Local candidates running for office recently met with the Council of Greater Manhasset Civic Associations (Greater Council). Among them were the District 6 candidates for the Town of North Hempstead councilmember seat, incumbent Republican Dina De Giorgio and Democrat challenger Mariann Dalimonte.
District 6 covers the five villages of Manhasset—Flower Hill, Munsey Park, Plandome, Plandome Manor and Plandome Heights—as well as Port Washington.
De Giorgio has represented District 6 since 2012. De Giorgio sought and won reelection for her council seat in 2016. Without any term limits in place for the seat, De Giorgio will be running for a third term.
“I thought long and hard about seeking the third term because you know, eight years is a long time,” De Giorgio told the Greater Council. “The reason why I want to keep doing this is because I feel it’s important for the local community to have confidence in their local government.”
Dalimonte is currently the executive director of the Greater Port Washington Business Improvement District (BID) and worked previously as the director of operations at Sony Music/Epic Records.
“I never thought I’d be sitting here at this table saying that I’m running,” Dalimonte said to the Greater Council as part of her introduction. “I’m running because I feel that our constituents in District 6 do not have a voice. I just had enough and I said, ‘you know what, I’m going for it.’”
Dalimonte has been campaigning on the streetscape project on Main Street, Port Washington that De Giorgio, claiming there should have been a community meeting about the project.
“I was for the project in the beginning and then I ran into her and I said, ‘when is the community meeting?’,” Dalimonte said. “She told me there’s not going to be one right then and there. I backed away and I was like, there has to be a community meeting.”
Dalimonte also brought up potential regular community meetings in Manhasset with District 4 councilmember Veronica Lurvey, is she were to win—something that has not been done before.
“I’m hearing on the campaign trail that the Manhasset residents that I’ve been speaking with going door to door, I’ve had a lot of meet and greets, and fundraisers in Manhasset and they feel they don’t have a voice,” Dalimonte said. “They feel that no one’s hearing them and they want representation at the Town of North Hempstead for their district.”
De Giorgio has heard her opponent’s rhetoric and rebuffed the accusations to the Greater Council.
“I know that you heard from my opponent and to be quite honest, she’s not going to stand up when she has to stand up and she’s not going to ask questions when she has to ask questions and she’s not going to be a strong advocate,” De Giorgio said. “She’s simply not. And you know her messaging about that nobody has a voice. It’s kind of silly. Nobody thinks they don’t have a voice. Everybody knows they can pick up the phone and call me and ask me anything.”
Election Day is on Nov. 5, where we will find out who is representing District 6, the rookie or the old guard.
