"I have no prior political experience whatsoever," Norman St. George, Democratic candidate for the 6th Senatorial District, proudly told Anton Newspapers during an interview. "I'm not a politician and I don't want to be a politician." The Roosevelt resident, a trial attorney with a practice in Mineola, said he wants to promote change in a district where he claims there hasn't been enough.

The 6th Senatorial District, which was minimally affected by the recent redistricting throughout the state, covers communities such as East Meadow, Farmingdale, Garden City, Levittown, Massapequa and Plainview.

Spending much of his time at local train stations and malls becoming familiar with his possible constituents, St. George's campaign platform concentrates on several key issues, with excellence in education heading that list. "I went to Roosevelt Elementary School where I received a solid education," he said. "I then spent one year at Roosevelt Junior High. The kids were riding bicycles through the hallways. Teachers didn't have control over their students. It was not a learning environment and that's something that stuck with me."

His parents then sent him to Long Island Lutheran. "I always felt that when I got to a point in my career where there was the possibility or the ability to work for change, that's something I wanted to do to give back," St. George said. "I always wanted to, at the appropriate time, get involved, whether it be in politics for lawmaking purposes or even in my practice, and try to turn the public education system around."

Affordable healthcare is another issue for St. George. "The fact that prescription drugs are not covered by most insurance plans is terrible," he said. "Healthcare should be a right, not a privilege."

Recently returning from a trip to Jamaica, West Indies to visit his grandmother for her 90th birthday, St. George said he's glad she's living there and not here in the United States. "She's a strong healthy woman and when you hear of all the horrors in nursing homes in terms of abuse and safety, it's unacceptable. That's why affordable healthcare, in terms of affordable housing and monitoring and regulating nursing homes and assisted care facilities, is [another] component of my platform. Things need to change."

St. George is also passionate about environmental issues and thinks they've been ignored for too long. "The West Nile Virus is a wake-up call that's letting us know that if we're not going to protect the environment, the environment is going to have a backlash against us. We'd be in a position where we couldn't even go outside because mosquitoes would kill us. If not the mosquitoes, then the pesticides would."

Although those are major issues St. George plans to focus on if elected, he also spoke of the economic problems now facing the county, as well as the state. "There's a major budget deficit in this county and in the state and those are things that certainly need to be addressed," he said. "One problem, in my opinion, causing the county deficit is unfunded state mandates. Nassau County has been in a deficit budget situation for a long time and when we have mandates coming down from the state without the requisite funding, we're just digging deeper into a deficit."

Working in the Nassau County District Attorney's office from 1991-95, St. George is running on the Democratic line. He admits change has become noticeable on the local level. "I want to be a part of that change and take part in causing change. The timing is good."