Incumbent Republican Peter T. King is running for re-election in the third congressional district on the Republican, Conservative and Independence party lines. First elected to represent New York's Third District in 1992, King has received a greater number of votes than any Congressional candidate on Long Island in each of his five races.

King is a graduate of St. Francis College, Brooklyn, and the University of Notre Dame Law School. He is a lifelong resident of New York and has lived in Nassau County for more than 30 years. King and his wife, Rosemary, reside in Seaford. They have two children, Sean and Erin.

Prior to serving in Congress, King was elected to three terms (1981, 1985 and 1989) as the comptroller of Nassau County. As the county's chief fiscal watchdog, King states that he initiated official audits and investigations which resulted in millions of dollars in savings to local taxpayers. King had extensive experience as a practicing attorney and civic leader. He began his political career in November 1977 by winning election to the Hempstead Town Council.

King serves on the Financial Services Committee and the International Relations Committee. He is an advocate of tax relief for working families; safeguarding social security and medicare and strengthening national defense.

Among his successful initiatives, King secured the votes to pass the first-ever federal study of the high rate of breast cancer on Long Island; won approval of a comprehensive plan to rebuild the storm-damaged beaches on Long Island's south shore; and leads the effort to construct the LIRR East Side Access Tunnel.

According to King, his main focus is on the war on terrorism. "All of our lives changed on September 11," he said. "That is the main issue that I am focused on. I fought to be appointed to the homeland security committee."

On his agenda now is working on getting more Homeland Security money to New York. "To get New York more money, we have to change the formula because right now too much money goes to the south and the west - it should go to the area that faces the biggest threat and that is New York," King said.

Another issue important to King is the economy. "The economy is very important and it started to go into recession in 2000. Then we had September 11 so the economy was hit hard," said King. "Bringing that back is very important. I do support the president's tax cuts to bring that about."

King is presently working on an issue that will impact Long Island commuters - the East Side Access, which connects the Long Island Railroad directly to Grand Central Station. "That would reduce commuting time by about a half hour a day, which calculates to over 100 hours a year, which is a lot of extra time that a person could spend with their families," said King, who is happy to report that he has made a great deal of success with this project. "This is a $2.7 billion project and I have gotten that project approved. Each year we have to fight to get the money but we have been able to get money every year to keep it going. Right now it is on track. I have visited the site. It should be finished in 2011 as it is a ten year project," he said.

King also hopes to help get the tunnels to Penn Station rebuilt to make them stronger against terrorist attacks.

King said that all of the issues that he is currently working on are on-going projects that he hopes he can continue working on if re-elected in November.

Blair Mathies is a newcomer to politics, but feels that his career and life experiences have prepared him to serve as Congressman. He is running on the Democratic line in the third congressional district.

A longtime resident of Babylon, Mathies said he is proud of the area in which he and his wife have been privileged to raise their three children Henry, Rose and Max.

After earning a B.A. in Economics from Duke University and an M.B.A. in accounting and finance from Emory University, Blair began his career as an auditor with Touche Ross & Co. He received his J.D. from Touro College on Long Island and is a member of the New York State Bar. While studying law in the evenings, Blair managed his family's contracting business in Lindenhurst by day, learning firsthand the challenges small business owners face everyday.

Mathies is a lawyer and works in New York City as the director of regulatory affairs at Nomura Securities International, Inc., an international financial services company. Before Nomura, he served as a deputy director at the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. (NASD) protecting the investing public by policing securities brokers and dealers. Through these roles, he said, he has acquired a direct understanding of the mechanics of the global economy and the importance of integrity in financial markets and in governance to economic success.

"Most of my career I have spent investigating the unethical sales practices of stockbrokers and I am running for office because of my concern for the unethical sales practices of the federal government," said Mathies. "Federal government has produced reams of bad legislation in recent years."

Mathies names the Medicare bill as an example of this. "This bill was sold to the American public as discounted prescription drugs for senior citizens when in fact it is anything but," he said. "It is a barrier to trade that offers price protection to the pharmaceutical industry domestically. Our senior citizens are in some instances paying twice what they would otherwise pay if the bill had never been law. It is also a vehicle to privatize Medicare, which is completely inappropriate."

Mathies said he is dedicated to preserving the area's environment and the thriving communities of people who enjoy it. His children benefit from attending the public school system, and he and his wife are proud that their eldest now is attending college. Blair said he knows the realities - both the advantages and obstacles - faced by residents of Nassau and Suffolk Counties, and he is ready to work to ensure that our children, families, and neighbors get the opportunities they deserve for a good and decent life.

"The environment is very important to me," he said. "We have 25 miles of shore line on the South Shore and 10 miles on the north shore in the third congressional district - these need to be protected. We have superfund sites including the Liberty site in Farmingdale and we need to do something about this."

Another concern of Mathies is the current situation in Iraq. "The occupation of Iraq was sold to us as necessary because of the weapons of mass destruction," he said. "To date, nobody has found any weapons of mass destruction and I find all of this very troublesome. The cost of the invasion is much more than we were originally told and there are more troops there than we anticipated. There is no end in sight to this involvement in the Middle East. I believe the federal government has been acting recklessly and I think the federal government has been making misrepresentations and there is a pattern of it and I don't like it."

Mathies is seeking election in the third congressional district and said he understands the difficulty in unseating an incumbent. "I am asking the constituents of the third congressional district to fire the incumbent and take a chance on someone new this November."