NY-03: Steve Israel retiring

[Cubby]

I'm not worried about this seat, unless the Dem candidate is terrible and the GOP one is awesome, it'll stay Democratic.

Every district below Dutchess/Ulster Counties in New York has a Democratic representative, except NY-13, which has every policeman, fireman & cranky Italian in NYC (not all Italians, just the conservative cranky ones), and Peter King's district, which will be up for grabs when he retires, which can't happen soon enough. That King didn't lose in '06 or '08 is a travesty.

Supposedly NY-1 has a GOP rep but I think that's a fluke from low turnout 2014 & Cuomo's underwhelming re-election. The far east end of the Island is extremely wealthy and socially liberal, Randy Altschuler Jr. will be swept out in the next Dem wave.

[Cubby]

NY-01's congressman is Lee Zeldin, not altschuler.

Sorry I forgot to respond to this earlier

I know Altschuler isn't the rep. I didn't know that the guy's name was Zeldin, so I called him "Altschuler Junior".

 

As perNewsday (behind a paywall), Suozzi is going to jump in and make an announcement tomorrow.

OMG! That is the best news I've heard in days. Suozzi is awesome, he never should have been defeated in 2009. I remember when he first got elected Nassau County Exec. in 2001, after Gulotta had run the place into the ground.

Newsday's paywall is awful. You can't use the website at all.

[Cubby]

Suozzi ran again in 2013 and it really wasn't close, but considering what has been going on with Mangano over the last few months the 13 loss might not really hurt him.  Either way Suozzi getting into the mix, he is clearly the biggest name on either side.

Many people (myself included) wanted him to go after King a few years back, but with re-districting changing the district lines a bit, he is no longer in that district.

The district is one of the wealthiest in the country, and certainly not socially conservative.  Ted Cruz would get absolutely obliterated on the top of the ticket which would likely have a downballot impact.

Its been a few years, but the only reason I can recall for Suozzi losing in 2009 was because Mangano promised to lower taxes (property in this case) and Nassau has some of the highest property taxes in the entire Country. If the race later this year is more focused on social issues like gun control and has much higher turnout than the dreadful 2014 election, then Suozzi is a shoe-in.

From 2008-2010 wasn't New York State something like 27 D to 2 R in Congress? We need to get back to that golden era. Especially upstate, there's too many Republican Reps up there. Sorry Torie