Carrié Solages for Nassau Legislative District 3

The 3rd District includes Bellerose, Bellerose Terrace, Elmont, North Valley Stream, Malverne, Lakeview and parts of Franklin Square and West Hempstead.

Democrat Carrié Solages, 47, of Valley Stream, is seeking his eighth term, and our evaluations of his work as a legislator have varied from election to election. Recently, Solages has gotten $2.5 million of county funding to address flooding and drainage issues on Elmont Road and was an outsized voice for the seniors living in a co-op building nearby that became uninhabitable because of water damage.

Through his tenure, Solages has contended that Democratic districts are not treated the same as those with a Republican representative, citing Nassau's failure to correct the dangerous intersection of Elmont Road and Dutch Broadway. The county is now facing more than $100 million in liabilities from those injured in accidents there. 

Solages wants to make the legislature more goal-oriented in order to solve problems, suggesting a specific committee on devising more productive uses of the land belonging to Nassau University Medical Center and another to fix the county's broken tax assessment system. He wants to ban political donations from law firms that profit off the tax grievance process. It's an excellent idea to revive the moribund chamber.

Challenger Kadeem M. Brown, 35, of Elmont, is running on the Republican line but not actively campaigning.

Newsday Opinion endorses Solages.