There will be a primary fight for the Conservative line on this year's November ballot for the 16th Assembly District which includes part of Roslyn, Manhasset, Great Neck, Port Washington, and New Hyde Park. The district is currently represented by Democrat Thomas DiNapoli. It was expected that the Conservatives would endorse the Republican candidate, Port Washington attorney Thomas Zampino, but Howard Last, 25-year resident of Great Neck and past president of the Kensington Civic Association, has announced his candidacy. His petitions were filed with the Board of Elections in mid-July. The primary will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 15.

Calling his decision to seek office "a stand on principle," Mr. Last says that in the past he has "opposed the nomination of candidates who held petitions that ran contrary to the ideas that the Conservative Party stands for... This year, the party's endorsement of a candidate that could best be described as a Rockefeller Republican in my own assembly district was the straw that broke the camel's back." Mr. Last has been a professional licensed engineer for 31 years and is now principal of his own business. The seven-year member of the Nassau County Conservative Party Executive Committee and current Assembly District Conservative leader, characterizes himself as "an average tax-paying citizen and not a professional politician, who believes in the type and form of government envisioned by our founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

"Every year I go around getting signatures on the petitions for the candidates to run on the Conservative line. One comment which I kept getting more and more is, 'Why is the party endorsing these liberals?' This sums up pretty much why I am running."

Howard Last says his goal is to stop what he sees as the Conservative Party's drifting away from its basic beliefs, and to restore Federalism. "For too long Washington has meddled in state and local affairs when it has no power to do so. I will work to oppose intrusive federal programs and mandates--through lawsuits, where necessary, to fight for New Yorkers' right to govern themselves." His overall platform advocates cutting and eliminating taxes, government agencies and departments, stopping government takeovers of private industry, eliminating rent control, ending parole and making restitution payment part of a criminal's sentence.

Mr. Last is a certified firearms safety instructor who serves as a volunteer coach and chief range officer for the US Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point. He supports "restoring the right of self defense and elimination of so-called fun control laws which only affect the law-abiding citizen and do nothing to prevent violent crime." He finds the Brady bill "an interference with the Constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens."

A graduate of Brooklyn Technical High School, Mr. Last earned a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from City College of New York and a master of science in sanitary engineering from New York University. He is married to Cynthia Last, a middle school teacher. Their daughter, Lisa, attends Great Neck South High School.