David Mejias

Free from political shackles, Mejias has turned to advocacy for Latino rights. It takes five times appearing on the Power List to make the Hall of Fame, which he did last year, six months before he was unseated by a Republican challenger on Election Day. The Democrat became the county’s first Latino legislator when he was first elected in 2003 in a heavily Republican district and re-elected twice in between a failed run to unseat Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) in 2006. His biggest achievement came in 2008 when he proposed and the legislature passed Natalie’s Law, named for Natalie Ciappa, the North Massapequa teen who became the poster child for LI’s heroin epidemic after she fatally overdosed on the drug. The bill established a heroin arrest mapping website aimed at increasing public awareness and mandates that police alert school districts when there is a heroin arrest in their district. But despite this, he was swept out of office in last year’s anti-incumbent voter revolt at the polls and has since focused on his private law practice at Mejias Milgrim & Alvarado, P.C.

Inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2010