property tax assessment system.
The Nassau County Democratic Committee was “uninspired” by Blakeman’s selection, saying that he’s “a career politician who would take us backward.”
New York State Democratic Party Chair, Jay Jacobs made note that Blakeman was the Presiding Officer of the Legislature when Nassau’s finances crumbled, which forced the county to impose a Nassau Interim Finance Authority (NIFA) control board.
“It was Bruce Blakeman who presided over the BPA insurance scandal and it was Bruce Blakeman who led the legislature in creating the Assessment mess in the first place, sticking taxpayers with the bill,” Jacobs continued.
“As a Trump delegate and supporter, Bruce Blakeman needs to answer the question of whether or not he believes the last election was legitimate before he asks Nassau voters to consider him in this next one.”
According to the county’s Democratic Committee, Curran is kicking off 2021 with more than $2 million on hand following a taxing year as the world navigated through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Finances for Blakeman were not immediately available.
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