By Brendan Browne
State Assemblywoman Nettie Mayersohn (D-Flushing) is running for re-election, but no challenger has stepped up to oppose the 20-year veteran of the state office.
Like several other unopposed Queens candidates in the September state elections, Mayersohn will be spared the grind of a grueling campaign and holding fund-raisers as she prepares to serve her 11th straight term in the 27th state Assembly District.
“Obviously, it gives me more time to focus on the issues I care about,” Mayersohn said in a recent interview. “Campaigns consume all your time and energy so that you can do little other than raise the money needed to run a good campaign.”
Redistricting will not greatly affect the assemblywoman’s campaign either. Mayersohn is holding onto Electchester, Pomonok and Kew Gardens Hills. She has lost Hillcrest, Auburndale and most of Briarwood, while gaining parts of Kew Gardens, Forest Hills and Richmond Hill.
According to the state Board of Elections Web site, Mayersohn has raised about $58,000 for her campaign. Since she learned that she would have no opponent, Mayersohn said she stopped holding fund-raisers.
Mayersohn said she was compelled to run for the Assembly again by a few medical issues that she is working on, including the creation of stroke centers in Queens hospitals and the controversial treatment of Lyme disease.
The assemblywoman said she believes stroke victims often do not get treatment fast enough. She is pushing the state Health Department to set up stroke centers in several of the borough’s hospitals capable of administrating a new treatment that prevents the effects of strokes before they have a chance to set in, she said.
Mayersohn also has been involved in writing legislation that concerns the long-term treatment of Lyme disease. For most victims of the disease, early-stage antibiotics wipe out the illness, but some continue to suffer and are treated with antibiotics for an extended period of time.
Some medical groups have opposed the long-term treatment of Lyme disease with antibiotics, calling it dangerous and have tried to bring charges against doctors who espouse the practice. Mayersohn contends that there is no conclusive evidence to suggest that the treatment is harmful and is working to protect the doctors who practice it, she said.
In her next term, Mayersohn said she hopes to introduce legislation that would protect abused children and keep them out of the hands of violent parents.
The assemblywoman, the author of the controversial baby AIDS bill that passed the Legislature, said she also wants to institute tough penalties for people who knowingly infect their partners with the HIV virus.
Reach reporter Brendan Browne by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or by phone at 229-0300, Ext. 155.
