James F. Leonick

James F. Leonick

Republican

BACKGROUND: Leonick, 56, of East Northport, is an attorney with a private practice in estate planning, real estate transactions and representing plaintiffs in personal injury litigation. Leonick is running on the Republican, Conservative and Reform party lines. . He earned an associate degree from Suffolk County Community College in Selden, a bachelor of arts degree in English from SUNY Albany, and a juris doctor's degree from Touro Law School. Leonick ran unsuccessfully for Huntington town council last year. Leonick is active as a parent leader with Boy Scout Troop 52 in East Northport. He is a member and past president of the Rotary Club of East Northport. Leonick is married and has three children.

ISSUES: Leonick said a major issue facing Huntington residents is “excessive development and down-zoning from residential to high-density apartments and mixed use.” Leonick said, “my goal is to keep the suburbs, the suburbs, and to slow the volume of development and decrease unnecessary down-zoning.” Leonick said that he would support “various means of fighting the tax increase proposed by LIPA and National Grid based upon the reduction of the tax assessment on the Northport Power Plant, which is currently in litigation.” Leonick said that if the utilities “are successful everybody in the town will pay hundreds of millions of dollars to reimburse the utilities for back taxes, and the Northport-East Northport school district would pay a tremendous increase in school taxes going forward.” Leonick added, “Our groundwater and our harbors need to be protected from increasing nitrogen loads, which negatively impact the quality of our water.”