Mazi Pilip, Tom Suozzi stump on final day of early voting in race to replace George Santos in Congress
Republican Mazi Pilip and Democrat Tom Suozzi criss-crossed Long Island in the final hours of early voting Sunday before Tuesday’s special election to replace expelled ex-Rep. George Santos.
Suozzi got in some last licks during a “get out the vote” rally in Plainview — spending most of an18-minute speech torching Pilip.
“The bottom line is my opponent, Mazi Pilip, is George Santos 2.0,” Suozzi said, referring to the lying and indicted ex-House representative for the 3rd District covering Nassau and northern Queens.
Suozzi, a former three-term congressman who represented much of the current district and previously served as Nassau County executive, even claimed he was the “change agent” in the race.
“I’m sick and tired of what’s happening in Washington, DC,” he said.
Pilip, a Nassau County legislator, stumped at private events Sunday in Massapequa, Syosset, Great Neck and other areas.
She left the Suozzi bashing, including Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman.
“Mazi stood shoulder-to-shoulder with me when we hired an additional 200 police officers in the last two years,” Blakeman told host John Catsimatidis on the Cats Roundtable WABC 770 AM radio.
“When Tom Suozzi was county executive, he wanted to defund the police,” he went on. “He increased taxes. He made Nassau County a sanctuary county.
“Mazi and I did not raise taxes over the last two years — unlike Tom Suozzi, who raised taxes when he was county executive by more than 20%,” Blakeman said. “We are keeping taxes low because we understand people are having a hard time making ends meet with this Biden inflation. Mazi, Pilip is a great partner of mine.”
Political insiders said the outcome could be determined by who has the superior get-out-the-vote operation as the message war on the airwaves winds down — the vaunted Nassau Republican machine headed by Joe Cairo or the Suozzi coalition that includes labor unions.
As of late Sunday, early turnout in the Nassau side of the district was about 16% when counting early voters and absentee ballots received.
Nassau accounts for 75-80% of the vote. Of the 421,000 registered voters, 55,487 voted early and 11,677 absentee ballots were received — for a total of 67,164 votes.
Combining the two, there were roughly 7,000 more Dems who voted than Republicans but there were also additional 15,000 independent or non-affiliated voters in the mix.
Turnout appeared to be lower on the Queens side of the district — 9,064 votes cast during nine days of early voting out of more than 100,000, according to the city Board of Elections. It was unclear how many absentee ballots were received.
“Going into Election Day we’ll have about 10,000 more Democrats voting than Republicans,” said Nassau Democratic County leader Jay Jacobs.
Cairo, the Nassau GOP chairman, was confident.
“I think we’re OK. Republicans traditionally vote on Election Day,” he said.
He also said independent voters would break for Pilip.
Read more of The Post’s coverage on the special election to replace George Santos:
- Mazi Pilip, Tom Suozzi stump on final day of early voting in race to replace George Santos in Congress
- Republican known for political upset predicts another shocker in Suozzi-Pilip race for George Santos’ seat
- Mazi Pilip warns voters not to buy Tom Suozzi’s moderate claims: ‘This is part of his game’
- Mazi Pilip scores police union backing ahead of tight House special election to replace George Santos
- Mazi Pilip, Tom Suozzi clash over abortion, border during first debate in race for George Santos’ House seat
Cairo said Pilip has neighborhood residents and grassroots volunteers behind her rather than outsiders from the labor movement that Suozzi and the Democrats brought in.
“We got local people. We have neighborhood people out there. That’s our advantage. We’ll win if we get out our vote on Tuesday,” he said.
