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At Suozzi’s event, roots on surface

Nassau exec will highlight his humbling history Saturday as he declares intentions for governor’s job

BY BART JONES | STAFF WRITER

February 25, 2006

New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is seen after a fundraiser at the Glen Oaks Country Club in Old Westbury. (Newsday / Karen Wiles Stabile / February 15, 2006)

When Thomas Suozzi officially announces he is running for governor Saturday, he'll be highlighting his immigrant heritage.

He plans to hold the press conference in front of one of the homes in Glen Cove where his Italian immigrant grandfather Michele lived, toiling in the area as a houseman polishing silverware and waxing floors in Gold Coast mansions.

The house is also one of the boyhood homes of Suozzi's father, Joseph, who came to America on the lower decks of the Italian steamship The Counte Verde. He lived initially in Spanish Harlem with his parents, went on to Fordham University and Harvard Law School, and at 28 became the youngest elected judge in New York State history at the time. He went on to a distinguished career as a State Supreme Court and appellate judge.

"It's really a beautiful American success story," Suozzi said Thursday.

Some think Suozzi's choice of location is merely an attempt to play the immigrant card and boost his campaign. "It's a bald-faced attempt at getting votes," said Stanley Klein, a political science professor at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University and a Huntington Republican committeeman. "Instead of going out and saying, 'I'm the best person for this job,' what it is saying is, 'Take pity on me. I'm pulling myself up by my grandfather's bootstraps.'"

Suozzi, who declined to talk about why he picked the location to announce his run, also has invited leading Latino immigrant advocate the Rev. Allan Ramirez to speak at the event. As mayor of Glen Covecq in the 1990s, Suozzi clashed famously with Ramirez, but eventually they became allies. "I think Allan Ramirez is a man of great compassion who is trying to help people," Suozzi said this week.

In contrast, Suozzi's counter-part in Suffolk, Steve Levy, once referred to Ramirez as the "1 percent lunatic fringe" and refuses to meet with him. Levy had no comment on Suozzi's decision to invite Ramirez.

Despite the criticism by Klein, Suozzi says his family's immigrant past underscores his roots and is part of what he says drives him as a public official - to help people in need. As mayor of Glen Cove in 1994, Suozzi opened the first day laborer hiring center in the Northeast, years before similar centers sprouted up around the country.

"I'm inspired by the courage and sacrifice that were made by my grandparents to take the risk of coming here and the amazing story that my father lived at a time when Italians were discriminated against," Suozzi said.