Grad Student Gears Up To Run for Office

Jimmy Dahroug takes his mother’s advice seriously.

So when she suggested that he run for New York State Senate earlier this fall, the 24-year-old Graduate School of Education (GSE) student actually took her up on it.

Now the presumptive Democratic candidate for his local seat, Dahroug is about to begin what he admits is an “uphill” campaign against incumbent Republican Caesar Trunzo, who has held the office for the past 32 of his 77 years.

“I’m just going to try to meet each and every one [of my constituents] that I can,” Dahroug said, referring to the approximately 300,000 residents of the 3rd Senate District in southern Suffolk County, on Long Island.

Behind his candidacy, Dahroug says, is his desire to reform school financing and improve the quality and consistency of public education in his district—without reallocating funds directly from wealthier to poorer districts.

“I can’t see myself being a parent and not voting for Jimmy,” said Ian M. Martinez, a lifelong friend who is aiding Dahroug in his campaign.

Dahroug did not originally intend to run. In the fall, he contacted the Suffolk County Democratic Committee to recommend a friend for the candidacy. When the friend proved uninterested, Dahroug’s mother persuaded him to submit his own name instead.

Although he is young, Dahroug is not the youngest to seek the 3rd District Seat. In the 2002 election, a 19-year-old ran a “shoestring campaign” as the Democratic candidate and garnered 33 percent of the vote to Trunzo’s 64 percent.

Dahroug’s campaign is still in its infancy. He says his website—which a friend is making and he thinks will be located at either jimmyforsenate.com or jimmydahroug.com—should be up in a couple of weeks.

Trunzo has “three times the age, three times the bank account and three times the political history,” said Martinez. But “Jimmy has three times the common sense and 10 times the energy.”

Dahroug said he has received an outpouring of support from family, friends and even his old teachers.

“It’s exciting,” Dahroug said of the opportunity to marshal all the friends who have volunteered for his campaign, which will begin in full when Dahroug receives his masters in administration, planning and policy from the GSE on June 10.

Dahroug’s focus on education finance comes after a New York State Court of Appeals ruling requiring the state government to provide better funding for poor school districts despite a statewide budget crisis.

“The unique part of the decision is that it doesn’t call for a standard of equity, it calls for a standard of adequacy,” said Dahroug, who opposes what he calls “Robin Hood plans” to transfer funds from wealthier to poorer districts.

“My priorities are, it’s got to be a long-term phase-in plan,” he said, adding that it should also be “transparent” and have a “simpler formula.”

Dahroug and Trunzo both hail from Brentwood, home to what Dahroug says is an underfunded school district that lies between richer and poorer districts. Due to low property taxes and a cap on state aid proportional to the size of the graduating class, he says the school district suffers from inconsistent program quality.

“He really knows first-hand what it’s like,” Martinez said.

Dahroug did not realize his school was underfunded until he interviewed the principal while writing an article on school finance for his high school newspaper.

“He laid out the facts to me...and I was just kind of shocked,” Dahroug said. “I didn’t have a clue about the way things went.”

Dahroug followed his newfound interest in school funding through his undergraduate years at Columbia University to the GSE.

“In class and in his papers, he spoke very compellingly about the impact that [his high school’s situation] had on his own education,” said J.D. LaRock ’93, one of Dahroug’s teaching fellows at the GSE last semester.

Although he did not foresee a future in politics when he entered the GSE, Dahroug did know that he wanted to go into public service when he graduated.

“The things that go beyond yourself and help other people are the most fulfilling,” Dahroug said, admitting that his statement sounded “trite.”

Dahroug said he believed that the debate over education funding in New York state is too highly politicized to be effective.

“A lot of the process is about political deal-making...if we just gloss over and do the bare minimum, that’s not going to go,” Dahroug said.

Dahroug compared current school funding proposals to “putting a child’s Band-Aid on a flesh wound.”

At Harvard, Dahroug has worked for the Harvard Civil Rights Project and cross-registered in courses at the Kennedy School of Government and the Law School while tending bar and doing “odd jobs” to support himself.

LaRock said Dahroug manages all of his time commitments through “sheer force of will.”

If he wins, “that’s an awesome responsibility,” Dahroug said. “This is the only thing that’s been on my mind for the longest time.”

“He’s very passionate about it,” LaRock said.

Dahroug has no primary opponents and expects to be nominated by the Democratic party on May 27. He will then head into the general election in November.