Slated to appear in Saturday's Newsday:
Nassau Senate rivals Craig Johnson and Barbara Donno agreed in a debate taped Friday that state spending on schools and health care should be shielded from cuts. But they clashed on who’d be more independent and responsive — and traded shots on who’d be a better advocate of lowering local taxes.
As economic distress dominates local and national campaigns, both emphasized the pressure that high taxes present for residents of the Seventh Senate District. Johnson (D-Port Washington) defended a three-part proposal for capping tax hikes, slicing mandated spending and a new “circuit breaker” system of breaks for older and poorer homeowners.
The debate airs Oct. 23 on Cablevision News12 Long Island, at 4 p.m. and at 11:30 p.m.
Donno, the Republican mayor of Plandome Manor, slammed Johnson’s preferred plan as “shallow,” costly and harmful to some beneficiaries of the current STAR rebate program. She challenged his claim to independence from the Democratic Party line in Albany, citing an instance in which he did not break from Gov. Eliot Spitzer on proposed health care cuts in 2007.
“Unfortunately, my opponent is running the continuous, same old, distorted, negative campaign we’ve seen in the national campaign as well as here,” Johnson said, countering her claim to be “not a typical politician.” They disputed his record on school funding.
Johnson won a special election for the seat last year, making him the only Democrat among Long Island’s nine state senators. That’s been a sore point for new Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), who’s backing Donno vigorously as he fights statewide this season to keep GOP control of the house.
Johnson said a Democratic majority in the Senate would “absolutely not” hurt Long Island — and Donno said it “absolutely” would.