Michael Uhl Launches Campaign To Shake Up County Legislature

Calls For Advocacy, Not Complacency In 8th Legislative District

When Nassau County Democrats tapped Michael Uhl to run for County Legislature in the 8th District, they drew a blank. Literally.

Uhl, of West Hempstead, is a registered “blank,” meaning he is not affiliated with – or beholden too – any political party or position.

A true independent, Michael Uhl has been an advocate for environmental causes, an active conservationist, and, as an elected (by a 3-vote margin) Water Commissioner in the West Hempstead-Hempstead Gardens Water District, an instrument of progressive, positive change – breaking through the stonewalling and back-pedaling that characterizes the operations of the so-called special taxing districts.

Uhl is looking to unseat longtime incumbent, Vincent Muscarella, who has had a stranglehold on the seat in the 8th LD since the County Legislature’s inception in 1995.

“Twelve years is a long time to stand in one place,” said Uhl, “and, in terms of proactive, community-friendly legislation, the record is as short as it is staid.”

Among the issues that Michael Uhl hopes to bring to the fore, both in the campaign and as a Legislator, are the lowering of property taxes through consolidation and elimination of duplication and waste, not the smoke and mirrors of an artificial “freeze;” the creation of a workable and viable Master Plan for the revitalization and redevelopment of the “downtowns” and “Main Streets” of Nassau’s varied towns and hamlets, long suffering from hodge-podge planning and haphazard zoning, with building sustainable communities as a centerpiece; and re-creating a suburban quality of life that is once again affordable and enjoyable.

Of the County Legislature, and its inherent infighting and partisan polarization, Uhl commented, “If the State Legislature has been characterized as ‘dysfunctional,’ then what we have here in Nassau is non-function. What we need in the Legislature, and in the 8th LD, in particular, is advocacy on behalf of residents, not the complacency of the status quo.”

Uhl complemented his opponent for “keeping the seat warm” for the past twelve years, but declared, “Its time to move on, to move forward, to move off square one. Nassau County needs activists, not career politicians unable to clean up their own mess.”

While acknowledging an uphill battle to unseat a long-entrenched incumbent, Michael Uhl pledged to “bring some serious, and long-absent debate” to the table, hoping to open new vistas, if not a few minds.

“We’re in this race to win one for the people,” Uhl concluded. “We’re challenging the ‘same old, same old,’ and, in the end, hope that folks agree, ‘its cool to vote for Uhl!”

The 8th Legislative District encompasses Garden City, Garden City South, Stewart Manor, West Hempstead, Franklin Square and portions of Elmont and Floral Park.

www.uhlwin.com