Suozzi makes his case

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Daily Point

Just call Suozzi 'Mr. Third Rail'

Part of Rep. Thomas Suozzi’s constant pitch in his underdog Democratic primary run for governor is that he’s unafraid to confront problems plaguing everyday people that other politicians — particularly his rival, Gov. Kathy Hochul — avoid as too hazardous to wrestle with, including crime and taxes.

Meeting for more than an hour with the Newsday editorial board Tuesday, the congressman from Glen Cove said he believes the state should take over more of the burden for school funding, "but it’s got to be tied to actually reducing property taxes" over several years. And hard state mandates should become guidelines, he said.

But when reminded that many of the costlier mandates are related to special education — a political third rail — Suozzi replied: "I’ve been dealing with third rails in politics as you know [for] my entire career. The way to change things is to deal with third rails." He flagged past issues he pushed, from capping county Medicaid costs to downtown developments to environmental cleanups.

"I’m Mr. Third Rail," he said.

Hazards aside, he outlined what he sees as his scenario for generating positive political electricity going forward. The departing House member plans a March 1 kickoff to bear the expensive burden of collecting more than the adequate number of petition signatures to make the June 28 ballot. Unlike his failed 2006 primary run for governor against Eliot Spitzer, Suozzi said he’s hired the right advisers, pollsters and media consultants to get him over the top.

"I didn’t know what I was doing back then. Now I know what I’m doing," he said.

How will he start drawing down enough contributions to be competitive? He said he expects to be polling at 15% by St. Patrick’s Day next month, at 25% by the end of April, and if he’s brought Hochul’s share down to 35% by then, "people are going to start paying attention to the race" and donors might hedge their bets and start coming across for him.

Suozzi’s message is that he’s capable of doing in government what Hochul is not. And he said he’s stepping cautiously in light of Hochul’s status as the first female governor, running to win as such for the first time. "I’ve got to be very conscious of it, I mean looking back at Rick Lazio and Hillary Clinton, how that was handled."

"I think it’s really great that she’s made history, and that she’s the first woman governor of New York State," he said. But by Suozzi’s account, the race is "not about making history" but such things as political transformation, governance and planning, and halting the Democratic Party’s "drift to the left."

Now that he’s leaving Congress, and the issue he identifies with, state and local tax deductions, has stalled in the Senate, it will be up to Sen. Chuck Schumer to carry the fight forward, he said.

With his Dominican American running mate for lieutenant governor, former City Councilwoman Diana Reyna, and his Puerto Rican campaign chair Fernando Ferrer, he’s clearly trying to attract support from Latinos who are underrepresented in the top citywide and statewide offices.

He said, "There are a lot of [politically] moderate people of color. Between African Americans, especially churchgoing African Americans, and Latinos generally, they don’t recognize what the Democratic Party is talking about. Listen: Democrats care about crime and taxes. We’ve ceded these issues to Republicans." Same goes, he said, for utility rates and troubled schools.

Not that Suozzi is considering a third-party run if he falls short. "No, I’m a Democrat," he said. If he’s the candidate, he asserted, he would defeat the currently likely GOP candidate Rep. Lee Zeldin of Shirley, but said that Hochul might not, given vulnerability, for example, on the bundle of law-enforcement issues often shorthanded under the title "bail reform."

Suozzi faulted Hochul’s now-withdrawn proposal to keep localities from barring so-called Accessory Dwelling Units, or ADUs, through zoning, favoring incentives to encourage development and affordable housing where appropriate. He staked a claim of credit for being the first to blast what had seemed like an "innocuous" plan and having Hochul remove it from her pending budget proposal. Conversion of pandemic-vacated offices into housing, including affordable housing, is one of his featured proposals. As for his newly redrawn 3rd Congressional District, Suozzi says he wouldn’t have put Long Island Sound in the middle of it. But he said he understands the New York party’s drive to compensate for gerrymandering in red states.

Anyway, at this point, there’s clearly no turning back. Suozzi said he will stay at "the grind," under the aegis of public service, because "it’s a very hard lonely effort. But it’s something I feel very strongly about."

— Dan Janison @Danjanison

Pencil Point

Dems unmasked

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Quick Points

Words and miswords

• Timothy Rathmun, a Republican state lawmaker leading a drive in Wisconsin to decertify 2020 election results and rescind the state’s 10 electoral voters — a proposal with no basis in law — told The New York Times, "We don’t wear tinfoil hats. We’re not fringe." Ever notice how often people on the fringe say that?
• A new United States Geological Survey-led study found that nearly half of 1,200 eagles tested had been exposed repeatedly to lead, which can lead to death and slow population growth and came from hunters’ ammunition in animals that eagles scavenge. You want to argue that guns don’t kill? OK, but bullets do.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops sent to two breakaway regions in Ukraine for "peacekeeping functions." Which is sort of like Tessio arranging for "security" for Michael Corleone’s meeting with Barzini and Tattaglia.
• Nearly half of Washington, D.C. residents don’t like the new name of the city’s NFL team — the Commanders. The other half were lying.

— Michael Dobie @mwdobie

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