Why I’m Not Sold On Tom Suozzi

The NYS Democratic Party picked Tom Suozzi to be our ‘nominee’ in the special election for George Santos’ seat. Here’s why I’m not sold on him as a candidate, and what to do about it.

Hello, friends,

Last week, we talked about the end of George Santos’ tenure in the House of Representatives and what that might mean for the future.  Well, it’s been decided:  The New York State Democratic party has chosen Tom Suozzi, who left his NY03 seat to challenge Kathy Hochul from the right, to run to reclaim what I can only infer that they believe is his ancestral homeland or something.

I am far from thrilled.  In a lot of ways, writing this is therapeutic.

I’ve talked a lot before about how the New York State Democrats are frequently Republican-Lite at best.  But I believe that people should have the opportunity to become better versions of themselves, so I’m going to lay it all out flat and we’re going to move from there.

And while I do have some positive things to say about Suozzi, let me just say before the ‘ad break’ that he does not, at this time, have my vote in the upcoming special election.  I’ll be happy to explain why, but first!

The ‘Ad Break.’

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Let’s Start With Something Good About Tom Suozzi

Well, let’s be a good former teacher and start with a positive thing:  During the recent primary race for NY Governor, one of the organizations I’m a part of, New York Progressive Action Network, hosted a virtual forum.  It’s the sort of thing that can be done out of your bedroom with the candidate wearing sweat pants.

There were three candidates running for the Democratic nomination:  Jumaane Williams, Tom Suozzi, and Kathy Hochul.  Of the three, only two bothered to show up:  Kathy Hochul sent a surrogate, and while I try to be positive, the only thing I can say about said surrogate was that she was uninformed, uncharismatic, and didn’t seem to give a single solitary fuck about us.

But Suozzi?  He showed up.  He said up front he knew he wasn’t getting our endorsement, but he wanted to talk to us nonetheless.  That was reassuring.  It’s why he was my second choice, behind Williams.

So Why Not Support Suozzi?

There’s two prongs to this question:  The first is the ethical, I.E. the reasons we should be against him.  The second is the practical, I.E. why we should be willing to give up the chance to win a House seat. 

And as I re-wrote this article, I decided to start with the second issue, first.

Why is it okay to essentially throw away a chance to win a House seat?

My first line of argument:  The special election for NY03 will be on February 13th, 2024.  That means this term will be for less than one year before another election needs to be held.

However, the power of incumbency means that if he won, most Democratic candidates who were already running for NY03 would be disincentivized from running against him.  I remember one fine gentleman, Josh Sauberman, who primaried Suozzi and was treated horribly by the party.  It wasn’t a fair contest.

In other words:  If Suozzi wins now, we’re stuck with him, and I’m going to tell you why that might be a bad thing (until proven otherwise) later.

Next up is the issue of whether or not this House seat will determine the balance of power in the chamber.  It will not.  This isn’t a situation where if Suozzi wins, we gain control of the House.  My calculus would be very different.

So if the term is short and the results don’t change control of the chamber, how much does this vote really matter?

Now, to be sure, I’ve seen arguments that having Suozzi in power would lead to the provision of constituent services, and that is important.  I’m not ignorant that there are potential losses in the making from this decision.

However, is it more important than having a Republican-Lite (or, to quote Sauberman, “Run a Republican, get a Republican”) in the seat for an indeterminate amount of time?

Or, is now the time for the Progressives who have been long-ignored to say, “You don’t own our vote.”  Remember:  When India Walton won the Democratic Primary in Buffalo, our state Democratic party head - the same guy who all-but-singlehandedly nominated Suozzi - compared her to David Duke of the KKK.

“Vote Blue No Matter Who” does not exist in New York’s Democratic Party.

So I propose that for this election, which is qualitatively different from other elections, we stand our ground and demand concessions for our support.

So What Makes Suozzi So Bad?  

Here come my ethical issues..  Bear in mind these are, to a significant extent, correctable.  I am not an unreasonable person (I mean, you’ve read this far, I’m hoping you feel that way).  If he runs a campaign that rejects some of his previous sets of values, I’m fine with voting for him!  But he has to make that effort to earn our votes.

Here’s an example of why I, as a Queer American with much to lose in a country where Mike Johnson is the Speaker of the House, am against Tom Suozzi:

He is at best inconsistent on Queer rights, such as with regards to the “Don’t Say Gay” law enacted by Florida.  First he said he found that form of Queer persecution “reasonable,” before later trying to walk his statements back.  It’s as if he forgot he’s a Democrat (which I assume is because he’s a Republican at heart), then remembered that no small part of his political base is Queer and went, “Whoops!”

I’m sorry, but he needs to address that issue before I will vote for him.  I need to know, for example, that he will vote and fight against bills like KOSA before I can support sending him to the House.  Anna Kaplan was running for NY03 and raised over a million dollars.  She announced her primary bid long before Suozzi did.  And you know what?  She’s not perfect, but she was a great ally to Queer residents like myself.

And we’ll get into some past Queerphobic shit he’s done a little later.

Let’s move on to an issue de jure:  Abortion.  Tom Suozzi is one of those guys who believes in reducing the number of abortions.  In fact, Governor Hochul made him travel to Albany to kowtow before her in a special meeting wherein he apparently was told how to behave regarding abortion.

So he’s someone we can’t necessarily count on, because whatever power Hochul had to extract concessions will disappear if he’s victorious.

Right away, on two of the most pressing issues of our time, Suozzi is questionable-at-best.

Then there’s the fact that Suozzi has this nasty little habit of not following disclosure protocols for his finances.  And when someone is questionable-at-best about the money they receive, well, you have to wonder how exactly they’re making their money.

If that’s not enough, did you know that Long Island has a housing crisis?  People can’t afford rent, and home ownership is a tough dream to embark on, indeed.  I cannot stress how many of my friends and acquaintances have left Long Island in large part because of the cost of living here.  Well, Governor Hochul (for once) had a good idea on how to work on that - and it’s an idea that Suozzi fought against tooth-and-nail.

So Why Even Consider Him?  Why Bother Trying To Change His Mind?

I want people to become what they’d consider better versions of themselves, much like I am always trying to be better.

In 2009, Suozzi wrote an op-ed in the New York Times discussing how, after having given it some thought, he’d changed his mind:  He would be in favor of the legalization of gay marriage from that point onward.  I could choose to be mad about the fact that, in the past, he didn’t view Queer people as having the same rights as the rest of society.

Instead, I’m glad he became a better version of himself.

Well, now is his time to do that again.

He needs to come out and run a campaign where he embraces at least the social aspects of the party.  I’m not going to pretend I can convince him to run for Medicare For All (although he should), but I do want him to be loud and proud about certain issues, such as:

• He will not vote for KOSA or a similar bill; and he will support Queer people in other areas.

• He will sign a strong Federal abortion rights protection bill.

• He will not use immigrants as scare tactics to appease LI’s more Fascistic voters.

• He will vote to legalize cannabis, something now standard-issue for New Yorkers.

• He will vote to bring about prison reforms, if not abolition.

In the end, the deal is simple:  He becomes a better version of himself, and I’m happy to support him.  If he doesn’t?  Well, Democracy (that thing we’re always told is on the line in every election) includes withholding one’s vote if it suits larger political ends, and this would be the least painful time to choose to do that.

Nobody owns your vote.  You decide who you vote for.  And we’ve seen throughout this year that strikes work.  I’d rather we didn’t have to exercise that option, but it’s on Suozzi to earn that vote.  Plain and simple.

In Other News…

• We’ve talked before on this publication about how shitty companies like Warner Bros can be about content they create - in this instance by basically deleting completed movies and not releasing them in favor of a tax break.  You know, that practice that destroys the hard work of hundreds, if not thousands of artists?  Well, due to “licensing” issues, people who bought certain Discovery content on their Playstations will have that content deleted, even though they paid for it.  To paraphrase many people on Twitter:  If buying something isn’t owning it, piracy isn’t stealing.

• A woman in Warren, Ohio is being charged with crimes because she had a miscarriage.  Oh, sure, the law says she desecrated a corpse, but she had a fucking miscarriage.

• Venezuela is proceeding with plans to invade and annex two-thirds of its neighboring country, Guyana.  The U.S. is currently planning military drills with the Guyanan military.  You know, because what we need going into 2024 is another war.

• Speaking of wars, nope - no changes in Ukraine or in Israel/Palestine.  Just lots of needless death.

• This is Jesse’s impromptu suggestion: We should all do our best to make sure we have a therapist.

• In better news:  According to The Economist, real wages - oversimplified, the value of one’s income versus inflation - are going up.  That’s a sign the economy is getting stronger for working people.  It’s a start - but I always want better!

• The FDA has approved a treatment for Sickle-Cell, one which uses CRISPR technology.  Way to end it on a sci-fi note!

Thank you for reading The Progressive Cafe.  If this article has helped you, please consider signing up for our mailing list.  This article is by Jesse Pohlman, a sci-fi/fantasy author from Long Island, New York, whose website you can check out here.