Jim Gaughran

James F. Gaughran (born January 5, 1957) is an American attorney and politician from Suffolk County, New York, who served as a member of the New York State Senate from the 5th district.

The district is located around the border of Nassau County and Suffolk County, encompassing the town of Huntington and the northern part of the town of Oyster Bay.

Gaughran is a member of the Democratic Party.

Gaughran was elected to the Huntington Town Board in 1983, at the age of 26.

He became the youngest member of the Town Board in the history of the town.

During his tenure, Gaughran was the lone Democrat on the Town Board.

He authored bills creating municipal solid waste districts and enacting environmental protections.

In 1987, Gaughran was elected to the Suffolk County Legislature from the 17th legislative district.

Gaughran authored a charter amendment which reduced the Legislature's authority to increase spending by adding "pet projects" to the budget; the amendment was approved by voters in a referendum.

He also cosponsored a water protection bill preserving numerous critical areas in the county, a "crack house" law targeting drug dealers, as well as reforms to the Suffolk County Police Department.

He previously served as a member of the Suffolk County Legislature from 1988 to 1993, and as a member of the Huntington Town Board from 1984 to 1987.

The campaign was the most expensive state senate campaign up to that point, eclipsing the previous record of $910,000 set in 1990, and took place concurrently with a similarly rancorous 1992 U.S. Senate campaign between the Republican incumbent, Sen. Al D'Amato, and the Democratic challenger, state attorney general Robert Abrams.

In the campaign, Gaughran drew a surprising contrast between himself and Marino: he charged that Marino symbolized "clubhouse politics" and big government in Albany, and that Marino "voted for every state tax increase and every mandate on localities passed by the Legislature", while Gaughran himself signed a pledge to vote against any tax increase.

Gaughran also chose environmental protection as a signature issue of his campaign, highlighting Marino's opposition to a state environmental trust fund and saying that Marino was "selling Long Island out on the environment".

Ultimately, Marino defeated Gaughran with a larger-than-expected margin of over 20 percentage points.

In December 1991, Marino, who was the senate majority leader at the time, became known for his "budget-wrangling" which led to the infamous "Hamlet on the Hudson" incident, in which Gov. Mario Cuomo kept a plane bound for New Hampshire idling on a tarmac on the last day to file for the 1992 first-in-the-nation presidential primary in that state, while he tried to negotiate a state budget with the Republican-controlled senate.

Gaughran first ran for the New York State Senate from the 5th district in 1992; his opponent in the general election was the long-time Republican incumbent, Ralph J. Marino.

The 5th district "straddles the Nassau-Suffolk border", and includes the town of Huntington and the northern part of the town of Oyster Bay.

Thus, the district includes all or parts of the hamlets of Glen Cove, Syosset, Jericho, Northport, Commack, Dix Hills, Melville, and Plainview.

Although he had been perceived as a frontrunner for the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination, Cuomo declined to run for president, saying that he was "willing" but not "able" to campaign due to the unresolved state budget crisis.

The 1992 campaign was extremely bitter, with Marino accusing Gaughran of improperly conspiring with a fiscally conservative group called Pack-Up (an acronym for "Political Action Committee to Kick out Unproductive Politicians"), and Gaughran accusing Marino of using state funds to finance the distribution of his campaign mailings.

Marino had resigned from the state senate in February 1995 following his defeat in a senate caucus vote for another term as senate majority leader by Joseph Bruno, an ally of Marino's intraparty rival Gov. George Pataki.

Marcellino had won the special election on March 14, 1995, to replace Marino, and had been reelected to ten full two-year terms, remaining in office since then.

Gaughran was unopposed in the Democratic primary.

The general election was closer than expected, but Marcellino defeated Gaughran by 1,761 votes out of almost 160,000 votes, or about one percentage point.

Gaughran was confirmed by the Suffolk County Legislature to the Suffolk County Water Authority (SCWA) for a five-year term in March 2008.

Gaughran served as the chair of the Suffolk County Water Authority from 2010 to 2018.

Following the retirement of SCWA chair (and former interim Suffolk County Executive) Michael A. LoGrande in May 2010, Gaughran was appointed as the new SCWA chair.

As chair, he implemented reforms emphasizing accountability and transparency.

He also reduced the payroll of the SCWA by 6% over four years.

He was reappointed by the Legislature in March 2013 and March 2018.

Gaughran ran for comptroller of Suffolk County in 2014, losing the general election to county legislator John M. Kennedy, Jr. by 6 percentage points.

Gaughran ran against Marino's successor, Carl L. Marcellino, in 2016.

In 2018, Gaughran was elected to the New York State Senate from the 5th district, defeating the long-time Republican incumbent, Carl Marcellino.

After his election to the New York State Senate in 2018, Gaughran resigned as SCWA chair.

He was succeeded by fellow SCWA board member (and former Suffolk County Executive) Patrick G. Halpin.

He took office on January 1, 2019.

Gaughran was raised in Dix Hills, New York, and attended Half Hollow Hills High School.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stony Brook University, where he majored in political science.

Subsequently, he earned a Juris Doctor degree from Hofstra University School of Law.