GOP slams ‘Sanctuary’ Tom Suozzi with six-figure ads in bid to keep expelled George Santos’ seat
An independent Super PAC has been launched to help Republican Mazi Pilip defeat ex-Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi in the Feb. 13 special election to fill the House seat vacated by the expulsion of lying ex-Congressman George Santos.
Secure New York State PAC is running six-figure radio and digital ads slamming the Democrat as “Sanctuary Suozzim” saying he supports illegal immigration and would be a “rubber stamp” for President Biden.
The group has also created a website, sanctuarysuozzi.com
It’s the first major investment that pro-Republican forces have pumped into the nationally watched race after Suozzi and national Democrats came out swinging with a blistering anti-Pilip TV ad two weeks ago.
The radio ad attempts to make Suozzi eat his words, replaying a clip from when he ran in the 2022 Democratic primary for governor.
During the CBS debate with Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Suozzi boasted that when he was Nassau County executive “I kicked ICE [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] from Nassau County.”
The radio ad depicts a husband and wife doing a crossword puzzle.
“This crossword is killing me. Six letter word for `dangerously weak,” the man says.
“Sanctuary Tom Suozzi. He’s dangerously on immigration,” the woman says.
“Oh, that career politician guy for Congress — again,” the husband responds.
The wife says, “He voted to fund sanctuary cities — like over and over.”
The husband then says the six-letter word “Suozzi” doesn’t fit into the puzzle, after all.
“That’s OK,” the wife says. “Sanctuary Tom Suozzi doesn’t fit for Congress, either.”
The pro-Pilip PAC also noted that when Suozzi was Nassau County executive, local cops were barred from inquiring about the legal status of immigrants unless they were arrested for a crime.
“Tom Suozzi was wrong on illegal immigration long before Joe Biden failed New York with his open border policies,” said Arie Lipnick, Executive Director of SecureNYS. “The last thing New Yorkers need is ‘Sanctuary Suozzi’ – an avowed 100% rubber stamp for Joe Biden and his open southern border.”
The Suozzi campaign responded Monday by calling the GOP ad a cheap shot.
“Tom Suozzi stood up against even his own party on immigration, working with [former GOP Congressman] Peter King on a bipartisan solution that strengthens border security and treats people like human beings. Mazi Pilip’s immigration position is a complete sham – she offers incoherent generalities dictated by party bosses who would rather play politics than address the real crisis, and she is too uninformed and unprepared to even show up to debate the issue.” said Suozzi senior advisor Kim Devlin.
The Suozzi camp also said he severed cooperation with ICE only after what he called a “botched” ICE raid in 2007 that caught only six of 96 targeted fugitives.
He did not declare Nassau County a “sanctuary county,” they added.
Suozzi has sought to get in front of anticipated criticism from the right on the migrant crisis, writing in a Jan. 2 letter to President Biden that the feds have left New York City and other cities in the lurch and without resources to absorb an unrelenting wave of new arrivals swamping their municipalities.
The Feb. 13 special election is being closely watched nationally as a potential harbinger to determine which party will secure majority control of the House of Representatives in the Nov. 5 elections. The GOP currently holds a very slim majority of 220-213 with two vacancies.
Pilip, 44, is a two-term Nassau County legislator and mother of seven children. An Ethiopia native, she emigrated to Israel at the age of 12 and served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) before moving to the US with her husband.
Suozzi, 61, previously served three terms in the House, repping much of Nassau County and portions of Eastern Queens.
Santos became the sixth member ever to be expelled from the US House of Representatives Dec. 1, a little more than a year after winning election despite fabricating much of his personal and professional history.
He’s since been indicted on numerous changes related to embezzling funds from his campaign and other misdeeds, which he has denied.
