Rep. Thomas R. Suozzi of Nassau County will attempt to make key upstate inroads in his campaign for governor Wednesday night with a "tele-town hall" meeting aimed at Democrats expected to vote in their party's June primary.
Seeking to carve out a niche in the Democratic field following last week's withdrawal by Attorney General Letitia James, Suozzi also hopes to counter the candidacy of incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Buffalo resident staking her own claim to the upstate vote. Campaign sources say he will target about 100,000 "prime" Democratic voters in Tuesday calls to identify those interested in joining the telephone conference Wednesday, and he is hoping for at least a few hundred participants.
"I'm not far left and I'm not far right. I'm about trying to find answers to the problems we face," Rep. Thomas R. Suozzi told reporters Monday during a virtual news conference.
Suozzi said the event will concentrate on Western New York and Southern Tier Democrats to make the candidate better known outside his downstate base.
"It's a great opportunity for me to introduce myself to people who don't know me," Suozzi told The Buffalo News Tuesday, "and an opportunity to hear directly from residents about what's important to them in their next governor."
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The congressman has long used telephonic meetings as a way to connect with constituents, his campaign said, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, which has put a hold on in-person gatherings. Though many members of Congress have shied away from town hall meetings in recent years, Suozzi staffers said he usually held 10 in-person meetings per year before moving to virtual affairs with the onset of Covid-19.
"Kathy Hochul may have just logged her best week since late August when she took the oath of office as governor of New York," writes Robert J. McCarthy.
Wednesday's format is expected to include Suozzi's six to eight-minute introduction, followed by about an hour of questions phoned in by participants. Those targeted for participating are identified as consistent primary voters whom Suozzi hopes to attract in a still crowded gubernatorial primary field.
The sources said the Wednesday effort marks the first of seven tele-town halls over the next 10 weeks.
Suozzi, the former Nassau County executive and mayor of Glen Cove who represents parts of Nassau County and Queens, has been representing himself as an alternative to other candidates, including Hochul, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams and, possibly, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The congressman has worked to eschew the "moderate" label some have assigned him, preferring to call himself a "common sense Democrat" who opposes taxes driving out New York business and residents, but who also champions labor issues and other progressive causes.
An unsuccessful primary challenger to Eliot L. Spitzer in the 2006 gubernatorial contest, Suozzi now points to his relatively healthy showing in Erie County that year as the basis for a strong appeal to Western New York voters. He began reconnecting in October by campaigning in person with Mayor Byron W. Brown in his write-in campaign against Democratic primary winner India B. Walton.
The congressman at the time denounced Walton's left-leaning philosophies as hurtful to the party and declared the state's second largest city should not be governed by a socialist.
On Wednesday, he said he is heartened by James' exit from the Democratic race.
"It opens up more opportunity for me," he said. "It will be more of a direct competition and I'm excited."
