Suozzi vs. Pilip: The matchup

Daily Point

Suozzi debuts ad; Pilip to launch Friday

Nassau County Republicans Thursday finally named Mazi Melesa Pilip as their pick to run against Democrat Tom Suozzi in the Feb. 13 special election to replace George Santos. Pilip will kick off her campaign this weekend but Suozzi already has a weeklong head start. The Point today takes a look at their campaign strategies. Both sides face a very short eight-week window to get their message out to voters.

Suozzi wants to fix a 'broken' Washington

He’s older, a bit more gray and perhaps even wiser. But is Tom Suozzi more media-savvy this time on the campaign trail?

On Thursday, Suozzi unveiled his first TV campaign ad. The 30-second spot, called “Common Ground,” stresses a “let’s fix this!” together message as a response to the chaotic short-lived tenure of Republican Santos who was expelled two weeks ago.

The Suozzi campaign ad is a particularly fast start against a GOP opponent who has yet to be formally named.

“It’s very hectic, we’re on hyperspeed” in preparing this campaign, a top Suozzi aide told The Point Thursday. “Normally, a congressional campaign is about eight to 10 months long and you unveil the TV ads towards the end. But with this [race], it’s right away.”

The new Suozzi video ad was prepared by Jimmy Siegel, whose well-known Manhattan media firm Siegel Strategies has worked for big-name Democrats such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as well as past Suozzi campaigns. Thursday’s ad was unveiled on the internet and is expected to appear on cable television in the days ahead.

The Suozzi aide wouldn’t comment directly on how many other ads might appear or about their overall media strategy. However, while this first video ad was done specifically for Suozzi’s campaign, other media pitches for the Democrat are expected to be done by political action committees, who are not able legally to coordinate their efforts directly with candidates.

Suozzi was a three-term congressman before he retired and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2022 against incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul. Previously, Suozzi served as Nassau County executive from 2002 to 2009.

A look by The Point at past Suozzi video ad campaigns shows a few differences between now and then.

During his unsuccessful 2022 bid for governor, Suozzi sharply attacked Hochul as soft on crime and a spendthrift. This time, he’s not expected to appear as much of a party maverick as he did in the TV ads during his first run for Congress in 2016 when Suozzi told voters that he was willing “to do what’s right, even when I had to go against my own party.”

Given the mood of Long Island voters in last month’s election, where migrant workers became a winning issue for the GOP, it may be unlikely that Suozzi’s video ads will touch on that issue the way he did in his recent gubernatorial bid. “Over 25 years ago, Tom Suozzi became one of the first public officials to offer help to undocumented workers,” one ad began. It featured images of Hispanic working men, with a close-up of Suozzi talking about how he had created in the past a centralized place for day workers to get a job.

On Thursday, two top aides disputed the idea of any changes in the TV ad approach. They told The Point that Suozzi will approach this media campaign just as he did in the past. “It’s just Tom being Tom,” explained one aide.

— Thomas Maier thomas.maier@newsday.com

Pilip gets talked up by a new ‘fan’: Pete King

Peter King calls himself a “big fan” of Mazi Melesa Pilip. The former longtime House member told The Point, “It’s Pilip’s story, combined with her grit and determination” that makes her the right candidate.

The GOP is strategically using King to validate Pilip of Great Neck, who is unknown in the southern stretches of CD3 where the former congressman remains popular and where voters are not used to candidates with her background. “We have to get out there that she is not your typical overweight, white male Republican — the caricature of the party — guys like me,” King said.

Pilip will need the turnout in the most reliable GOP areas of Massapequa, Levittown and Farmingdale, communities that her Democratic opponent Tom Suozzi did not represent during his last stint in Congress. That’s why Suozzi kicked off his campaign in Levittown and Pilip will launch hers in Massapequa on Friday. These are areas King calls a “battleground.”

Pilip is an Ethiopian Jew who migrated to Israel, served in the Israeli Defense Forces, and later came to the United States. She has seven children, including twins who were born during her 2021 campaign for Nassau County legislature.

King said Pilip “personifies the American dream.” He said a Pilip campaign should paint the picture of a woman who’s “one of us in many ways,” as an immigrant with a military background, who’s hardworking and is raising a family here.

“She’s going to be able to show why she’s one of them,” King said. “She can go to Great Neck or Jericho or Massapequa or Douglaston and say, ‘I’m one of you. I’m you and I’m going to represent you.'”

What are the potential pitfalls for Pilip? King said she should be careful not to fall into a trap of debating Suozzi on every piece of legislation he’s sponsored, or on the nitty-gritty of individual issues. That concern dovetails with the concerns of other political insiders who worry about her grasp on the details of legislating and a familiarity with specific issues.

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Bot on the cot

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Reference Point

When Christmas was about survival

Holiday shopping is rarely a stress-free experience. Grumbling — about traffic, crowds, costs, availability of products, and the impossibility of finding the right gift — is commonplace.

And that’s during the best of times.

Decades ago, Newsday’s editorial board attempted to add some perspective to the usual consumerist complaints by inviting Long Islanders to take a long look at a nation of people struggling with Christmas expectations during the worst of times — England during the heart of World War II.

In a Dec. 14, 1943 editorial called “Christmas Hardships,” the board asked readers to “consider the plight of the British shopper — and feel better.”

Dolls, the board wrote, were nearly impossible to find and were being sold for $40 — the equivalent of $700 today. Cosmetics and costume jewelry were subject to a 100% tax, in addition to being scarce.

“In the clothing line,” the board wrote, “little is being sold except scarfs, since every other item requires a ration coupon, and no one has any extra coupons to spare.”

In a bit of sexism common for the day, the board said men had it worse than women since “about the only thing that can be bought for them are pipes — and these, when found, sell from $5 up.” That’s $87.50 today.

“The British aren’t going to fare too well on their Christmas dinners, either,” the board wrote. “While some 1,000,000 turkeys, geese and chickens have been imported from Eire [Ireland], these are far too few to go around. And, worse yet from the British point of view, there is a shortage of material for the traditional Christmas puddings.”

Long Island was not immune from such wartime scarcity in 1943.

“It is more difficult than ever before to get the necessary electric bulbs and wiring previously used on Christmas trees, and difficult in some cases even to get the old strings of lights repaired,” the board wrote. That had led to spiking demand for Christmas tree candles — candles to be hung on trees and lit. That prompted the board to warn that “the danger of using candles on trees cannot be stressed too much. Many disastrous fires have been started in this way in the past …”

But the board’s primary message in 1943 was a timeless one: Don’t be one of the shoppers who complains about “the difficulty in finding what I want to buy …”

“All in all, our Christmas shoppers should be very happy that they have the large selection they do have to choose from.”

There was one other timeless component to the board’s holiday advice in 1943: Beware of the flu. A “mild” epidemic was afoot, ‘Not only in Nassau, but throughout most of the country.” The board urged readers to take precautions, not only for their own health but also to make sure the flu did not impact “war-plant production” by keeping “absenteeism” to a minimum.

All in all, it made for an interesting bottom line during the season of peace and goodwill: Watch out for the flu, be thankful for what you have, and pass the ammunition.

— Michael Dobie michael.dobie@newsday.com, Amanda Fiscina-Wells amanda.fiscina-wells@newsday.com

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