Michael O'Reilly

O’Reilly said the district desperately needs jobs, better schools and improved forms of local transportation. O’Reilly supports reactivating the Long Island Rail Road’s Rockaway Beach line and wants permanent ferry service to the Rockaways from JFK International Airport and from Manhattan. “This would be a huge boom to businesses in Southeast Queens,” O’Reilly said. He also wants to create tax incentives for small businesses to hire and to reduce “stifling” regulations on local businesses. “The district needs new leadership and someone who will engage with the public to discuss these issues,” he said

O’Reilly, 58, was born and raised in Broad Channel, Queens, and is running on the Republican and Conservative lines. He graduated from Florida Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in air commerce. He later joined the Marine Corps, where he served two years before receiving an honorable discharge because of a medical condition. O’Reilly then worked for four years as an airline pilot for Northwest Airlines, which was later acquired by Delta Air Lines, and later became a corporate pilot, flying executives to private airports. In 1989, he obtained a law degree from New York Law School. He initially practiced commercial law, but now works as a regulatory attorney in Manhattan. O’Reilly ran unsuccessfully last year for Queens County Civil Court judge. He is married with one son.