Laura Gillen

Hempstead Town Supervisor

As the first Democrat elected Hempstead Town Supervisor in 112 years after unseating her Republican predecessor,  Anthony Santino, Laura Gillen demonstrated the power of the people. That is, she made a compelling case for change with the electorate, something few thought is still possible in the GOP stronghold. Having campaigned on promises to reform the town’s ethics, Gillen got right down to business drafting legislation intended to clean up Town Hall. Among her first acts, she ordered her name and the town council members names removed from all signs, ending the decades-long, costly practice of shameless self-promotion on taxpayer funded signs and other materials. Critics have long decried the practice as a thinly veiled form of using public money for political campaigns, as it effectively keeps elected officials’ names in the public eye, thus ensuring their re-election. And for years, it worked, as evident by the rarity of this Democrat’s election to the town’s top post. But now that she’s taken over, she still must work with a Republican majority on the town board to get anything done. To help accomplish that, she reached across the aisle and made Republican Hempstead Town Councilman Bruce Blakeman her deputy town supervisor. The move signaled her intent to work in a bipartisan manner, although it didn’t hurt that Blakeman had also endorsed Gillen over Santino in the election after Blakeman had a falling out with the old supervisor. Now that she has the power, it’s time to see what else she can do with it.