Nassau Legis. Joshua Lafazan fields small army of interns for campaign work
District 18 legislator Joshua A. Lafazan (center) with members of his staff, Sophie Blumenthal (left), Chase Serota (right) and more than 30 summer campaign interns at his campaign headquarters in Plainview, Monday July 1, 2019. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
The halls of the Nassau County Legislature, set abuzz last summer with an army of 40 interns working for Legis. Joshua Lafazan, are a lot quieter now after they decamped for an internship with his re-election campaign.
Lafazan ended the county program and is overseeing a campaign internship for 75 high school and college-age students working out of a Plainview storefront next to a Modell's.
The Woodbury independent caucuses with Democrats and at 25, is the legislature's youngest member.
The interns wear white shirts with the first-term legislator's name in big, red letters. Each intern's picture is posted on the wall, along with a short biography of him or her. They work three days a week, including Saturdays.
A rising high school junior is in charge of the high school interns, while a rising college junior is in charge of the college-age set.
They knock on doors, hitting more than 700 this past Monday. The high schoolers who are too young to vote will talk to their older brothers and sisters.
"It was my high school friends who knocked on doors, wrote post cards, put out lawn signs and got their parents to vote," said Lafazan, who was elected to the Syosset school board in 2012, and the county legislature in 2017.
Last year, Lafazan's county interns went door to door to take constituent complaints. Lafazan said he did not use the interns for campaign purposes. "It was apolitical," he said, noting that last year's crew approached every "knockable" county property.
Democratic National Committeemen Robert Zimmerman, of Great Neck, spoke to the interns on Monday and picked up the pizza tab for the large crowd. "It was more expensive than buying a ticket to a presidential Democratic fundraiser," he said.
Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.
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