Grant Lally is now running for U.S. Congress in the Third Congressional District, where 90 percent of the district is in Nassau and Suffolk counties with 10 percent of the district in Queens, which includes Douglaston, Little Neck and parts of Whitestone and Bayside.
He is running as the Republican candidate with the third party endorsements of the Conservative and Libertarian parties.
He has taken strong positions against Obamacare health insurance and wants to see it repealed, which is directly opposite of his Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Steve Israel (D-????. This is Lally’s third try for the seat.
He ran against Gary Ackerman in 1994 and 1996. He has faced two primaries in the Republican Party and won both of them. This year he won the primary by 11 votes against Steve Labate.
In terms of the general election, however, the considerable financial resources of his Democratic opponent will have an important bearing on the final outcome.
Lally is also emphasizing creating jobs and cutting taxes in his campaign issues.
But finances can be overcome in a race based primarily on important issues. That is especially true when stressing how the federal administration is handling national issues.
Lally’s campaign is based in part on loss of support for the Obama administration that possibly will help his campaign. He also will have a lot of support from his own county, Nassau.
The Queens Village Republican Club, led by its president Phil Orenstein, has been giving support to the Lally campaign by providing campaign workers and fund-raising activities. Republican County members from various parts of Queens are joining the campaign. The Conservative Party is also assisting.
In the 15th State Senate District of western Queens, Republican Conservative Michael Conigliaro is challenging Sen. Joe Addabbo (D-Howard Beach), who has held that office for six years after defeating former state Sen, Serf Maltese, a Republican who had held that seat for 20 years.
Addabbo before that had also served for seven years in the City Council. His father had served for 26 years in Congress.
Addabbo maintains three district offices and his constituents can reach him or his staff at any time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by calling one of his district offices.
He has been concentrating on helping victims of Superstorm Sandy. He also is trying to bring more jobs into his state senate district. He has indicated that he wants to work on cleaning up corruption in government where it exists.
Conigliaro is stressing his efforts in working for tax cuts. If elected, he wants to encourage small business owners to stay in the district and continue to do business as a means of providing jobs and increasing revenues for business in general. He is particularly interested in working to reduce the sales tax.
Conigliaro is interested in quality-of-life issues. He indicated that his district needs more of a police presence. He wants to work on reducing crime.
This 15th State Senate race is turning into a hard-fought campaign as both candidates concentrate on reaching voters in the closing days before the election.
This race is proving to be one of the most interesting this year in Queens County considering there are a significant number of districts that do not have races.
Hopefully, in 2016 when the races for U.S. Congress, state Senate and state Assembly come up again, there will be more candidates.
