Nassau County District Attorney
In the past five years, Rice worked her way up from No. 24 on this list, by unseating her longtime Republican predecessor, Denis Dillon, to No. 1 last year after cementing her reputation as a crusader in the wars on drunken driving, gang violence and the heroin epidemic. Although she placed second in the Democratic primary in the New York State Attorney General race last fall, by many accounts she ran a clean campaign that raised her profile. Albany’s loss is Long Island’s gain. Since then, the Prosecutor in Chief has had her work cut out for her while navigating the unprecedentedly treacherous legal minefield surrounding the shuttered and scandal-plagued Nassau County police crime lab. It’s encouraging to know that Nassau’s top law enforcement officer has the confidence and repertoire to help clean up the mess and restore the public’s shaken faith in the criminal justice system.
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