Laura A. Gillen

BACKGROUND

• Gillen, 55, is an attorney and adjunct professor at Hofstra University’s Maurice A. Deane School of Law.
• She served for two years as Hempstead Town supervisor until 2020, and had worked previously as an attorney at the law firm of Westerman Ball Ederer Miller Zucker & Sharfstein LLP in Uniondale.
• She holds a bachelor’s degree in government from Georgetown University and received a law degree from New York University. Gillen grew up in Baldwin and has lived in Rockville Centre since 2003.

ISSUES

• GIllen said Republicans in Congress have failed to compromise and restore the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction that is hurting Long Island homeowners.
• She said she would take a bipartisan approach to border security. She supports the federal government reimbursing New York “dollar-for-dollar” for what the state has spent on the migrant crisis, the hiring of 10,000 more border patrol agents and smart technology such as sensors, drones and cameras to stop the flow of fentanyl and other illegal drugs from crossing the border. 
• Gillen said she would implement a “good government” agenda she sought for the Town of Hempstead, in contrast to what she said is her opponent’s “hyper-partisan” politics.