Party leaders in New York have been tasked with choosing nominees for the Feb. 13 election to succeed the ousted Rep. George Santos.
New York Democrats Thursday announced that they’d chosen the district’s former representative, Tom Suozzi.
However, the state GOP has yet to announce a candidate… and the party has been experiencing some trouble with recruitment.
Joseph G. Cairo Jr, the Nassau County GOP chair, is leading the selection process. He wants to vet the candidate as harshly as necessary in order to avoid selecting someone with as much baggage as Santos.
“There’s a personal thing to some people that, Hey, a mistake was made, this guy has blemished our party, this is our chance to correct it,” Cairo said in an interview.
Potential GOP nominees for the special election include retired police detective Mike Sapraicone, Air Force veteran Kellen Curry and Nassau County legislator Mazi Pilip, an Ethiopian-born Jewish woman who served in the Israeli military, among others.
However, some candidates are already seeing skeletons fall out of their closets.
Pilip turned out to be a registered Democrat. Similarly, Sapraicone was found to have given $40,000 in political contributions to… Suozzi, the Democratic nominee.
Santos himself went on Twitter to warn the GOP against recruiting “a Democrat in republican skin.”
“It definitely looks messy,” Chapin Fay, a Republican political consultant advising some of the candidates, told the media. In Fay’s words, the Democrats plan to “just let the Republicans kill themselves even before a candidate is chosen.”
Sure enough, one spokesperson for the House Democrats told The New York Times, “We wish the Grand Old Party the best in their flailing endeavors.”
The race for the district, which includes parts of Long Island and a small section of the New York City borough of Queens, is expected to draw significant attention as both parties zero in on New York as a potential battleground for control of the House.
Though Democratic President Joe Biden won the district in 2020, Republicans have made strong political gains on Long Island as moderate suburban voters there have gravitated toward the GOP in recent years. In local elections last month, Republicans won several races on the island, including contests in the Santos district.
Suozzi previously held the congressional seat for six years before losing to Santos last year during a red wave across New York state. That same year, Suozzi also mounted a primary challenge against unpopular Gov. Kathy Hochul, a fellow Democrat.
“I will work day and night with both parties to deliver for the people to make living here more affordable, safer, and better,” Suozzi said in a statement. “I delivered for this district before, and I will do it again by putting you ahead of partisanship. Let’s reject the nonsense and get back to work.”
🚨Update on my potential sucessor.
America which ever way it goes you will get a Democrat or a Democrat in republican skin coming to Congress from NY-03.
The level of corruption is so insane that this is what they wanted… remove me the most conservative member of the NY… pic.twitter.com/h5cCBPxFOj
— George Santos (@MrSantosNY) December 6, 2023
The Associated Press contributed to this article.