ALBANY — She definitely can consider herself the law and order congressional candidate.
Actress Diane Neal, who played an assistant district attorney on “Law and Order: SVU” from 2001 to 2012 announced this week she is running for Congress in the Hudson Valley’s 19th District as an independent.
Her announcement has Democrats worried her independent bid could actually help Republican first-term incumbent John Faso, who is considered vulnerable.
On Twitter, one person, Aaron Strelnikoff, asked Neal: “Which Republican payed you? You are probably the best thing that has happened to the Republicans in that district.”
Neal, 41, responded: “I’m going to answer because this seems to be a very disturbing rumor people really believe-I have received nothing, monetary or otherwise, from any one or any organization. Opened fundraising LAST NIGHT. All transparent, all compliant. More voices against Faso is a good thing.”
In another tweet, she bemoaned the rough-and-tumble world of politics “as why so many people don’t want to participate civically. Vitriol. Personal attacks instead of an exchange in ideas. It’s one of the many things I’d like to try and change.”
Her campaign slogan is “Empathy & Reason.”
A number of Democrats are vying for the chance to take on Faso.
In addition to her stint on “Law & Order: SVU,” Neal also spent time on “NCIS” and its spinoff, “NCIS: New Orleans.”
She told the Daily Freeman in Ulster County’s Kingston that “I’m a little Libertarian, I’m a lot liberal, mostly progressive, but I have this amazing ability to be able to take really complicated policy and break it down into edible sound bites, which is something most progressive liberals cannot do.”