SUFFOLK CLOSEUP
By Karl Grossman
Suffolk County’s lst Congressional District—made up of all the five East End towns, all of Brookhaven Town, two-thirds of Smithtown and a slice of Islip—has been designated one of 101 “battleground” districts by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
This means the committee will provide campaign workers and fundraising.
The incumbent in the lst C.D. is Lee Zeldin of Shirley who won the seat in 2014 by defeating Tim Bishop of Southampton, previously provost of Southampton College. Two years later, he defeated Anna Throne-Holst of Noyac, the former Southampton Town supervisor.
Mr. Zeldin, an attorney and former state senator, is a conservative Republican, politically and personally close to President Donald Trump. Mr. Zeldin’s spokesperson, Jennifer DeSienna, says that while “several Democratic Party candidates” will be “trying to out-liberal each other for the Democratic designation, Congressman Zeldin will remain completely focused working harder than anyone else to deliver positive results to grow our economy, protect our security, and improve in many other ways our community, state, and nation.”
There are seven Democratic rivals to Mr. Zeldin, an unprecedented number of would-be Democratic candidates historically in the lst C.D.
Indeed, if the crowded field doesn’t thin out and most of the candidates continue on and wage a Democratic primary challenge, Mr. Zeldin could be at an advantage.
In the 2016 primary, Ms. Throne-Holst defeated David Calone of East Setauket, former Suffolk County Planning Commission chair, by 260 votes, splitting the Democratic vote. Ms. Throne-Holst spent $1.73 million and Mr. Calone $1.3 million in the primary, money lost for the general election fight against Mr. Zeldin. Suffolk Democratic Chairman Rich Schaffer has said that while he will work to avoid a primary by getting an agreement on one candidate, “based on the number of candidates, that’s unlikely.”
Moreover, because Ms. Throne-Holst was a longtime member of the Independence Party until a year before the primary, she was accused by Mr. Calone of not being a “real Democrat”—and this could reoccur this year. One hopeful this year, Kate Browning of Shirley, term-limited after 12 years as county legislator, was a long-time member of the Working Families Party until last year (although she ran for legislator, as Ms. Throne-Holst had for supervisor, with Democratic cross-endorsement).
It’s not just the money expended on a primary and creation of a division among party voters, but also the lost time campaigning as a general election nominee. The date of the primary in New York State this year is June 26. Election Day is on November 6—a little over four months later.
Those seeking the lst C.D. Democratic nomination in addition to Ms. Browning are:
*Vivian Viloria-Fisher of East Setauket. Like Ms. Browning she also was term-limited after 12 years as a county legislator. For six of those years she was deputy presiding officer of the legislature. She came to the U.S. at 16. She is strong on many matters including social issues and the environment. She has been a long-time teacher.
* Perry Gershon is extraordinarily tough on the connection between Messrs. Zeldin and Trump. Nearly every other day he’s out with a strong statement. A businessman in Manhattan, he and wife bought a home in East Hampton 22 years ago.
* Elaine DiMassi of Lake Ronkonkoma was a physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory for 21 years until she decided to make the race and thus, because of the Hatch Act, had to resign from BNL. Her campaign slogan is “Scientist for Congress.”
* David Pechefksy grew up in Patchogue and went on to became a staff member for the New York City Council. He worked for a non-profit in the city promoting civic engagement among the young. He is in the process of moving with his family back to Suffolk, to Patchogue.
* Brandon Henry of Center Moriches was a teacher and is now a bartender. “I got involved in this because I felt our votes aren’t being heard,” he said at a recent Democratic candidates’s forum. “When it comes to the struggle of living on Long Island, I don’t have to relate to it. I am in the struggle of living on Long Island.”
* Just announced is Bruce Miller of Port Jefferson who declares on his campaign leaflet that he is “A Democrat with…An Appetite for the fight!” He is a Port Jefferson village trustee, a former teacher and ex-Port Jefferson school board trustee, and says “I can help reinvent the party.”
Ms. Browning is originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland and was a school bus driver for the William Floyd School District before being elected a county legislator. She notes that one of her student passengers was Lee Zeldin.