Tuesday, February 16, 2010

AG Candidate Visits the North Country


Kathleen Rice Visits the North Country

Nassau County District Attorney, and current candidate for NYS Attorney General: Kathleen Rice braved the North Country snow to sit down yesterday with State Committee member Ted Ford and County Chair Sean Hennessey. It was a great meeting, with Ms. Rice fielding questions about her understanding of the bread and butter issues affecting families in Jefferson County.
"..with all the issues we've had with the relocation of the Jefferson County VA; I was very pleased to hear how proactive Ms Rice has been in addressing VA issues in Nassau County," Chairman Hennessey said.

State Committee Member, Ted Ford said of Ms Rice, " Kathleen articulated well the need to further the efforts of the current and past NYS Attorney Generals. As a litigator and administrator of an office of 180 attorneys, I was impressed with her working knowledge of the managment of such a large organization."

Issues covered during the meeting were diverse and spanned from Farming Coops to Consumer Rights and Protections. "From all that we've heard and seen from these two candidates (Sean Coffey, Kathleen Rice) it's easy to be impressed. It's refreshing to see intelligent, talented people that have invested their careers in fighting for the rights of working men and women," Chairman Hennessey remarked. "So far, we felt very comfortable and optimistic about both Ms. Rice and Mr. Coffey and we look forward to hearing more! "

Please read more on Ms Rice:

District Attorney Kathleen M. Rice's Biography

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice brings experience, passion and dedication to the role of chief law enforcement official for one of the nation’s largest and safest counties. Upon taking office in 2006, Rice immediately began to modernize a district attorney’s office that serves Nassau County’s diverse population of 1.3 million residents.

In keeping the central promise she made during her historic 2005 run for office, Rice wasted no time in tackling the epidemic of drunk-driving on Long Island. Months after taking office, Rice overhauled the office’s DWI plea bargaining guidelines and created a comprehensive and unprecedented drunk-driving education program for Nassau’s high schools. Later that year, Rice and the courts agreed to open a DWI court, allowing specially trained prosecutors and judges to efficiently manage thousands of drunk-driving cases on a case-by-case basis each year.

Rice’s office has obtained murder and manslaughter convictions for drunk drivers who kill and she has drafted and lobbied successfully for legislation to toughen the penalties for the ‘worst of the worst’ drunk drivers in New York State.

In addition to her nationally recognized fight against drunk driving, Rice has worked hard to modernize the office and to reallocate resources to fight modern crime in Nassau County.

During her first two years in office, Rice has reallocated a significant amount of resources to the investigation and prosecution of public corruption. Her administration has moved to aggressively root out corruption in our schools and local governments.

Rice has also beefed up the resources used in the investigation of sexual predators preying on children using the Internet. In addition to refusing to plea bargain on child sexual predator cases, Rice has vigorously lobbied the state legislature to close the loopholes in the law and to toughen the penalties for criminals who prey on our children.

Rice has revamped bureaus dedicated to the protection of children and the elderly and to the prosecution of domestic violence. Rice has added specialized resources to the investigation of identity theft rings and consumer frauds and she has formed a specialized unit dedicated to the investigation of Medicaid fraud, the first of its kind in Nassau County.

Prior to becoming the first woman in Long Island’s history to be elected district attorney, Rice served as an Assistant United States Attorney under Attorney General Janet Reno in the United States Department of Justice’s Philadelphia office. During her more than five years as a federal prosecutor, Rice prosecuted cases of corporate fraud, deadbeat parents and public corruption, as well as federal drug and gun cases.

Read more HERE

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