Suozzi joins crowded field for old seat
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Former Representative Thomas Suozzi announced Tuesday he would be running for his old seat against the embattled George Santos. Screenshot from Suozzi/Youtube
By Ryan Schwach
The presumptive field of candidates hoping to unseat the embattled and controversial Queens and Long Island Representative George Santos grew again on Tuesday.
Among those jumping into the race this week was the man who formerly held the seat, and who has experience beating Santos in the ballot box.
Santos’ predecessor representing New York’s 3rd Congressional District – which includes areas of Eastern Queens – former Representative Thomas Suozzi announced on Tuesday that he would be running for his old seat against Santos.
Suozzi joins nearly two dozen other candidates in the 2024 race to represent NY-3 in Washington as Santos faces controversy for lying about large swaths of his resume and his personal background, as well as federal indictments for fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and false statements.
Since this article was published, it was announced that Santos would be facing 10 additional criminal counts in a superseding indictment. Included in the charges were allegations that Santos conspired with his campaign treasurer to inflate his fundraising numbers by giving fraudulent data to the Federal Election Commission. Also, federal prosecutors said Santos stole the personal identities and financial information of contributors to his campaign, then charged their credit cards repeatedly without their authorization.
“As alleged, Santos is charged with stealing people’s identities and making charges on his own donors’ credit cards without their authorization, lying to the FEC and, by extension, the public about the financial state of his campaign,” said United States Attorney Breon Peace. “Santos falsely inflated the campaign’s reported receipts with non-existent loans and contributions that were either fabricated or stolen.”
Suozzi joined the fray even before these additional indictments were added.
“The madness in Washington D.C., and the absurdity of George Santos remaining in the United States Congress is obvious to everyone,” said Suozzi in a Twitter statement. “You know me, I’ve never sat on the sidelines. From the cost-of-living to immigration, crime, climate change, combating terrorism in the Middle East and globally, and simply helping people, we need more common sense and compassion and less chaos and senseless fighting.”
“Together we can bring some sanity and reason back to Washington,” he added.
Suozzi said he intends to officially launch his campaign following the November elections, which includes a City Council race in the area of Queens included in the NY-3 between incumbent Republican Vickie Paladino and former Democratic Councilmember and State Senator Tony Avella.
Suozzi decided not to run for his congressional seat last year in order to chase an ultimately unsuccessful bid for governor of New York. He lost to Governor Kathy Hochul in the Democratic primary, finishing third behind Hochul and Public Advocate Jumanee Williams.
Suozzi served as the mayor of Glen Cove in Long Island and as the Nassau County executive prior to his tenure in the House of Representatives, and also launched an unsuccessful bid for Governor in 2004. A moderate Democrat, Suozzi spent six-years in Congress and succeeded fellow Democrat Steve Israel, who chose not to run for re-election in 2016.
With his previous tenure representing the district, Suozzi’s announcement could see him become the front runner on the Democratic side, which would lead to a potential rematch of the 2020 election, when he beat Santos.
In 2020 – a high turnout year due to the concurrent presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden – Suozzi defeated Santos by 12 points, bringing in more than 208,000 votes to Santos’ 161,907.
Santos has faced seemingly endless amounts of controversy since taking office in January.
In his pitch to voters, Santos allegedly lied about his heritage and education history, and has recently plead not guilty to federal charges for some of those fabricated statements. He also allegedly misled campaign donors and perpetrated an unemployment scheme during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As Santos has faced myriad issues and controversies, a number of Long Island and Queens locals have announced bids to unseat him.
According to Federal Election Commission filing data, 19 people – not including Suozzi – have filed to run in next year's election.
That so far includes eight Democrats, nine Republicans, one on the Libertain, and one candidate running on the Conservative party line.
Rep. George Santos could potentially run against Tom Suozzi, who formerly held the seat, should both win their respective primaries. Suozzi announced on Tuesday a bid for his old seat. AP file photo by Andrew Harnick
The Democratic filers who will now go up against Suozzi include Anna Kaplan, a former State Senator who was the first Iranian-American elected to the New York State legislature.
Kaplan was unseated from the Senate in 2022, and was among the Democrats who lost to Suozzi in the 2016 race to succeed Israel.
According to filing data, Kaplan currently has the most cash on hand of anyone vying for NY-3, including Santos, with $389,839.
Just behind Kaplan in that metric is fellow Democrat Joshua Lafazan, a 29-year-old Nassau County legislator. Lafazan already has received more campaign funding than anyone else in the race and has already drastically out-spended the rest of the field with $547,500 raised and $381,000 still on hand.
The only other candidate whose funds are anywhere close to Lafazan and Kaplan’s is Democrat and Jewish activist Zak Malamed, who has raised $417,945 and still has around $322,000 on hand.
Also included on the Democratic ticket so far is St. John’s law professor Williaum Murphy, former radio journalist Darius Radzius, investment banker Scott Livingston and Queens native Steve Behar who recently ran in the City Council primary against Councilmember Linda Lee.
Only Livingston and Murphy have contributions listed.
So far, the only Republican looking to replace Santos on the ticket who has reported any campaign contributions is Kellen Curry, a military veteran and former J.P Morgan executive.
Curry has already called out Santos for his various indiscretions, and has raised over $200,000 and still has $164,000 on hand.
Curry’s contributions have far outpaced Santos, who has raised $167,000 and has $86,000 on hand.
Several other Republicans have also filed against Santos, including Lindenhurst doctor Harvey Manes, retired NYPD detective Michael Sapraicone, Air Force vet Greg Hach, local activist and Israeli Defense Forces veteran Daniel Norber, Northport native Peter Christofides and financial executive Jim Toes.
Retired Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel Tom Ludwig also announced his run in the Republican primary, releasing a statement on Tuesday just about an hour after Suozzi’s statement.
Also, finance director Daniel Foti is running on the Conservative Party line, Ryan Kalata is running as a Libertarian and Matthew Nappo is running as an Independent.
