Not Because She’s a Woman
Maureen Rossi
Okay I have some good news and some bad news. Did you know that in 2014, the United States ranked 84th in worldwide female leadership according to the Inter-parliamentary Union of Geneva? They keep all types of global statistics about women in government. Worse than that news is that we are in a decline; in 2008 we ranked 69th!
Our State legislative statistics lack female pizzazz as does our local governmental status. Why? Well my theories on this are for another column. However, the good news is Suffolk County has a highly qualified woman for an open Legislative seat. That woman is Leslie Kennedy.
Today I write to endorse Leslie Kennedy for the 12th Legislative seat, however, please don’t vote for her because she is a woman and we are unrepresented locally and nationally. Vote for her because she is hands down one-hundred percent qualified to fill this seat. She’s running the show right now as we await formal election next week.
Kennedy has been a Legislative Aide to both the late Legislator Donald Blydenburgh and her husband John, who is now Comptroller of Suffolk County. His seat has been left vacant by his fall tromp of his opposing candidates. When first working for her husband she was not even on his payroll, his passion for helping every single person who called his office left a need for her help in addition to his aides on staff. She shares her husband’s vision and passion, no one is turned away when they call or show up at Camp Kennedy. If a person calls who is not a constituent, they will never be told, ‘we can’t help you’, they will be given a host of numbers to call for help. She loves to work with her constituents face to face and invites them to come by to discuss their problems.
Her office in an old county warehouse is organized and filled with files. Kennedy has a file for everything. She can tell you off the top of her head where each file is and how many constituent complaints were mitigated. She can tell you the woman’s name who’s Social Security checks haven’t showed up, the man who is having difficulty with his insurance company due to the flooding in his basement or the young mother of two who is getting evicted because she has been afflicted with cancer and can no longer work. Her mind is wickedly sharp. She works at a rapid but efficient pace.
As a journalist for twenty-one years, you come to know and observe a lot of elected officials, in two decades is it Leslie Kennedy who will get my praise any day of the week.
The mother of two sons and daughters who are now grown, this mother knows, like most mothers how to stretch a dollar. All the furniture in her office is used county furniture she dug out of a warehouse. She spends the counties money as if she were handling her own, with enormous prudence.
Unlike her husband who is known as the bulldog in the inner sanctum of Suffolk politics, her nursing experience of twenty-nine years has given her a softer bedside manner. This comes out in full force when she is visiting her grandchildren. Right now she has one grand-daughter and four grandsons. Another is just about to show up and her intuition is that it’s a boy. They are all under five!
Suffolk County is in a grave situation financially. It’s a beautiful place to live and work, we have outstanding school districts, parks and beaches. For most, the quality of life here is outstanding. However, the way government is presently running is financially unsustainable. We have too many bonds, too much debt, we spend too much. More than ever, we need fiscal conservatives in office. We need Leslie Kennedy in office, not because she’s a woman but because she is the best at what she does.