Whoever wins the 10th District of the New York Assembly, incumbent Steve Stern (D-Dix Hills) or Republican Aamir Sultan will find a slightly changed district awaiting them. The district has lost areas in the current southern portion of the district and will gain portions toward the west. Beginning in 2023, it will include Cold Spring Harbor, Dix Hills, Greenlawn, Huntington, Huntington Station and Melville in Suffolk County and Old Bethpage, Plainview and Woodbury in Nassau County.
Candidate backgrounds
Sultan, of Dix Hills, said he came to the United States from Pakistan when he was young. His education and career background are in computer sciences and artificial intelligence. He said his uncle, the former Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, inspired him to pursue public service. Sultan said since 2015 he has been involved in Urban League of Long Island, been part of the Suffolk County Asian American Advisory Board and the Nassau/Suffolk Anti-Bias Task Force.
Stern has served as state assemblyman for two terms. Previously, he was a Suffolk County legislator for six terms. In April of 2018, Stern became the first Democrat elected to represent the district in more than 30 years when he defeated Republican candidate Janet Smitelli, 5,748 to 3,969 votes.
Reproductive rights
Stern said many constituents are worried that New York State laws regarding abortion may be overturned. He said he has the same concern, especially if gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY1) is elected.
“Make no about it mistake that a woman’s right to choose is absolutely on the ballot,” Stern said. “We know that after the Supreme Court decision, not just a ruling that throws out 50 years of judicial precedent, but in additional commentary that says other rights that we have taken for granted, for generations, are now up for discussion and possible change as well.”
Stern said a woman’s right to choose involves her family and her doctor — and not politicians.
Sultan quoted former President Bill Clinton (D) who once said abortion should be “safe, legal and rare.” He said Zeldin will not change the law if elected.
“The Supreme Court has left it to the states to make a decision, and [Zeldin] has several times stated that he’s not going to change anything, even if he tries he has to come to the Assembly,” Sultan said.
Crime
Sultan said crime is up 40% in New York State and violent crimes are up 21.7% in Huntington. He said cashless bail and defunding the police has created the increase.
“They want to weaken the hands of law enforcement agencies and give a free hand to the criminals,” Sultan said.
He said cashless bail has to be repealed and more funding should be provided to empower the police.
“If there are any issues people are having with law enforcement agencies, we have to train them — maybe they lack training,” Sultan said. “Instead of taking resources away we have to give them more resources, because that’s their job to serve us right and protect us.”
Stern said local elected officials have not talked about defunding the police, and he feels the Suffolk County Police Department officers are well trained.
“They are the model and example of training,” he said. “For anybody to say that the hardworking men and women of our local law enforcement need more money thrown at it for better training just does not understand the current status of our local law enforcement that we should all be very proud of.”
The assemblyman said when bail reform was first presented, he was new to the state Assembly. He said he did not support bail reform as it was first presented.
“It was not a very well-written bill, and you knew where ultimately it might lead to,” he said.
Stern added he has introduced, sponsored and co-sponsored more than 25 bills to impact bail reform to get “the right balance of fundamental fairness in our criminal justice system, while keeping us safe as well.”
He wrote a bill that included offenses that should be bail eligible. He asked for 19 crimes to be reinstated and got 15 back on the bail-eligible list. He added there is more work to do.
Sultan rebutted that are still more cashless crimes that need to be taken off the list such as stalking, rape, child porn, endangering the welfare of the child, manslaughter second degree and more.
Education
Sultan said he decided to run for office after hearing his nephews were required to receive the COVID-19 to return to school in person. He doesn’t believe in a COVID-19 vaccine mandate. He also believes that students are being taught things in school that has nothing to do with math, science, English and other basics. Sultan said at one school he visited he was disturbed by some books being available to students that he felt weren’t age appropriate and he feels damage is being done.
He said he also had a problem with his 5-year-old son coming home from school and telling him he was told if he wanted to be a girl, he could be a girl.
“These little minds are being corrupted,” he said.
Stern commented on the debate about books made available in school libraries. He said there are specific guidelines that are followed by educational professionals and school boards that he says reflect community standards. He added it’s not the role of professionals and not the politicians.
Water quality
Stern said the county is still 70% unsewered and it can’t continue as such.
“We have to be more aggressive when it comes to preserving the integrity of the water that we drink, and one of the keys is sewer infrastructure,” he said.
He added more county legislators need to begin identifying areas in their district that require sewers.
“They need to start that process and then it will be up to us on the state level to deliver the funding,” he said.
Stern gave the example of the stretch of Route 110/New York Avenue through Huntington Station that he said the lack of sewering has delayed revitalization. While in the county Legislature he introduced the bill that began the planning process for the area, and recently delivered the last $22 million needed to deliver the infrastructure.
Sultan said he is for sewering in downtown areas. He added he would like to see a website that shows the funds allocated for sewers as well as where the money is coming from whether federal, state or elsewhere.
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