Tom Suozzi is ready to represent us in Congress. Mazi Pilip is not. That is the conclusion I reached watching how the Nassau County GOP – the same folks who asked us to trust George Santos – have handled her campaign.
When the announcement was made more than a month ago that she was the GOP candidate in this special election to erase the stain Santos left, Mazi was shielded from scrutiny from the press and constituents immediately.
Now, more than a month later, Mazi has yet to hold a debate or a town hall. Why is her party hiding her?
She only appears in highly curated events with a lockdown on observers and the free press. When she appeared in Whitestone at a GOP event, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman spoke about what Mazi has done in the Legislature, not the legislator herself; she basically rubberstamped everything he presented.
When she appeared for a press conference in Queens, she spoke for 4 minutes from a script, while Congressman D’Esposito spoke for three times longer and answered the questions Mazi was asked from the press.
She has been seen being ushered out of view and earshot of questions multiple times in multiple towns across District 3 and Washington D.C., her spokespeople always answering “no comment.”
Why is her party hiding her? The only conclusion is they need to pull a Santos 2.0, because they know she is not up to the task of being our congresswoman.
If they allowed her out on her own, to answer on her own, it would look worse than reading from scripted sheets of her Republican party bosses’ responses.
If Mazi is not ready to campaign on her own and her own party’s actions are showing us she is not ready for the job of Congresswoman, I am not prepared to go with subpar representation in Congress, again.
I hope residents of NY-3 won’t settle for subpar, either. We need someone who will hit the ground running and redeem NY-3 from being the laughingstock of America.
We need a representative who already knows the job, its requirements and processes.
We need a representative who already has an established network of relationships in Washington that extend across the aisle and into the White House.
We need Tom Suozzi, and I urge you to vote for him during early voting from February 3 -11 or on Special Election Day, Feb. 13.
Carl Schweitzer
Great Neck
