The 4th Congressional District is located almost entirely in Hempstead. Local geography is a powerful tool for deciphering the competition that can determine control of the House of Representatives. After all, all politics is local.
This swath of Nassau County embodies the political currents of 2024. Will protecting reproductive freedom be a motivator for suburban women and independents? Will immigration and border security be hit hard by New York City’s struggle to deal with the influx of migrants? Will Kamala Harris’ victory at the top of the Democratic ticket stimulate high turnout from the large concentration of minorities and Asian voters in the region? Will Orthodox and Conservative Jewish voters coalesce further behind Donald Trump amid echoes of October 7?
They are all factors. But in the end, the race may be a measure of voters’ tolerance for the brazen culture of cronyism in Hempstead, the heart of the Nassau County Republican machine.
Republican incumbent Anthony P. D’Esposito, 42, of Island Park, is defending his seat in a rematch with attorney Laura A. Guillen, 55, of Rockville Centre. The race is also another chapter in Guillen’s rage against the crony machine and crony contracts, which led to her stunning 2017 victory as city supervisor, the first Democrat to hold the position in more than a century.
The stigma of nepotism
Gehlen, who ran on an anti-nepotism and anti-corruption campaign at the time, had good reason to pursue nepotism. Earlier that year, D’Esposito was appointed to a seat on the City Council while on unpaid leave as an NYPD detective. He soon got another job, working full-time at Sponsorship Trap, the Nassau County Board of Elections, specializing in security assessments of polling areas. The $100,000 salary for the job was on top of the $71,000 he was collecting as a council member.
This is what the editorial board wrote at the time:
“This week in the Town of Hempstead, Councilman Anthony D’Esposito voted to give a raise to his mother, Carmen D’Esposito, Secretary of the Highway Department, who will receive $88,939 annually. This is a nice job, and the D’Esposito family gets a lot. Anthony’s brother, Timothy D’Esposito, received a salary $92,411 in 2016 As a leader in the city’s Department of Conservation and Waterways, Danielle D’Esposito, Anthony’s sister-in-law, earned a salary of $52,468 in 2016. A tax clerk, Timothy and Anthony’s father, Stephen D’Esposito, was chief of staff Supervisor Anthony Santino, who earned $169,000 a year.
The family members were all appointed before D’Esposito joined the city board, making him the beneficiary of patronage. After winning election to the House of Representatives in 2022, D’Esposito took Hempstead’s culture to the federal level, becoming a philanthropist. As The New York Times revealed, D’Esposito placed the daughter of someone described as his longtime fiancée on the congressional payroll as a staffer in his local district office at a salary of $3,800 a month. Soon after, he hired another woman part-time for $2,000 a month, with whom he had an affair. It turns out she also has a full-time job in the city. Was a congressional position a no-show job? If not, D’Esposito would have been working in his district office as both the daughter of the woman he was engaged to and the woman he was currently friends with.
It was an echo of 2017 when D’Esposito, a recent City Councilwoman, put the same fiancée and her son on the East Rockaway Village payroll.
In his interview with the editorial board, D’Esposito said he had done nothing wrong: “There was absolutely no violation of ethics in either hiring.”
When asked if he would do it again, he replied: “If there are no ethics violations, there is no problem at all.”
This is not eligible.
Ironically, regardless of the outcome of the House race, D’Esposito is considered the likely GOP nominee for Hempstead supervisor next year if three-term incumbent Don Clavin chooses the judgeship instead. When asked about his intentions, D’Esposito said: “My focus is on the job I have.”
Policy objectives
Unlike some GOP candidates, D’Esposito rightly acknowledges that mass deportation of immigrants is unrealistic; He believes the focus should be on removing those who break the law. He was part of the caucus of moderate Republicans who blocked some of the most extreme ideas at their convention, such as defunding Amtrak and ending the sale of the abortion pill mifepristone through retail pharmacies or by mail.
To deal with flooding, a problem in his coastal district, D’Esposito has an innovative idea about joining with the federal government and the town to create special tax districts for those living on the canals to pay for improved barriers.
A one-term superintendent, Jelene is smart, persistent and relentless in the pursuit of her goals. She wants to close the southern border, process asylum claims faster, and reform the immigration system that would encourage people to apply in their home countries for legal status to come here. She wants the federal government to reimburse New York for the cost of the migrant relief program.
Gillen asserts that the federal government should be more involved in flood insurance programs and wants more funding to improve water quality, especially in areas of the region experiencing cancer clusters. She wants tougher negotiations with drug companies to cut prescription drugs. Gillen will be a fierce advocate for restoring the IRS deduction on state and local taxes.
We said two years ago that Jilin was the best choice in District 4 and we stand by that recommendation.
Newsday’s editorial board endorses Gillen.
Endorsements are determined solely by Newsday’s editorial board, a team of opinion journalists focused on public policy and governance issues. Newsday’s news department has no role in this process.
