The Legislative Committee of the Sachem Central School District hosted a “Meet the Candidate” night with local politicians on Tuesday evening at Samoset Middle School.
With Election Day around the corner, government officials from the local to the national levels, and their opponents, briefly introduced themselves to the audience before spending time talking individually with constituents and members of the Sachem community.
Among those in attendance was Sachem Superintendent James Nolan, who recognizes the benefits of one-on-one contact between community members and local politicians.
“Sachem really has always had a tremendous relationship with all of its elected officials,” Nolan said. “They really have mad themselves available to our students. It’s really important in teaching our kids civics, that they get to meet people, not just positions. For the community it’s important because it’s not common practice for politicians to have such an intimate conversation.”
Politicians in attendance Tuesday included Assemblyman Al Graf (R), Assemblyman Dean Murray (R), State Sen. Lee Zeldin (R), State Sen. John Flanagan (R), Rep. Tim Bishop (D), Randy Altschuler (R), who is running against Bishop and Ed Hennessy, who is running on the Democratic ticket for State Assembly.
The evening was organized by Dana Platin and Sal Tripi, co-chairs of the Legislative Committee.
Platin has been fortunate enough to go to Albany several times over the last few years and has had an opportunity to work with elected officials on a personal level.
“This is a perfect venue for our own community members to have that same opportunity and to get to know them personally,” she said.
“We’re at a critical time, we have a lot of elections going on,” added Tripi, who is also a trustee on the Sachem Board of Education. “The fact we have such a big district, Sachem can leverage that big district with all of our local politicians. We had every level here today – local, state and national – and they all found it important enough to come out. We had our community residents interact with them. Hopefully the politicians leave knowing a little more about Sachem and represent us in the we want to be represented.”
-Words and Photos by Chris R. Vaccaro
