Village of Flower Hill Mayor Elaine Phillips announced Thursday that she will run for state Sen. Jack Martins’ 7th district seat after she was nominated by the Nassau County Republican Party.
“I am honored to be nominated to run for the state Senate in the seventh district,” Phillips said. “I believe that, as a member of the state Senate, I would be in a position to continue my work to reduce property taxes, protect the environment and provide every child with an opportunity to succeed.”
The announcement comes almost two weeks after she said she went to Albany to meet with Martins and members of the Republican Senate Conference about a potential run for the 7th District seat.
Martins filed FEC papers in January to create a campaign committee to run for the 3rd Congressional district’s seat just two days after U.S. Rep. Steve Israel announced he would step down at the end of his term in November.
The Old Westbury resident and former Mineola mayor had been considering a congressional run for several months and began discussing it more seriously after Israel’s announcement, campaign strategist E. O’Brien Murray said.
Phillips was re-elected for her third term as mayor of Flower Hill in March.
She said her experiences serving as mayor would help her in serving the constituents of the 7th Senate District.
“In Flower Hill, I created the village’s first Ethics Board and rewrote our ethics policy to ensure that village residents have an open, honest government,” Phillips said. “I appointed talented people to the village board, without ever asking their political party. And we’ve worked together to cut property tax rates, complete major beautification projects and advance innovative environmental preservation programs — protecting local groundwater, planting hundreds of new trees and promoting energy conservation.”
“I am going to run on the record that I have here as a mayor because I believe we’ve done great stuff,” she added. “I think it’s the expertise I can use to help the greater population.”
If elected, she said would fight against political corruption and ensure the district’s schools receive their “fair share” of state aid.
“In the state Senate, I will work tirelessly to end the corruption that’s plagued our state for far too long,” Phillips said. “I’ll make sure that our schools receive their fair share of state school aid to give our children every opportunity to succeed and ease the burden on property taxpayers.”
She said she would also ensure that the environment would be protected.
“I’ll never forget that we have a responsibility to leave a cleaner environment for future generations,” Phillips said.
On Monday, Phillips announced her opposition to the Long Island Rail Road’s proposed third track, which would add an additional track along 9.8 miles of LIRR’s Main Line between Floral Park and Hicksville.
“As a village mayor, and treasurer of the Nassau County Village Officials Association, I know the details that should go into planning a project of this scope and size and as of right now the details are not there,” she said. “I also know this plan, as it stands before us, will harm the quality of life of our villages and its constituents.”
“This plan, as it stands right now should not be allowed to move forward,” Phillips added.
Her involvement with community groups includes serving as president of the Munsey Park School Community Association, a member of the Manhasset Schools’ Citizens’ Advisory Committee on Finance and a member of the Buckley County Day School’s Board of Trustees.
She also served as a board member of the Science Museum of Long Island and is currently on the Development Council for the College of Liberal Arts of Pennsylvania State University.
Democrat Adam Haber announced in February he was stepping down from the Nassau Interim Finance Authority board to seek a second bid for the state Senate’s 7th District seat.
“I am looking forward to debating the issues with Adam Haber and giving the residents of seventh Senate district a clear choice in November,” Phillips said.
Since losing first time around to Martins in 2014, Haber, an East Hills restaurateur and former bond trader, said he has developed greater name recognition from his work on the NIFA board and as a Roslyn school trustee, which would give him an advantage in the race.
“Nassau voters don’t need a handpicked candidate from the corrupt Skelos machine — they want a fresh voice in Albany who will clean up our state government,” Haber said in a statement. “We need to pass real ethics reforms, fully fund our schools and lower the tax burden. I will go to Albany and deliver results and not simply go along with the status quo and always put Long Island first.”
