"I've knocked on hundreds of doors and met with dozens of community leaders, and no one has yet to tell me that they think their taxes are too low," Mr. Staudenraus said Tuesday. "If I can get my pro-tax-cap message out to the majority of the district, my chances are excellent."

His priority issue if elected, he said, would be to get the Democrat-controlled Assembly to pass a permanent cap of 4 percent on yearly increases in property taxes. A similar bill has already been approved by the Republican-controlled Senate and has been endorsed by Gov. David Paterson. Democrats in the Assembly, however, are still holding off, preferring what they call a "circuit-breaker bill" instead.

The Democrats' idea is to give taxpayers earning below $250,000 some property tax relief when taxes exceed an as yet unspecified proportion of their annual incomes. They argue that introducing a tax cap would be overly harmful to school districts, and most school superintendents agree.

Mr. Staudenraus, himself a product of public schools, said he's "not hostile to public education," but argues that ever-rising property taxes are forcing families off Long Island. "The cap isn't radical," he said. "It simply forces school districts to live within their means."

A second priority issue for him is job creation. "High taxes drive jobs away," he said. "It's the other side of the same coin. It's not a coincidence that New York has lost so many jobs." He faults what's been happening at Calverton Enterprise Park because, he said, leaders have failed to use the property to generate good jobs that are long-lasting.

Curbing illegal immigration is also high on his list, he said, particularly doing something about "criminal illegals," which he defines as illegal immigrants who commit crimes, often violent crimes, and are a burden to the state and county prison systems. Last year, he was the sole plaintiff in a suit against Eliot Spitzer over the former governor's plan to give illegal aliens the ability to obtain driver's licenses, an idea Mr. Spitzer later dropped.

Mr. Staudenraus said that part of his confidence in his chances in November is that Republicans hold a substantial registration advantage over Democrats in the 1st Assembly District -- "perhaps the greatest advantage of any other district in the state," he said.

If Mr. Staudenraus and Mr. Alessi are far apart on some issues, they're even farther apart geographically, living at opposite ends of the 1st Assembly District -- Mr. Alessi in Shoreham and Mr. Staudenraus on Shelter Island, where he has lived full time for 10 years, after vacationing on the island since 1983.

Born in Setauket and a graduate of Syracuse University, Mr. Staudenraus has held a number of senior positions in sales and marketing for Travelers Insurance, MetLife and Western Union. He currently works for a Shelter Island-based company founded by his wife that imports high-end luxury linens from Europe. Mr. Staudenraus has two daughters, one in college and one attending Shelter Island High School.

jstefans@timesreview.com

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