As early voting remains close, Suozzi mixing the message

Daily Point

Suozzi shifts strategy in CD3 special

As much as Tom Suozzi tries to localize the tight race in CD3 to fill out the remaining months of George Santos’ term in Congress, national politics continues to throw a strong shadow over the campaign and the Democrat’s strategy.

At the start, Suozzi sought to ride his name recognition and big war chest to victory over Mazi Melesa Pilip, a comparably underfunded and unknown opponent making a strong run on the Republican line.

The early voting numbers as of 3:15 p.m. Wednesday continue the same patterns seen over the past several days with 43% of the vote coming from registered Democrats, compared to 35% from Republicans and 19% from those not registered with any party, also known as “blanks.”

“That’s very good for us,” said a Republican strategist who sees “blanks” as breaking for them, as they have in recent elections.

Suozzi started his campaign by presenting himself as a former two-term Nassau County executive and three-term House member, whom the hometown voters know and can trust. This focus was designed to lure those blanks.

Now, as the GOP seeks victory by putting Suozzi on the defensive on national issues such as the backlash over immigration and New York’s progressive Democratic politics, Suozzi is starting to be more aggressive about seizing the national issues.

On Wednesday, Suozzi slammed Pilip for supporting the Republicans’ rejection of the compromise immigration bill, calling her an “extremist.”

“Tom Suozzi takes a local approach to national issues such as the border crisis, abortion, gun violence prevention and support for Israel,” said Kim Devlin, his senior adviser.

However, a top Republican source countered, the team that sticks with its message is winning and the one that changes it is losing.

Meanwhile, other Democrats looking at the early voting numbers are concerned about Suozzi’s strategy.

“Tom is trying to have it both ways, he wants the national issues to help him but he is not talking about them,” said one veteran Democrat, concerned that not enough is being done to increase the turnout of the party’s base.

It was a sentiment echoed by Melanie D’Arrigo, a Democratic activist in Port Washington who ran in the 2022 primary for the party’s nomination. “To me it seems like there are two Democrats running in a Republican primary,” she said. Pilip, a Nassau legislator starting her second term, is a registered Democrat who says she will change her registration after the election.

D’Arrigo, an organizer on the left, suggested that Suozzi spend more time wooing Democrats instead of chasing independent voters or Republican moderates.

She said some Democrats in the district are working for him because success means another seat in the House of Representatives. However, she noted, “a large swath is very frustrated and very unmotivated because of his [Suozzi's] unwillingness to champion Democratic priorities.”

D’Arrigo criticized Suozzi’s distancing of himself from President Joe Biden but said it is not “too late” for him to give a vision of what he would fight for, such as environmental protections and reproductive rights.

— Rita Ciolli rita.ciolli@newsday.com

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