Two candidates will attempt to wrestle the seat of the 17th Legislative District away from the incumbent Republican Edward Mangano in the November elections. The candidacies of James Keough, a second-time challenger to Mangano, and Aaron Schein, a perennial Liberal Party candidate, were announced last month when the candidate list was released by the board of elections.

Keough, who describes himself as a working man, explains that he wants to offer a choice to the voters of the 17th legislative district.

"The Republicans are Stepford Republicans. They just take orders from Joe Mondello and Thomas Gulotta. Whatever they want they get," said Keough. "They have no initiative to look at the big picture, there is no planning for the long term. Basically it is just more government with more taxes being spent to keep the Republican machine in office."

He explains that the Republican party's mismanagement of the county's finances has forged an opportunity this year to make some headway into the historically Republican county.

"The thing that is helping us this time is that part of the structure is starting to collapse," said Keough. "We have a $300 million deficit and everyone else is rolling in money." He also points to the county's inability to match the state's "sales tax free week" as an indicator of the county's decline.

Keough admits that defeating Mangano, the Republican incumbent, will be an uphill battle, citing a lack of funding and volunteers. Despite these disadvantages, he wants to improve on his numbers from the 1997 election.

"I am hoping to improve on my showing of two years ago. I am not giving up. This is my home, this is my town. I am going to keep at it."

Keough, a lifelong resident of Hicksville, plans to kick his campaign into high gear following the Labor Day weekend. He will be going out to meet the voters at the railroad stations and supermarkets.

He is a biology teacher at Park West School in Manhattan, and has been a carpenter and member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America for the past 20 years. He is also a parishioner and lector at St. Ignatius Loyola Church in Hicksville, and has served in the Peace Corps in Zaire.

Aaron Schein, a Hicksville resident, has been active in the Liberal Party since the late 1960's and has voiced his concern over the fiscal policies of the current County Legislature.

He concedes that the Liberal Party has never enoyed much support on Long Island, indicating that it has garnered most of its support from New York City. Despite this, he has campaigned over 25 times for seats at varying levels of public office since joining the party. He has been the chairman of the Nassau County Liberal Party since 1984.

"It is the only way that the Liberal Party can get its views across to the people," said Schein, of his numerous campaigns. "These things have a way of eventually filtering out to the other parties."