The Point: Whose district?
Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi, who is pursuing a bid for governorship, has said he will not seek reelection to his 3rd Congressional District seat. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
The newly proposed 3rd Congressional District is one of the more tortured creatures on the State Legislature’s maps. What used to cover three counties has now ballooned to five: parts of Suffolk, Nassau, Queens, the Bronx, and Westchester, all ringing Long Island Sound.
So which county or counties can really claim it as theirs?
That’s what campaigns have been scrambling to figure out. The Point has learned of one estimate from Melanie D’Arrigo, the left-leaning Port Washington Democrat who unsuccessfully ran a 2020 primary against incumbent Tom Suozzi, who is not running again in order to pursue a bid for governor.
In the 2020 general election, a presidential year, turnout in the areas that are set to become the new CD3 was 66% from Long Island, 20% Westchester, 11% Queens and 3% the Bronx, according to D’Arrigo campaign estimates.
The Democratic primary electorate this June won’t necessarily be the same but it likely won’t be all that different, multiple campaign operatives and consultants told The Point. D’Arrigo campaign manager Anthony Pavone suggested that during the Democratic primary, an even greater share of voters could be from LI due to what he characterized as normally low Democratic primary turnout in places like Pelham and Rye.
Other Long Island candidates who had launched their races long before the new lines were announced made similar arguments.
Suffolk County Deputy County Executive Jon Kaiman observed that LI is a "significant portion" of the district. Public relations executive and Democratic National Committee member Robert Zimmerman joked that he’s looking for friends with boats but also noted that, being from Great Neck, he’d still be "centrally located."
Nassau County Legis. Josh Lafazan’s spokesman Ross Wallenstein noted that a majority of the proposed district’s residents would still be based on the Island.
The unspoken aspect of all this LI-centering is the possibility that a new candidate comes in from mainland New York and disrupts what had been an already-feisty primary to replace the governor’s-mansion-chasing Suozzi. Chief among those potential candidates would be State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, who represents parts of the Bronx and Westchester, is a vocal presence on social media and among the state’s young Democratic cohort, and is the granddaughter of longtime former Bronx congressman Mario Biaggi. The younger Biaggi’s spokesman has said she’s "seriously considering" running, an entrance that would add a fairly well-known name to the mix. As a prominent left-leaning candidate, she could also be running in the same lane as progressive-presenting candidates Zimmerman and D’Arrigo.
On the off chance that Biaggi doesn't go for the big prize, other Westchester candidates appear to be already percolating. No matter how distant Smithtown is from Rye.
Mark Chiusano is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
